1Saul was consenting to his death. A great persecution arose against the assembly which was in Jerusalem in that day. They were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except for the apostles. 2Devout men buried Stephen and lamented greatly over him. 3But Saul ravaged the assembly, entering into every house and dragged both men and women off to prison. 4Therefore those who were scattered abroad went around preaching the word. 5Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. 6The multitudes listened with one accord to the things that were spoken by Philip when they heard and saw the signs which he did. 7For unclean spirits came out of many of those who had them. They came out, crying with a loud voice. Many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed. 8There was great joy in that city.
9But there was a certain man, Simon by name, who used to practice sorcery in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, making himself out to be some great one, 10to whom they all listened, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is that great power of God.” 11They listened to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his sorceries. 12But when they believed Philip preaching good news concerning God’s Kingdom and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13Simon himself also believed. Being baptized, he continued with Philip. Seeing signs and great miracles occurring, he was amazed.
14Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, 15who, when they had come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit; 16for as yet he had fallen on none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of Christ Jesus. 17Then they laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. 18Now when Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, 19saying, “Give me also this power, that whomever I lay my hands on may receive the Holy Spirit.” 20But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! 21You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart isn’t right before God. 22Repent therefore of this, your wickedness, and ask God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. 23For I see that you are in the poison of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity.”
24Simon answered, “Pray for me to the Lord, that none of the things which you have spoken happen to me.”
25They therefore, when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the Good News to many villages of the Samaritans.
26Then an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise, and go toward the south to the way that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert.”
27He arose and went; and behold, there was a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her treasure, who had come to Jerusalem to worship. 28He was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah.
29The Spirit said to Philip, “Go near, and join yourself to this chariot.”
30Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
31He said, “How can I, unless someone explains it to me?” He begged Philip to come up and sit with him. 32Now the passage of the Scripture which he was reading was this,
“He was led as a sheep to the slaughter.
As a lamb before his shearer is silent,
so he doesn’t open his mouth.
33In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away.
Who will declare His generation?
For his life is taken from the earth.”
34The eunuch answered Philip, “Who is the prophet talking about? About himself, or about someone else?”
35Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture, preached to him about Jesus. 36As they went on the way, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Behold, here is water. What is keeping me from being baptized?”
37 38He commanded the chariot to stand still, and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.
39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, and the eunuch didn’t see him any more, for he went on his way rejoicing. 40But Philip was found at Azotus. Passing through, he preached the Good News to all the cities until he came to Caesarea.
The story of Philip in chapter 8 provides an interesting parallel in the proclamation of the Gospel about the Messiah Jesus. Earlier in the chapter (Acts 8:1-25), we find Philip in Samaria, in the land of the Samaritans who had limited contact with the Jews that reaches back to the invasion of the Assyrians in the 8th century. He encounters in Samaria a sorcerer, who, upon seeing the miracles done by Philip, his interest was not in the Good News about Jesus but in the acquisition of miraculous ability. He is rebuked by Philip because of the sorcerer's wicked heart.
Our next encounter with Philip is when the angel from God tells him to travel southwest near Gaza. Upon arriving there, he comes on an Ethiopian eunuch who had come to Jerusalem to worship, no doubt at one of the Jewish feasts at the Temple Mount. It is most likely that he was a Jewish proselyte, the Ethiopians having a history of Jewish association, even from the days of Solomon. The eunuch was reading a portion of the book of Isaiah about a person who was described as like a sheep being slaughtered. To a Jew, or Jewish proselyte (often designated as a God-fearer), the idea of a coming Messiah being a sacrifice would be a foreign idea, with a possible exception in the Qumran community near the Dead Sea. However, since he was in a messianic portion of Isaiah, the eunuch was confused as the person being presented in the text. Philip had been sent by God to clarify the Isaianic text with the Gospel, or Good News, about the Messiah Yeshua. We discover several instances of God-fearers embracing the truth of the Gospel, and this is the first example in the book of Acts, if indeed he was a proselyte (rather than an Ethiopian Jew), with the Roman centurion Cornelius being second.
It was the practice of those embracing the Jewish faith to read the Scripture aloud, and this was what the eunuch was doing when he was approached by Philip, who asked if he understand this text from Isaiah 53. The eunuch responded that he was confused and needed help in understanding who was being spoken about in the text. The response of Philip to the eunuch was to give to him the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, which the eunuch embraced. The practice of baptism was the natural response to accepting Jesus, and Philip baptized him in a pool of water nearby, after which he was caught up by the Spirit to another location, and the eunuch went back to Ethiopia. An interesting sidelight is the statement of the famous second-century church father, Irenaeus (A.D. 130-202), who said the eunuch returned to his native country and became a Christian missionary to the Ethiopians.
For more about the Ethiopian Eunuch, see the article Who Was the Ethiopian Eunuch?