THE BOOK OF ACTS
Lesson 20, Chapters 8 and 9
In many ways Acts chapter 8 is a significant pivot point. Up to now all the activity concerning
the knowledge and spreading of the Good News of the Gospel has taken place in the city of
Jerusalem, has been strictly among Jews, and the focus of events has revolved around the
works of the 12 Disciples. But the sudden, horrific and unjust stoning to death of the Believer
Stephen (given full legal sanction by the Sanhedrin as overseen by the High Priest Caiaphas),
marked the beginning of an open persecution against the Believing community of Jews in
Jerusalem.
If we step back and consider what is happening here, it is helpful to realize that this
persecution was upon one particular faction of Judaism (the Jewish disciples of Messiah
Yeshua) by other factions of Judaism that didn’t agree with the Believer faction’s halakhah;
that is, some of the traditions and doctrines of the Believers were in disagreement with some,
but not all, of the traditions and doctrines of other sects of Judaism. In fact the main point of
disagreement was over the identity of the Messiah, and to a lesser degree the Messiah’s
nature. We’re really not made aware of any other serious doctrinal disagreements (at least not
up to now).
Labels are very tricky things that can on the one hand be useful, and on the other be
dangerous. When we attach a label to a group or to a person, to a concept or to a doctrine it is
done with the direct purpose of creating a kind communication shorthand, or perhaps a
codeword of sorts. A label is designed to paint a quick, sometimes subconscious, mental
image so the conversation doesn’t get bogged down in details. Labels often illicit knee-jerk
emotional responses. Used enough, labels become stereotypes that are near to impossible to
alter or correct later on. Because most Bibles will at this point in the New Testament label the
Jerusalem Believers as “Christians” or label them collectively as “the Church” then there is a
false picture created of Jews lining up against Christians; or of Judaism coming into violent
opposition to Christianity. And of course when we think of Christians, Christianity and the
Church we think of gentiles carrying Bibles under their arms, of the sign of the Cross present
everywhere, of buildings with steeples outside and neat rows of pews inside, and of Nativity
Scenes and Christmas trees. But we need to erase all of these thoughts because that is not at
all what we are witnessing here in the Book of Acts, at any point. It is just the Bible translators’
misuse of these English labels that creates an inappropriate and historically false mental image
that I want to spend a little time to straighten out.
I pointed out in prior lessons that to use the term “Church” in the Book of Acts to collectively
label the followers of Yeshua is what is called an anachronism; that is, it is a term (even a
concept) that didn’t occur until far later in history, at least a century after the Bible was closed
up. So to read the term “Church” (as we think of it today) back into the Book of Acts creates a
false impression. In a couple more chapters we’ll read in most English Bibles that it was in
Antioch that the first use of the term “Christians” was coined. But in fact that, too, gives us the
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wrong impression. In the original Greek of the New Testament the term is christianos, so it is
easy to see how the English word Christians was created from it. But christianos is taken from
the Greek word Christos. As expertly explained in the Strong’s Concordance, Christos means
anointed one and it is merely translating the Hebrew word mashiach, Messiah, into Greek.
Thus the term Messianic means followers of Messiah. So originally whereas Messianics
literally meant followers of the anointed one, so does christianos literally mean followers of
the anointed one. So while the English word Christians is a reasonable translation, once again
what comes to mind when we say Christians? Christian is a centuries old label; and when we
think of Christians we subconsciously think of gentiles, crosses, churches, Christmas trees,
choirs dressed in robes, and if you are Catholic you think of cathedrals, priests, the Virgin Mary
and the Pope.
However the closest thing the Jewish Believers formulated as a label for themselves was The
Way. Apparently other Jews referred to them at times as Notzrim and Natzratim, which
translates best into English as Nazarenes, meaning people connected to Nazareth, Yeshua’s
hometown. The point I’m desperate to help all of my Jewish and gentile brothers and sisters in
the Lord to see is that everything that is happening to this point in the Book of Acts is taking
place exclusively within the Jewish community. The Synagogue and all that went with it is at
the center for Yeshua’s followers as it is with the other factions of Jews. The followers of
Yeshua (The Way) were unique ONLY in the sense that their particular Rabbi was the crucified
Yeshua who they also believed was the Messiah. But other Jewish factions didn’t agree with
this, so they rose up against the members of The Way.
Lest you think this sort of thing as concerns Jews and Judaism is unique to the New
Testament, I assure you it is not. A large modern day Jewish sect called Chabad has gone
through a painful, fairly recent, split. The leader of the Chabad Lubavitch faction was a much
beloved Rabbi named Schneerson. He passed away from natural causes in 1994. But some
among his faction declared him to be the Messiah, and say that he is not really dead as we
commonly think of death; rather he is in hiding and sometime soon will resurface. This claim
has caused a contentious split of Chabad among those who declare Schneerson as the Jewish
Messiah versus the majority who don’t. Using the terms we have recently learned, the split in
Chabad is over halakhah; Traditions or Oral Torah. The Oral Torah of the main faction of
Chabad says that the Messiah has not yet come; the Oral Torah teachings of the Lubavitch
faction of Chabad says that the Messiah has appeared, is gone but will soon reappear, and he
is Rabbi Schneerson. So I think God has given modern day Believers a very good way to
better understand the background and sense of the issue that was causing the persecutions of
members of The Way in Acts chapter 8, if only we’ll pay attention. Again: the issue with the
death of Yeshua, the death of Stephen, and now the general persecution of Believing Jews in
Jerusalem was over disagreements concerning halakhah; Oral Torah, Traditions, doctrines.
You will notice as we move along that as fervent as the persecution of Jewish Believers was by
the other Jewish factions, there was never the thought expressed that the Believers had
somehow abandoned Judaism, stopped being Jews, or were forming an entire new religion.
The Believers did not even isolate themselves, as did the Essenes, and the Essenes were
perfectly accepted as Jews even if their brand of Judaism didn’t sit all that well with most of
the other brands of Judaism.
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There are so many valuable lessons of application to learn from this, but I’d like to focus on
just one because it is especially relevant to our time. It is that among those who call ourselves
Christians or Messianics, no matter what faction or denomination, we need to display love
towards one another. Because if indeed we all count on Yeshua for redemption, then we all
share one Spirit; God’s Spirit. That doesn’t mean that we can’t strongly disagree on doctrines
and traditions, call one another on the carpet, leave one denomination or faction because we
think they are on the wrong track, and then join another that we think is more correct. No
matter which group a Believer belongs to, if they hold to Yeshua (Jesus) as the true and only
Savior, and Son of God, who is Himself God, then we are brothers and sisters in the faith. We
should never behave in such hateful ways towards one another like these factions of Judaism
in Jerusalem did in the Book of Acts who are in such disagreement with a couple of doctrines
of this Messianic Judaism faction that it breaks out into outright persecution and hatred.
I’m not speaking of tolerance; I’m speaking of love. I’m not speaking of validation of wrong
theology in order to be inclusive, or compromising of principles to find a humanly comfortable
middle ground. I'm speaking of our own attitude and behavior. I constantly speak out against
several erroneous theological principles that are characteristic of the mainstream institutional
Christianity of the 21
st
century, especially as regards a bent against Israel and the belief that
the Torah is only for Jews. But I sure don’t disagree on every point, nor do I say that those
who do not believe precisely as I do are not Christians because of this disagreement. Rather
my goal is to encourage my brothers and sisters in the faith (Jew and gentile) to return to the
truth of God’s Word and to accept it for what it says; to abandon weak manmade doctrines
that are not in accordance with Scripture, and to live by God’s laws and commandments that
Christ says we are obligated to do, and will not change in the least until the heavens and earth
pass away.
So in Acts chapter 8, we find that those Jewish followers of Yeshua who were under threat of
persecution from their fellow Jews fled Jerusalem for other parts of Judea, and also to the
Galilee and somewhat surprisingly to Samaria. I say “surprisingly” because the people of
Samaria were seen universally by Judaism as ungodly, unclean hybrids who were neither Jew
nor gentile; a people to be shunned, and a place to avoid. And for Jews of that era, even
though Samaria originally formed the heartland of the Promised Land, at the moment Samaria
was acknowledged as foreign and so its residents were foreigners. This is not because of any
declaration by Rome, but because of a declaration by Judaism. This was because the
Samaritans practiced what the Jews considered to be a perverted form of Torah-based
religion, with their holiest place being Mt. Gerizim, and their Priesthood having no connection
to Levites or to the Temple in Jerusalem.
Thus we find the disciple Phillip, a Hellenist Jewish Believer, going to Samaria and (once
again, surprisingly) having success in bringing the Gospel to those who would seem the least
likely to want to hear anything from a Jew: the Samaritans. No doubt news of this success
startled the 12 Disciples in Jerusalem and probably out of skepticism they dispatched Peter
and John to see for themselves. And, indeed, there were a number of Samaritans that Peter
and John judged had accepted Yeshua as Savior. But then, last week, we addressed the
sensitive issue of the Holy Spirit, and when and how the Holy Spirit indwells a Believer. For in
Acts chapter 8 we see that even though the new Believers of Samaria had accepted Christ,
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and been baptized, they had not yet received the Holy Spirit. John and Peter arrived, laid
hands on these Samaritans and so the Spirit came upon them. And yet in other places in the
Bible, we’ll find that the sequence is faith in Christ with instantaneous indwelling of the Holy
Spirit. In other passages, the Holy Spirit doesn’t come until water baptism. And in yet other
places the Holy Spirit comes after coming to faith but before immersion.
Intellectual honesty demands of us to not cherry pick and choose but one of these several
different examples of Holy Spirit indwelling as the only legitimate one. However most
denominations have indeed picked one and demands that others been seen as heresy. The
lesson to take from this is that God is not formula driven. There is no precise sequence of faith,
baptism, and indwelling of the Spirit that is authorized by God, or demanded by Him, with other
sequences being prohibited or to be judged as not genuine. Rather it seems to be
circumstance driven and somewhat flexible.
And now before we move on to the final verses of chapter 8, let’s recall the issue of the
Samaritan magician named Shimon (Simon in English). He, too, accepted the Gospel.
However upon viewing Peter and John call down the Spirit of God into Believers, he was so
impressed that he wanted to have that same ability so he offered money to the disciples to be
taught how. Peter sternly rebuked him, such that some Bible commentators claim that Simon
was excommunicated. There is nothing in this passage that makes any such suggestion. And
any thought that Simon wasn’t saved just because he didn’t instantaneously drop his
misguided beliefs for the true beliefs stated in God’s Word, is actually the norm for most
anyone at any time, including up to our modern era. We can believe long before we
understand more than the most basic principles of salvation. And these deeper, and necessary
understandings are to be the next step for all Believers; but it doesn’t happen overnight, and it
takes time and effort.
So the bottom line so far in Acts chapter 8 is that for the first time the Gospel is being taken
outside of the Holy Land, and even being taken to those who don’t practice Judaism, and
many are coming to faith. And we also see how an ordinary disciple, Phillip, (not one of the 12
leaders) is now being focused upon as doing great miracles and bringing many of the least
likely to Christ. Let’s see what Phillip does next.
RE-READ ACTS CHAPTER 8:25 to end
Peter and John teach the Samaritans about God’s Word to give some firm foundation to their
new faith in Messiah Yeshua and then they return to Jerusalem. Recall that this task of
teaching God’s Word as well as witnessing for Messiah, is what the 12 disciples agreed was
their true calling and what they ought to spend all their time doing. This points up that regular
congregation members (like Phillip) do not have to be Bible scholars or experts in theology to
take the Good News to those who need to hear it. In fact I think that the best protocol is for the
congregation to evangelize to individuals, and for the leaders to teach and mature the new
Believers. Effective evangelizing is almost always one to one and relational as opposed to
informational; but teaching can be (and usually is) most effective in a one-to-many
environment. Why? Because God has equipped every Believer to take the Good News to non-
Believers. But only some have been given the gift and responsibility of teaching.
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An angel now instructs Phillip to journey back southward to the road that goes between
Jerusalem and Gaza. Gaza was at one time one of the 5 major city-states of the Philistines;
however it was destroyed just after 100 B.C. and was not rebuilt. So by the time of Christ Gaza
was more of a general location than a specific city or town. That said in this era the water well
at the ruins of Gaza was still operating, and it was one of the few water sources available
before entering the Sinai desert. Very likely the road to Gaza from Jerusalem was a way to
access the Via Maris trade route that more or less followed the Mediterranean Coastline. It
went all the way south to Egypt, and thus when we hear of this Ethiopian eunuch that Phillip
would witness to, who was on his way home, he would naturally take the Via Maris to get
there.
This Ethiopian was a dignitary in the employ of the Kandake of Ethiopia; not of Candace the
Queen of Ethiopia as many Bibles have it. Kandake is a title, and it denotes a particular
dynasty of royalty over Ethiopia. It was a dynasty of female rulers: Queens. Ethiopia was
located south of Egypt and is what the Bible calls Kush. These dark-skinned people were
descendants of Ham’s son Kush, thus the Biblical name for the place.
It is clear that this eunuch believed in the God of Israel, as he had been in Jerusalem to
worship. In his royal chariot, he was reading the scroll of Isaiah when Phillip spotted him. It
may not seem so on the surface, but there is no doubt a divine pattern is being established
here, and it is interesting to me how Phillip is the one that is setting it. A eunuch is a castrated
male. There were a number of reasons for this castration, but none of it had to do with any kind
of punishment. Rather it prevented marriage, which kept his loyalty squarely upon the person
whom he served. And it limited him to any other kind of vocation as well as marking him for life.
Often removing the male genitalia was for religious purposes especially when serving a female
god or ruler. We must remember that at least from a Biblical viewpoint, castration is seen as
mutilation and wrong. For one thing, it means that this man will never have offspring; his
bloodline will end. In the most ancient Hebrew way of thinking that means no afterlife is
possible, since in some mysterious way one’s afterlife is at least partially contained in his
children.
But a mutilation of the genitals is also seen as an affront to life itself since fruitfulness in the
form of producing offspring is not possible. Even more, a castrated man may not become an
Israeli national citizen because Deuteronomy says this:
CJB
Deuteronomy 23:2 "A man with
crushed or damaged private parts may not enter the assembly of ADONAI. This issue
arises because a man cannot fulfill his role in the Abrahamic Covenant to reproduce; thus that
man cannot be part of Israel.
As concerns the religion of the Hebrews, a castrated male is very limited in where he can
worship and in which rituals he can participate. It is likely that if this eunuch was permitted to
enter the Temple Mount at all, it was in the Court of the Gentiles; or more likely he was
prohibited from the Temple area altogether and only came to a Synagogue. That would explain
his interest in Isaiah as that was a Synagogue favorite particularly in this era. Thus there is no
doubt that this Ethiopian eunuch had not converted to Judaism and become a Jew because he
wouldn’t have been allowed to; rather he was a God-fearer. He was a gentile who worshipped
the God of Israel.
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So what we see is that Phillip has been dealing with those whom Judaism customarily wanted
little to do. He was dealing with outcasts and those that normative Judaism looked down upon
to one degree or another; first the hated Samaritans, then a sorcerer, and now the castrated
male gentile. And what did Phillip do? He brought these outcasts into the Kingdom of God.
What a hope, and what a God-pattern is shown to us. There is no one low enough, broken
enough, wretched or ruined enough that Yeshua cannot heal their spirit and bring them into His
Kingdom. There is no heritage or race that is excluded. Submit to Christ, and God accepts us.
As is typical of Luke, he says that the Spirit (the Holy Spirit) directed Phillip to go up and join
the eunuch on his chariot. Was this a voice Phillip heard, or some kind of internal unction?
We’re not told. But when Phillip inquires of the man what it is that he’s reading, and if he
understands it, it is clear that the eunuch does not. He says someone needs to explain it to
him.
We’re given the excerpt from Isaiah that the eunuch is reading and it is from Isaiah 53. The
words of Isaiah 53 that we see quoted in Acts chapter 8 more resemble the Greek Septuagint
version rather than the Hebrew Tanakh version. This would make sense since few outside of
the Holy Land could read or speak Hebrew; however Greek was widely known. And of course
this is a Messianic prophecy that the eunuch is reading, which would be most difficult to grasp
if one had not grown up in a Jewish culture. But even then, the Synagogues had various
interpretations of its meaning, the most accepted being that this suffering servant who was
humiliated and denied justice was referring to Israel as a whole and not to an individual.
Acts 8:32-33 CJB
32
"He was like a sheep led to be slaughtered; like a lamb silent before the shearer, he
does not open his mouth.
33
He was humiliated and denied justice. Who will tell about his descendants, since his
life has been taken from the earth?"
The eunuch sees that the plain reading of this passage indicates an individual so he wonders if
Isaiah is speaking about himself or is it someone else? This gave Phillip the opening he
needed. He of course informed the man that this was speaking of Messiah Yeshua and he
explained the matter and the Ethiopian believed.
It is the Ethiopian, not Philip that seems to raise the issue of immersion. The eunuch obviously
had spent sufficient time among Jews and studying the Bible that he was familiar with the
mikveh and immersion in water. The way the eunuch asks the question is like this: “Is there
anything that should prevent me from being immersed?” This no doubt was something he
had run into before due to his condition of being castrated and being gentile; it may well be that
he had not been allowed to immerse and was wondering if now he could.
Where they found the water to immerse we don’t know. But wherever it was it met the
requirement of it being Living Water (meaning the source of the water had to be water that
moved, like the ocean, a river, or a spring). And since Phillip and the eunuch entered the water
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together the source was of reasonable size. Upon immersion of the unnamed eunuch, we are
told that Phillip was suddenly snatched away, his job here completed. The Greek word used for
snatched away is harpazo, the same word we find in 1Thessalonians 4 that speaks of
Believers being caught up into the air to meet Christ in the clouds. So what happened here
was a miraculous and unexpected act of God; Phillip didn’t just quickly leave the scene on his
own. Phillip suddenly finds himself in Ashdod near the Mediterranean Sea. There he continues
to proclaim the Good News and journeys town by town northward about 50 miles to Caesarea
(this is speaking of Caesarea Maritima), which was an impressive and bustling port city that
had been greatly improved by King Herod. There he would have met people from every sort of
nationality and religion.
Let’s move on to Acts chapter 9.
READ ACTS CHAPTER 9 all
After our being briefly introduced to Paul at the end of chapter 7, the story now turns back to
him in chapter 9 and he becomes the focus. I said in the introduction to the Book of Acts that it
is critical that because almost all Church doctrine comes from Paul, so we must learn who Paul
is before we are properly equipped to read and decipher his God-inspired letters. And that
while his Epistles like Galatians, Romans, Corinthians and so on indeed give us Paul’s
theology, they don’t tell us who he is, why he thinks like he does, and most importantly what
his terms mean to him. We’ll find that information only in the Book of Acts. And without that
and some other information about Synagogues and Judaism in general, it is not possible to
correctly interpret much of what Paul says. And what we find is that he is a Diaspora Jew born
in Tarsus of Cilicia. Paul was of the tribe of Benjamin, a tribe that Judah had centuries earlier
absorbed and so those of Benjamin were called by the same name as those of the tribe of
Judah: Jews. But it is also interesting to note how after all this time, at least some Jews
continued to also identify with their original tribal family heritage even when they lived outside
of the Holy Land.
So while I’ve spoken on Paul before, let’s review a little and I’m going to add more
information. The 2 names he goes by in the New Testament are Paul and Saul, or more
correctly Sha’ul, the same name of the 1
st
king of Israel who was from Paul’s tribe of
Benjamin, King Sha’ul. Paul is Latin, Sha’ul is Hebrew. Since Latin and Greek were the
primary languages of the Roman Empire, then it is not surprising that Paul would have an
alternative Roman name. What we can be sure of is that his given name was Sha’ul and not
Paul because in Acts 13 we read:
9
“Then Sha'ul, also known as Paul, filled with the Ruach
HaKodesh…..”So Paul was an assumed name that he used sometimes because it more fit his
life as a Diaspora Jew.
Paul’s hometown of Tarsus was quite large: around ½ million population. It had a sizeable
Jewish community with many Synagogues. Paul’s first language was Greek, but he also
spoke Hebrew and Aramaic because Hebrew and Aramaic were similar and it was typical of
highly educated Jewish scholars to know both languages since the many Jewish religious
documents contained both Aramaic and Hebrew script. The Church Father Jerome, who lived
in the late 4
th
and early 5
th
centuries A.D. claims that Paul’s family lived for a time in Gush
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Chalav in the Galilee; but as the result of war they migrated to Tarsus where Paul was born.
Paul specifically says that he was born into Roman citizenship, something that was not usual
for Diaspora Jews. So his father was a Roman citizen by some means. Since Paul will use that
Roman citizenship to his advantage let’s see just what that bought him. First, the benefits of
being a Roman citizen covered virtually every aspect of life. Everything from judicial sentences
to tax penalties was less for citizens than for non-citizens. Class also mattered; the higher
classes of Roman citizens used different courts than the lower classes, and the higher classes
were more or less presumed innocent while the lower classes were generally presumed guilty.
It seems pretty clear from what we read of Paul’s encounter with the court system that he
knew his way around the judiciary, and could demand an audience with a king or very high
Roman official to personally look at his case. There is little doubt that Paul’s family had status.
As Rabbi Joseph Shulam cleverly observes, one of the most enviable rights that a Roman
citizen had that others didn’t was the right to appeal a court decision. Further a citizen was
protected against unjust private or public arrest, and he couldn’t be punished, tortured,
incarcerated or executed by local judicial authorities. Thus we see that when Paul was arrested
for speaking the Gospel he was eventually taken to the highest authority in Rome when he lets
it be known that he is a Roman citizen and demands his rights. Paul was used to privilege in
his life, and it didn’t end when he became an Apostle.
Paul was a Pharisee because Paul’s family was a family of Pharisees; something rare outside
of the Holy Land. However if his family had migrated some years earlier from Galilee to Tarsus
as Jerome claims, then joining the party of the Pharisees while in the Galilee and then
continuing to consider themselves as practicing Pharisees even while living in the Diaspora
makes more sense.
There is more that we need to understand about Paul the person, and I want to take all the
time needed, so we’ll stop here and continue next time.
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