Hechos 7:5

I. PHILIP, ONE OF THE SEVEN, EVANGELIZES SAMARIA, Acts 7:5-40.

5. Philip Stephen closes the Pentecostal Church; Philip opens the missionary or modern Church. To Stephen belongs the headship of the glorious army of martyrs, to Philip the leadership of the glorious army of foreign missionaries. Both were forerunners of Paul; the former in proclaiming the cessation of ritualism, the latter in heralding the Gospel beyond the boundaries of Judaism. Paul was Stephen and Philip united and enlarged.

It may appear a strange accident that not to apostles, but to mere so-called deacons such honours should be given. The fact, however, tells deacons, and even laymen, that working and dying for Christ are not privileges confined to dignitaries alone. But special reasons existed for this apparent accident. The great Head of the Church designed that the apostolic twelve should not yet be diminished by martyrdom; so they were holden back by a divine official conservatism, and to a deacon was it given to do the martyr’s work of first proclaiming the downfall of the ritual.

A striking contrast is apparent in the characters of Stephen and Philip. The whole history of the former grows out of his own intense, stern, tragic personality; whereas the latter appears cheery, spiritualistic, and alert, and the effects he accomplishes are produced almost unexpectedly to himself, and rather through him than by him. The only express words of his recorded (Acts 7:30) contain a pleasantry.

Went down Down not from higher grounds, but from the more eminent capital.

The city of Samaria Without the article in Greek, and so held by most later scholars to mean a city; that is, some unknown city of the province of Samaria. But neither our view of Luke’s acquaintance with the present facts, (note on Acts 7:9,) nor the familiar fulness of the narrative, permit us to suppose that the true locality was to him unknown. We find in πολιν της Σαμαρειας a genitive of apposition like πολεις Σοδομων και Γομορρας , Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah 2 Peter 2:7. So Urbs Romae, Flumen Rheni, city of Rome, river of the Rhine. The definite article is omitted because the city is made definite by the genitive. (See Winer, Gram. New Test., pp. 125, 531.) Some authorities supply the article, such as Lachmann and Tischendorf.

Samaria The city of Samaria was the capital of the great province of Samaria, and of the kingdom of Israel while independent and separate from Judea. Its position is nearly the centre of Palestine. It was founded by King Omri, upon a hill bought of its owner, Shemer, after whom it is named, and signifies watch-height. It was a place of singular beauty and of powerful defences, excelling Jerusalem in both respects. During the kingdom of Israel it was eminently idolatrous, was the seat of a temple of Baal, and was denounced by the voice of the prophets. It was the scene of many of the acts of Elijah and Elisha. It was depopulated in the time of the captivity, but rebuilt and adorned with magnificent streets and edifices by Herod, who received it as a present from Augustus, whose name it bore in the Greek form, Sebaste. Such were its condition and name when visited by our Philip.

Preached Christ The Christ who, less than nine years ago, had preached himself to Shechem, in Samaria. There may have been hearers of Philip who remembered the person of Jesus himself. And Philip himself had, doubtless, heard from the apostles the parable of the good Samaritan. In connection herewith, read our notes on Matthew 10:5, and John 5:0.