Acts 8 commentary

ACTS 8 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
1 And Saul approved of their killing him.
On that day a great persecution broke out against
the church in Jerusalem, and all except the
apostles were scattered throughout Judea and
Samaria.
BARCLAY, "The first half of the first verse of chapter 8 goes with this section. Saul
has entered on the scene. The man who was to become the apostle to the Gentiles
thoroughly agreed with the execution of Stephen. But as Augustine said, "The
Church owes Paul to the prayer of Stephen." However hard he tried Saul could
never forget the way in which Stephen had died. The blood of the martyrs even thus
early had begun to be the SEED of the Church.
BAR ES, "And Saul was consenting ... - Was pleased with his being put to death
and approved it. Compare Act_22:20. This part of the verse should have been connected
with the previous chapter.
And at that time. - That is, immediately following the death of Stephen. The
persecution arose on account of Stephen, Act_11:19. The tumult did not subside when
Stephen was killed. The anger of his persecutors continued to be excited against all
Christians. They had become so embittered by the zeal and success of the apostles, and
by their frequent charges of murder in putting the Son of God to death, that they
resolved at once to put a period to their progress and success. This was the first
persecution against Christians; the first in a series that terminated only when the
religion which they wished to destroy was fully established on the ruins of both Judaism
and paganism.
The church - The collection of Christians which were now organized into a church.
The church at Jerusalem was the first that was collected.
All scattered - That is, the great mass of Christians.
The regions of Judea ... - See the notes on Mat_2:22.
Except the apostles - Probably the other Christians fled from fear. Why the
apostles, who were particularly in danger, did not flee also, is not stated by the historian.
Having been, however, more fully instructed than the others, and having been taught
their duty by the example and teaching of the Saviour, they resolved, it seems, to remain

and brave the fury of the persecutors. For them to have fled then would have exposed
them, as leaders and founders of the new religion, to the charge of timidity and
weakness. They therefore resolved to remain in the midst of their persecutors; and a
merciful Providence watched over them, and defended them from harm. The dispersion
extended not only to Judea and Samaria, but those who fled carried the gospel also to
Phenice, Cyprus, and Antioch, Act_11:19. There was a reason why this was permitted.
The early converts were Jews. They had strong feelings of attachment to the city of
Jerusalem, to the temple, and to the land of their fathers. Yet it was the design of the
Lord Jesus that the gospel should be preached everywhere. To accomplish this, he
suffered a persecution to rage; and they were scattered abroad, and bore his gospel to
other cities and lands. Good thus came out of evil; and the first persecution resulted, as
all others have done, in advancing the cause which was intended to be destroyed.
CLARKE, "Saul was consenting unto his death - So inveterate was the hatred
that this man bore to Christ and his followers that he delighted in their destruction. So
blind was his heart with superstitious zeal that he thought he did God service by offering
him the blood of a fellow creature, whose creed he supposed to be erroneous. The word
συνευδοκων signifies gladly consenting, being pleased with his murderous work! How
dangerous is a party spirit; and how destructive may zeal even for the true worship of
God prove, if not inspired and regulated by the spirit of Christ!
It has already been remarked that this clause belongs to the conclusion of the
preceding chapter; so it stands in the Vulgate, and so it should stand in every version.
There was a great persecution - The Jews could not bear the doctrine of Christ’s
resurrection; for this point being proved demonstrated his innocence and their
enormous guilt in his crucifixion; as therefore the apostles continued to insist strongly
on the resurrection of Christ, the persecution against them became hot and general.
They were all scattered abroad - except the apostles - Their Lord had
commanded them, when persecuted in one city, to flee to another: this they did, but,
wherever they went, they proclaimed the same doctrines, though at the risk and hazard
of their lives. It is evident, therefore, that they did not flee from persecution, or the death
it threatened; but merely in obedience to their Lord’s command. Had they fled through
the fear of death, they would have taken care not to provoke persecution to follow them,
by continuing to proclaim the same truths that provoked it in the first instance.
That the apostles were not also exiled is a very remarkable fact: they continued in
Jerusalem, to found and organize the infant Church; and it is marvellous that the hand
of persecution was not permitted to touch them. Why this should be we cannot tell; but
so it pleased the great Head of the Church. Bp. Pearce justly suspects those accounts, in
Eusebius and others, that state that the apostles went very shortly after Christ’s
ascension into different countries, preaching and founding Churches. He thinks this is
inconsistent with the various intimations we have of the continuance of the apostles in
Jerusalem; and refers particularly to the following texts: Act_8:1, Act_8:14, Act_8:25;
Act_9:26, Act_9:27; Act_11:1, Act_11:2; Act_12:1-4; Act_15:2, Act_15:4, Act_15:6, Act_
15:22, Act_15:23; Act_21:17, Act_21:18; Gal_1:17-19; Gal_2:1, Gal_2:9. The Church at
Jerusalem was the first Christian Church; and consequently, the boast of the Church of
Rome is vain and unfounded. From this time a new era of the Church arose. Hitherto the
apostles and disciples confined their labors among their countrymen in Jerusalem. Now
persecution drove the latter into different parts of Judea, and through Samaria; and
those who had received the doctrine of Christ at the pentecost, who had come up to
Jerusalem from different countries to be present at the feast, would naturally return,

especially at the commencement of the persecution, to their respective countries, and
proclaim to their countrymen the Gospel of the grace of God. To effect this grand
purpose, the Spirit was poured out at the day of pentecost; that the multitudes from
different quarters, partaking of the word of life, might carry it back to the different
nations among whom they had their residence. One of the fathers has well observed, that
“these holy fugitives were like so many lamps, lighted by the fire of the Holy Spirit,
spreading every where the sacred flame by which they themselves had been illuminated.”
GILL, "And Saul was consenting unto his death,.... This clause, in the Vulgate
Latin, Syriac, Arabic and Ethiopic versions, stands at the close of the preceding chapter,
and which seems to be its proper place; and so it does in the Alexandrian copy: that Saul
consented to the death of Stephen, and approved of that barbarous action, is evident
from his taking care of the clothes of the witnesses that stoned him; but the word here
used signifies not a bare consent only, but a consent with pleasure and delight; he was
well pleased with it, it rejoiced his very heart; he joined with others in it, with the utmost
pleasure and satisfaction; this, and what is before said concerning his having the clothes
of the witnesses laid at his feet, as well as what follows, about his persecuting the saints,
are, the rather mentioned, because this violent persecutor was afterwards converted, and
became an eminent preacher of the Gospel; and these accounts serve to set off and
illustrate the grace of God, which was abundant towards him.
And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was
at Jerusalem: it began "on that day", as the words may be rendered, on which Stephen
was stoned. As soon as they had put him to death, these bloodthirsty wretches were the
more greedy after the blood of others; and being now in great numbers, and filled with
rage and fury, fell upon the members of the church wherever they met them, and killed
them; for that more, besides Stephen, were put to death, seems plain from Act_26:10
and, according to some accounts, though they cannot be depended on, two thousand
persons suffered at this time: and if this was the case, it might be called a great
persecution:
and they were all scattered abroad; not all the members of the church, nor perhaps
any of the private ones; for we afterwards read of devout then that carried Stephen to his
grave; and of the church being made havoc of by Saul; and of men and women being
haled out of their houses, and committed to prison by him; but all the preachers of the
word, except the apostles; for they that were scattered, went about preaching the word,
Act_8:4 They seem to be the seventy disciples, and other ministers of the word, on
whom the Holy Ghost fell at the day of Pentecost, or was since bestowed; among who
were Philip, who went to Samaria; and Ananias, who was at Damascus; and others that
went as far as Phenice, Cyprus, and Antioch: and particularly they are said to be
dispersed
throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria; where their ministry was so
greatly blessed, to the conversion of souls, that there were quickly many churches
planted and formed in these parts, as appears from Act_9:31 so that this persecution
was for the furtherance and spread of the Gospel: that upon this dispersion any of them
came into France and England, or into any other parts of Europe, is not probable; since
the particular places they went to are mentioned; and since they preached to Jew only:
and this scattering by reason of the persecution, was of all the preachers,

except the apostles; the twelve apostles, who stayed at Jerusalem to take care of the
church; to encourage the members of it to suffer cheerfully for the sake of Christ and his
Gospel; and to animate them to abide by him: and this was not only an instance of
courage and constancy in them, and of the divine protection and preservation of them,
in the midst of their enemies; but also of the timidity of their adversaries, who might be
afraid to meddle with them; remembering what miraculous works were performed by
them, and how they had been delivered out of prison, and especially the case of Ananias
and Sapphira, who were struck dead by Peter. Beza's ancient copy adds, "who remained
in Jerusalem".
HE RY, "In these verses we have,
I. Something more concerning Stephen and his death; how people stood affected to it -
variously, as generally in such cases, according to men's different sentiments of things.
Christ had said to his disciples, when he was parting with them (Joh_16:20), You shall
weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice. Accordingly here is, 1. Stephen's death
rejoiced in by one - by many, no doubt, but by one in particular, and that was Saul, who
was afterwards called Paul; he was consenting to his death, suneudokōn - he consented to
it with delight (so the word signifies); he was pleased with it. He fed his eyes with this
bloody spectacle, in hopes it would put a stop to the growth of Christianity. We have
reason to think that Paul ordered Luke to insert this, for shame to himself, and glory to
free grace. Thus he owns himself guilty of the blood of Stephen, and aggravates it with
this, that he did not do it with regret and reluctancy, but with delight and a full
satisfaction, like those who not only do such things, but have pleasure in those that do
them. 2. Stephen's death bewailed by others (Act_8:2) - devout men, which some
understand of those that were properly so called, proselytes, one of whom Stephen
himself probably was. Or, it may be taken more largely; some of the church that were
more devout and zealous than the rest went and gathered up the poor crushed and
broken remains, to which they gave a decent interment, probably in the field of blood,
which was bought some time ago to bury strangers in. They buried him solemnly, and
made great lamentation over him. Though his death was of great advantage to himself,
and great service to the church, yet they bewailed it as a general loss, so well qualified
was he for the service, and so likely to be useful both as a deacon and as a disputant. It is
a bad symptom if, when such men are taken away, it is not laid to heart. Those devout
men paid these their last respects to Stephen, (1.) To show that they were not ashamed
of the cause for which he suffered, nor afraid of the wrath of those that were enemies to
it; for, though they now triumph, the cause is a righteous cause, and will be at last a
victorious one. (2.) To show the great value and esteem they had for this faithful servant
of Jesus Christ, this first martyr for the gospel, whose memory shall always be precious
to them, notwithstanding the ignominy of his death. They study to do honour to him
upon whom God put honour. (3.) To testify their belief and hope of the resurrection of
the dead, and the life of the world to come.
II. An account of this persecution of the church, which begins upon the martyrdom of
Stephen. When the fury of the Jews ran with such violence, and to such a height, against
Stephen, it could not quickly either stop itself or spend itself. The bloody are often in
scripture called blood-thirsty; for when they have tasted blood they thirst for more. One
would have thought Stephen's dying prayers and dying comforts should have overcome
them, and melted them into a better opinion of Christians and Christianity; but it seems
they did not: the persecution goes on; for they were more exasperated when they saw
they could prevail nothing, and, as if they hoped to be too hard for God himself, they

resolve to follow their blow; and perhaps, because they were none of them struck dead
upon the place for stoning Stephen, their hearts were the more fully set in them to do
evil. Perhaps the disciples were also the more emboldened to dispute against them as
Stephen did, seeing how triumphantly he finished his course, which would provoke them
so much the more. Observe,
1. Against whom this persecution was raised: It was against the church in Jerusalem,
which is no sooner planted than it is persecuted, as Christ often intimated that
tribulation and persecution would arise because of the word. And Christ had particularly
foretold that Jerusalem would soon be made too hot for his followers, for that city had
been famous for killing the prophets and stoning those that were sent to it, Mat_23:37.
It should seem that in this persecution many were put to death, for Paul owns that at
this time he persecuted this way unto the death (Act_21:4), and (Act_26:10) that when
they were put to death he gave his voice against them.
What was the effect of this persecution: They were all scattered abroad (Act_8:1), not
all the believers, but all the preachers, who were principally struck at, and against whom
warrants were issued out to take them up. They, remembering our Master's rule (when
they persecute you in one city, flee to another), dispersed themselves by agreement
throughout the regions of Judea and of Samaria; not so much for fear of sufferings (for
Judea and Samaria were not so far off from Jerusalem but that, if they made a public
appearance there, as they determined to do, their persecutors' power would soon reach
them there), but because they looked upon this as an intimation of Providence to them
to scatter. Their work was pretty well done in Jerusalem, and now it was time to think of
the necessities of other places; for their Master had told them that they must be his
witnesses in Jerusalem first, and then in all Judea and in Samaria, and then to the
uttermost part of the earth (Act_1:8), and this method they observe. Through
persecution may not drive us off from our work, yet it may send us, as a hint of
Providence, to work elsewhere. The preachers were all scattered except the apostles,
who, probably, were directed by the Spirit to continue at Jerusalem yet for some time,
they being, by the special providence of God, screened from the storm, and by the special
grace of God enabled to face the storm. They tarried at Jerusalem, that they might be
ready to go where their assistance was most needed by the other preachers that were
sent to break the ice; as Christ ordered his disciples to go to those places where he
himself designed to go, Luk_10:1. The apostles continued longer together at Jerusalem
than one would have thought, considering the command and commission given them, to
go into all the world, and to disciple all nations. See Act_15:6; Gal_1:17. But what was
done by the evangelists whom they sent forth was reckoned as done by them.
JAMISO , "Act_8:1-4. Persecution continued, in which Saul takes a prominent part
- How overruled for good.
Saul was consenting unto his death — The word expresses hearty approval.
they were all scattered abroad — all the leading Christians, particularly the
preachers, agreeably to their Lord’s injunctions (Mat_10:23), though many doubtless
remained, and others (as appears by Act_9:26-30) soon returned.
except the apostles — who remained, not certainly as being less exposed to danger,
but, at whatever risk, to watch over the infant cause where it was most needful to cherish
it.

CALVI , "1.At that day. The persecution began at Stephen, after that, when their
madness was thereby set on fire, it waxed hot against all, both one and other. For
the wicked are like brute beasts, for when they have once tasted blood they are more
desirous thereof, and become more cruel through committing murder. For Satan,
who is the father of all cruelty, doth first take from them all feeling of humanity
when they are once imbrued with innocent blood; that done, he stirreth up in them
an unquenchable thirsting after blood, whence those violent assaults to commit
murder come; so that when they have once begun, they will never make an end with
their will. Moreover, when they have power once GRA TED them to do hurt, their
boldness increaseth in tract of time, so that they are carried headlong more
immoderately, which thing Luke also noteth when he saith, The persecution was
great. Undoubtedly the Church had but small rest before, neither was it free from
the vexation of the wicked; but the Lord spared his for a time, that they might have
some liberty, and now they began to be sorer set on.
These things must be applied unto our time also. If the furiousness of our enemies
seem at any time to be as it were fallen on sleep, so that it casteth not out flames far,
let us know that the Lord provideth for our weakness; yet, let us not in the mean
season imagine that we shall have CO TI UALtruce, but let us be in readiness to
suffer sorer brunts, as often as they shall break out suddenly. Let us also remember,
that if at any time the constancy of one man have whetted the cruelty of our
enemies, the blame of the evil is unjustly ascribed to him. For Luke doth not defame
Stephen, (494) when as he saith, that by means of him the Church was sorer vexed
than before; but he rather turneth this to his praise, because he did valiantly, as the
standard-bearer, encourage others with his example to fight courageously. When he
calleth it the Church which was at Jerusalem, his meaning is not that there were
Churches elsewhere, but he passeth over unto these things which ensued thereupon.
For whereas there was but this one only body of the godly in all the world, it was
RE T in pieces through flight; yet there sprung up more Churches by and by of
those lame members which were dispersed here and there, and so the body of Christ
was spread abroad far and wide, whereas it was before shut up within the walls of
Jerusalem,
They were all scattered abroad. It is certain that they were not all scattered abroad,
but the Scripture useth an U IVERSAL note, for that which we say, Every where
or abroad. (495) The sum is this, that not only a few were in danger; because the
cruelty of the enemies raged throughout the whole Church. Many do oftentimes take
themselves to their feet, through faintness of heart, even when they hear any LIGHT
rumor, but these are in another case. For they fled not unadvisedly, being
discouraged, (496) but because they saw no other means to pacify the fury of the
adversaries. And he saith, that they were scattered not only through divers places of
Judea, but that they came even unto Samaria; so that the middle wall began to be
pulled down, which made division between the Jews and the Gentiles, (Ephesians
2:14.) For the conversion of Samaria was, as it were, the first fruits of the calling of
the Gentiles. For although they had circumcision, as had the people of God, yet we
know that there was great dissension, and that not without great cause, forasmuch
as they had in Samaria only a forged worship of God, as Christ affirmeth, because it

was only an unsavory emulation. (497) Therefore God set open the gate for the
gospel then, that the scepter of Christ, sent out of Jerusalem, might come unto the
Gentiles. He exempteth the apostles out of this UMBER, not that they were free
from the common danger, but because it is the duty of a good pastor to set himself
against the invasions of wolves for the safety of his flock.
But here may a question be asked, forasmuch as they were commanded to preach
the gospel throughout the whole world, (Mark 16:16,) why they stayed at Jerusalem,
even when they were expelled thence with force and hand? I answer, that seeing
Christ had commanded them TO BEGI at Jerusalem, they employed themselves
there until such time as being brought into some other place by his hand, they might
know, for a surety, that he was their guide. And we see how fearfully they proceeded
to preach the gospel; not that they foreslowed [shunned] that function which was
enjoined them, but because they were amazed at a new and unwonted thing.
Therefore, seeing they see the gospel so mightily resisted at Jerusalem, they dare go
to no other place until such time as they have broken that first huge heap of straits.
Assuredly, they provide neither for their ease, nor yet for their own commodities
either for being void of care by staying at Jerusalem; for they have a painful charge,
they are continually amidst divers dangers they encounter with great troubles.
Wherefore, undoubtedly, they are purposed to do their duty; and especially,
whereas they stand to it when all the rest fly, that is an evident testimony of valiant
constancy. If any man object that they might have divided the provinces amongst
them, that they might not all have been occupied in one place, I answer, that
Jerusalem alone had business enough for them all.
In sum, Luke reckoneth up this as a thing worthy of praise, that they followed not
the rest into voluntary exile to avoid persecution; and yet he doth not reprehend the
FLIGHT of those men whose state was more free. For the apostles did consider what
particular thing their calling had; to wit, that they should keep their standing,
seeing the wolves did invade the sheepfold. The rigor of Tertullian, and such like,
was too great, who did deny indifferently that it is lawful to fly for fear of
persecution. Augustine saith better, who giveth leave to fly in such sort that the
churches, being destitute of their pastors, be not betrayed into the hands of the
enemies. This is surely the best moderation, which beareth neither too much with
the flesh, neither driveth those headlong to death who may lawfully save their lives.
Let him that is disposed read the 180th Epistle to Honoratus.
That I may return to the apostles, if they had been scattered here and there with
fear of persecution, even at the BEGI I G, all men might have rightly called
them hirelings. How hurtful and filthy had the forsaking of the place been at the
present time? How greatly would it have discouraged the minds of all men? What
great hurt should they have done with their example among the posterity? It shall
sometimes so fall out I DEED, that the pastor may also fly; that is, if they invade
him alone, if the laying waste of the Church be not feared if he be absent. (498) But
and if both his flock and he have to encounter with the adversary, he is a
treacherous forsaker of his office if he stand not stoutly to it even until the end.
PRIVATE persons have greater liberty.

BE SO , "Acts 8:1-2. And Saul was consenting — ην συνευδοκων τη αναιρεσει
αυτου, was consenting with delight; to his death — Or, more literally, was well
pleased with his slaughter; for he was so full of rage and malice against the
Christian name, that he thought no severities were too great to be exercised on those
who thus zealously endeavoured to propagate it. And at that time — εν εκεινη τη
ηµερα, in that day, in the very day in which this inhuman murder was committed on
Stephen, who leads the van in the glorious army of martyrs; there was a great
persecution — Which CO TI UED to rage for some time; against the church at
Jerusalem —
Which was no sooner planted than it was persecuted, as Christ had often intimated,
signifying that tribulation and persecution would arise, because of the WORD,
particularly at Jerusalem, that city having been formerly famous for killing the
prophets, and stoning them that were sent to it, Matthew 23:37. And now the
adversaries of the Christians, having tasted blood, were the more eager to shed it.
And they were all scattered abroad — ot all the church, for if so, who would have
remained for the apostles to teach, or Saul to persecute? but all the teachers, except
the apostles, who, though in the most danger, stayed with the flock. And devout men
— Who feared God more than persecution; carried Stephen to his burial — Having
the courage to show themselves openly as the friends of that holy man, whose blood
had been so unrighteously shed; and made great lamentation over him — Mourning
that the church had lost so excellent an instrument of usefulness, though he himself
was so much a gainer by it, as to be the object of CO GRATULATIO , rather than
condolence.
COFFMA , "A second major division of Acts begins with Acts 8:5; but the first
four verses continue to focus upon the church in Jerusalem. The conversion of the
Samaritans by Philip is given (Acts 8:5-25), and also the conversion of the Ethiopian
(Acts 8:26-40).
And Saul was consenting unto his death. And there arose on that day a great
persecution against the church which was in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered
abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles. (Acts
8:1)
This sentence actually belongs to the narrative in the preceding chapter. One is
almost shocked at the casual way in which so important a person as Saul of Tarsus
is here introduced; but the placement of this announcement in close connection with
the martyrdom of Stephen almost demands that the relation between that
martyrdom and the conversion of Saul should be observed. As J.S. Howson said:
We cannot dissociate the martyrdom of Stephen from the conversion of Paul. The
spectacle of so much constancy, so much faith, so much love, could not be lost. It is
hardly too much to say with Augustine that "the church owes Paul to the prayer of
Stephen."[1]

The same writer also called attention to the gloom which surrounded the infant
church at that time, and to the "brightness which invests the scene of the martyr's
last moments."
The first apostle who died was a traitor; and the first Christians whose deaths are
recorded were liars and hypocrites. The kingdom of the Son of man was founded in
darkness and gloom; but a heavenly light reappeared with the martyrdom of
Stephen.[2]
On that day a great persecution ... does not mean that all of the persecutions
occurred on that day, but that upon that day was initiated a policy of extermination
directed against the new faith. God, in this, was overruling the evil which men
perpetrated, in order to accomplish the extension of the gospel beyond the
boundaries of Jerusalem. The first murderous persecution against the church was
launched by the Sanhedrin, both the Sadducees and the Pharisees supporting the
campaign to drown the infant church in blood.
Except the apostles ... Barnes observed that:
For them to have fled would have exposed them, as leaders and founders of the new
religion, to the charge of timidity and weakness. They remained; and a merciful
Providence watched over them and defended them from harm.[3]
In time, of course, the apostles would also leave Jerusalem; but for the moment they
considered it their duty to remain.
[1] J. S. Howson, Life and Epistles of St. Paul (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B.
Eerdmans, Publishers, 1966), p. 62.
[2] Ibid., p. 63.
[3] Albert Barnes, otes on the ew Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker
Book House, 1953), Vol. Acts, p. 137.
BARCLAY, "THE CHURCH REACHES OUT (Acts 8:1-4)
Acts 8:1-40 is an important chapter in the history of the Church. The Church began
by being a purely Jewish institution. Acts 6:1-15 shows the first murmurings of the
great debate about the acceptance of the Gentiles. Stephen had had a mind far
above national delimitations. Acts 8:1-40 shows the Church reaching out.
Persecution scattered the Church abroad and where they went they took their
gospel. Into Acts 8:1-40 comes Philip who, like Stephen, was one of the Seven and
who is to be distinguished from the Philip who was one of the Twelve. First, Philip
preached to the Samaritans. The Samaritans formed a natural bridge between Jew
and Gentile for they were half Jew and half Gentile in their racial descent. Then
comes the incident of the Ethiopian eunuch in which the gospel takes a step out to a
still wider circle. As yet the Church had no conception of a world mission; but when
we read this chapter in the LIGHT of what was soon to happen, we see her
unconsciously but irresistibly being moved towards her destiny.

HAVOC OF THE CHURCH (Acts 8:1-4 CO TI UED)
8:1-4 At that time a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem.
They were all scattered abroad throughout the districts of Judaea and Samaria,
except the apostles. Pious men carried Stephen away to bury him, and they mourned
greatly over him. As for Saul, he ravaged the church. He went into house after house
and dragged out both men and WOME and put them under arrest.
The death of Stephen was the signal for an outbreak of persecution which compelled
the Christians to scatter and to seek safety in the remoter districts of the country.
There are two SPECIALLY interesting points in this short section.
(i) The apostles stood fast. Others might flee but they braved whatever perils might
come; and this for two reasons. (a) They were men of courage. Conrad tells that,
when he was a young sailor learning to steer a sailing-ship, a gale blew up. The older
man who was teaching him gave him but one piece of advice. "Keep her facing it,"
he said. "Always keep her facing it." The apostles were determined to face whatever
dangers threatened. (b) They were good men. Christians they might be, but there
was something about them that won the respect of all. It is told that once a
slanderous accusation was leveled against Plato. His answer was, "I will live in such
a way that all men will know that it is a lie." The beauty and the power of the lies of
the apostles were so impressive that even in a day of persecution men hesitated to
lay their hands upon them.
(ii) Saul, as the King James Version says, "made havoc" of the church. The WORD
used in the Greek denotes a brutal cruelty. It is used of a wild boar ravaging a
vineyard and of a wild animal savaging a body. The contrast between the man who
was savaging the church in this chapter and the man who surrendered to Christ in
the next is intensely dramatic.
COKE, "Acts 8:1. And Saul was consenting unto his death— Dr. Heylin renders
this, And Saul was accessary to his death; and he joins it to the last verse of the
foregoing chapter. The circumstances relative to St. Paul, recorded by his most
intimate and familiar friend, not only shew the fidelity of the historian, but likewise
illustrate the miracle of his conversion. It was possibly at this time, when the
Christians were so dispersed, that Ananias went to Damascus, ch. Acts 9:10.; while
others, after they had preached the gospel in the neighbouring parts, travelled on to
Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. See ch. Acts 11:19.
CO STABLE, "Stephen's execution ignited the first popular persecution of
Christian Jews. [ ote: See Ernst Bammel, "Jewish Activity against Christians in
Palestine ACCORDI G to Acts," in The Book of Acts in Its First Century Setting;
Vol. 4: The Book of Acts in Its Palestinian Setting, pp. 357-64.] Luke showed that
the early Jerusalem Christians first received a warning (Acts 4:21), then flogging
(Acts 5:40), then martyrdom (Acts 7:58-60), then widespread persecution. Since
Stephen was a Hellenistic Jew, the Hellenistic Jewish Christians were probably the

main targets of this antagonism. The unbelieving Jews living in Jerusalem turned
against the believing Jews. This hostility resulted in many of the believers leaving
Jerusalem for more SECURE places of residence. They took the gospel SEED with
them and planted churches in all Judea (cf. 1 Thessalonians 2:14) as well as in
Samaria. The Greek WORD diesparesen, translated "scattered" here and in Acts
8:4, comes from the verb speiro, used to refer to sowing seed (cf. Matthew 6:26;
Matthew 13:3-4; Matthew 13:18; Matthew 25:24; Matthew 25:26; Luke 8:5; Luke
12:24; et al.). The word "diaspora" derives from it. This persecution was hard on
the Christians, but it was good for the church since it resulted in widening
evangelization. The apostles probably stayed in Jerusalem because they believed
their presence there was essential regardless of the danger. Moreover the
persecution seems to have been against Hellenistic Jews particularly, and the Twelve
were Hebraic Jews.
ELLICOTT, "(1) And Saul was consenting unto his death.—The WORD seems
carefully chosen to convey the fact that he did not himself take part in stoning, but
contented himself with guiding and directing the murder. He “kept the garments” of
the witnesses who flung the stones (Acts 22:20). The statement came, we can scarcely
doubt, from St. Paul’s own lips, and in his use of the same word in the passage just
referred to, and in Romans 1:32, we may see an indication that he had learnt to see
that his guilt in so doing was greater, and not less, than that of the actual murderers.
There was a great persecution against the church.—It is clear that this involved
much suffering, imprisonment, as in Acts 8:3, perhaps the spoiling of men’s goods,
the being made “a gazing STOCK by reproaches and afflictions” (Hebrews 10:33-
34). In St. James’s description of the sufferings of the brethren (James 2:6-7), we
may see at once the measure of the violence of the persecution, and the prominence
in it (though Saul, the Pharisee, was for the time the chief leader) of the priesthood
and the rich Sadducean aristocracy.
Throughout the regions of Judæa and Samaria.—Jerusalem was naturally the chief
scene of the persecution, and the neighbouring towns, Hebron, and Gaza, and
Lydda, and Joppa, became places of refuge. It was probably to this influx of
believers in Christ that we may trace the existence of Christian communities in the
two latter cities. (See otes on Acts 9:32; Acts 9:36.) The choice of Samaria was,
perhaps, suggested by the hatred of that people to the Jews. Those who were fleeing
from a persecution set on foot by the priests and rulers of Jerusalem were almost
ipso facto sure of a welcome in eapolis and other cities. But the choice of this as a
place of refuge indicated that the barriers of the old antipathy were already in part
broken down. What seemed the pressure of circumstances was leading indirectly to
the fulfilment of our Lord’s commands, that the disciples should be witnesses in
Samaria as well as in Judæa (Acts 1:8). It seems probable, as already suggested (see
ote on Acts 7:16), that there was some point of CO TACT between the Seven, of
whom Stephen was the chief, and that region.
Except the apostles.—The sequel of the history suggests two reasons for their

remaining. (1) The Twelve had learnt the lesson which their Master had taught
them, “that the hireling fleeth because he is an hireling” (John 10:13), and would
not desert their post. A tradition is recorded by Clement of Alexandria (Strom. vi. 5,
§ 43) and Eusebius (Hist. v. 13), that the Lord had commanded the Apostles to
remain for twelve years in Jerusalem lest any should say “We have not heard,” and
after that date to go forth into the world. (2) The persecution which was now raging
seems to have been directed specially against those who taught with Stephen, that
the “customs” on which the Pharisees laid so much stress should pass away. The
Apostles had not as yet proclaimed that truth; had, perhaps, not as yet been led to it.
They were conspicuous as worshippers in the Temple, kept themselves from all that
was common and unclean (Acts 10:14), held aloof from fellowship with the Gentiles
(Acts 10:28). They may well have been PROTECTED by the favour and reverence
with which the great body of the people still looked on them, and so have been less
exposed than the Seven had been to the violence of the storm. It was probable, in the
nature of the case, that the Hellenistic disciples, who had been represented by
Stephen, should suffer more than others. It was from them that the next great step
in the expansion of the Church in due course came.
MACLARE , "SEED SCATTERED A D TAKI G ROOT
Acts 8:1 - Acts 8:17.
The note of time in Acts 8:1 is probably to be rendered as in the Revised Version,
‘on that day.’ The appetite for blood roused by Stephen’s martyrdom at once sought
for further victims. Thus far the persecutors had been the rulers, and the persecuted
the Church’s leaders; but now the populace are the hunters, and the whole Church
the prey. The change marks an epoch. Luke does not care to make much of the
persecution, which is important to him chiefly for its bearing on the spread of the
Church’s message. It helped to diffuse the Gospel, and that is why he tells of it. But
before proceeding to narrate how it did so, he gives us a picture of things as they
stood at the beginning of the assault.
Three points are noted: the flight of the Church except the Apostles, the funeral of
Stephen, and Saul’s eager search for the disciples. We need not press ‘all,’ as if it
were to be taken with mathematical accuracy. Some others besides the Apostles may
have remained, but the community was broken up. They fled, as Christ had bid
them do, if persecuted in one city. Brave faithfulness goes with prudent self-
preservation, and a valuable ‘part of valour is discretion.’ But the disciples who fled
were not necessarily less courageous than the Apostles who remained, nor were the
latter less prudent than the brethren who fled. For noblesse oblige; high position
demands high virtues, and the officers should be the last to leave a wreck. The
Apostles, no doubt, felt it right to hold together, and preserve a centre to which the
others might return when the storm had blown itself out.
In remarkable contrast with the scattering Church are the ‘devout men’ who
reverently buried the martyr. They were not disciples, but probably Hellenistic Jews
[Acts 2:5]; perhaps from the synagogue whose members had disputed with Stephen
and had dragged him to the council. His words or death may have touched them, as
many a time the martyr’s fire has lighted others to the martyr’s faith. Stephen was

like Jesus in his burial by non-disciples, as he had been in his death.
The eager zeal of the young Pharisee brought new severity into the persecution, in
his hunting out his victims in their homes, and in his including women among his
prisoners. There is nothing so cruel as so-called religious zeal. So Luke lifts the
curtain for a moment, and in that glimpse of the whirling tumult of the city we see
the three classes, of the brave and prudent disciples, ready to flee or to stand and
suffer as duty called; the good men who shrunk from complicity with a bloodthirsty
mob, and were stirred to sympathy with his victims; and the zealot, who with
headlong rage hated his brother for the love of God. But the curtain drops, and
Luke turns to his true theme. He picks up the threads again in Acts 8:4, telling of
the dispersal of the disciples, with the significant addition of their occupation when
scattered,-’preaching the word.’
The violent hand of the persecutor acted as the scattering hand of the sower. It flung
the seeds broadcast, and wherever they fell they sprouted. These fugitives were not
officials, nor were they commissioned by the Apostles to preach. Without any special
command or position, they followed the instincts of believing hearts, and, as they
carried their faith with them, they spoke of it wherever they found themselves. A
Christian will be impelled to speak of Christ if his personal hold of Him is vital. He
should need no ecclesiastical authorisation for that. It is riot every believer’s duty to
get into a pulpit, but it is his duty to ‘preach Christ.’ The scattering of the disciples
was meant by men to put out the fire, but, by Christ, to spread it. A volcanic
explosion flings burning matter over a wide area.
Luke takes up one of the lines of expansion, in his narrative of Philip’s doings in
Samaria, which he puts first because Jesus had indicated Samaria first among the
regions beyond Judaea [Acts 1:8]. Philip’s name comes second in the list of deacons
[Acts 6:5], probably in anticipation of his work in Samaria. How unlike the forecast
by the Apostles was the actual course of things! They had destined the seven for
purely ‘secular’ work, and regarded preaching the word as their own special
engagement. But Stephen saw and proclaimed more clearly than they did the
passing away of Temple and ritual; and Philip, on his own initiative, and apparently
quite unconscious of the great stride forward that he was taking, was the first to
carry the gospel torch into the regions beyond. The Church made Philip a ‘deacon,’
but Christ made him an ‘evangelist’; and an evangelist he continued, long after he
had ceased to be a deacon in Jerusalem [Acts 21:8].
Observe, too, that, as soon as Stephen is taken away, Philip rises up to take his
place. The noble army of witnesses never wants recruits. Its Captain sends men to
the front in unbroken succession, and they are willing to occupy posts of danger
because He bids them. Probably Philip fled to Samaria for convenience’ sake, but,
being there, he probably recalled Christ’s instructions in Acts 1:8, repealing His
prohibition in Matthew 10:5. What a different world it would be, if it was true of
Christians now that they ‘went down into the city of So-and-So and proclaimed
Christ’! Many run to and fro, but some of them leave their Christianity at home, or
lock it up safely in their travelling trunks.
Jerusalem had just expelled the disciples, and would fain have crushed the Gospel;
despised Samaria received it with joy. ‘A foolish nation’ was setting Israel an
example [Deuteronomy 32:21; Romans 10:19]. The Samaritan woman had a more
spiritual conception of the Messiah than the run of Jews had, and her countrymen

seem to have been ready to receive the word. Is not the faith of our mission converts
often a rebuke to us?
But the Gospel met new foes as well as new friends on the new soil. Simon the
sorcerer, probably a Jew or a Samaritan, would have been impossible on Jewish
ground, but was a characteristic product of that age in the other parts of the Roman
empire. Just as, to-day, people who are weary of Christianity are playing with
Buddhism, it was fashionable in that day of unrest to trifle with Eastern magic-
mongers; and, of course, demand created supply, and where there was a crowd of
willing dupes, there soon came to be a crop of profit-seeking deceivers. Very
characteristically, the dupes claimed more for the deceiver than he did for himself.
He probably could perform some simple chemical experiments and conjuring tricks,
and had a store of what sounded to ignorant people profound teaching about deep
mysteries, and gave forth enigmatical utterances about his own greatness. An
accomplished charlatan will leave much to be inferred from nods and hints, and his
admirers will generally spin even more out of them than he meant. So the
Samaritans bettered Simon’s ‘some great one’ into ‘that power of God which is
called great,’ and saw in him some kind of emanation of divinity.
The quack is great till the true teacher comes, and then he dwindles. Simon had a
bitter pill to swallow when he saw this new man stealing his audience, and doing
things which he, with his sorceries, knew that he only pretended to do. Luke points
very clearly to the likeness and difference between Simon and Philip by using the
same word {‘gave heed’} in regard to the Samaritan’s attitude to both, while in
reference to Philip it was ‘the things spoken by’ him, and in reference to Simon it
was himself to which they attended. The one preached Christ, the other himself; the
one ‘amazed’ with ‘sorceries,’ the other brought good tidings and hid himself, and
his message called, not for stupid, open-mouthed astonishment, but for belief and
obedience to the name of Jesus. The whole difference between the religion of Jesus
and the superstitions which the world calls religions, is involved in the significant
contrast, so inartificially drawn.
‘Simon also himself believed.’ Probably there was in his action a good deal of
swimming with the stream, in the hope of being able to divert it; but, also, he may
have been all the more struck by Philip’s miracles, because he knew a real one, by
reason of his experience of sham ones. At any rate, neither Philip nor Luke drew a
distinction between his belief and that of the Samaritans; and, as in their cases, his
baptism followed on his profession of belief. But he seems not to have got beyond the
point of wondering at the miracles, as it is emphatically said that he did even after
his baptism. He believed that Jesus was the Messiah, but was more interested in
studying Philip to find out how he did the miracles than in listening to his teaching.
Such an imperfect belief had no transforming power, and left him the same man as
before, as was soon miserably manifest.
The news of Philip’s great step forward reached the Apostles by some unrecorded
means. It is not stated that Philip reported his action, as if to superiors whose
authorisation was necessary. More probably the information filtered through other
channels. At all events, sending a deputation was natural, and needs not to be
regarded as either a sign of suspicion or an act necessary in order to supplement
imperfections inherent in the fact that Philip was not an Apostle. The latter meaning
has been read-not to say forced-into the incident; but Luke’s language does not

support it. It was not because they thought that the Samaritans were not admissible
to the full privileges of Christians without Apostolic acts, but because they ‘heard
that Samaria had received the word,’ that the Apostles sent Peter and John.
The Samaritans had not yet received the Holy Ghost-that is, the special gifts, such as
those of Pentecost. That fact proves that baptism is not necessarily and inseparably
connected with the gift of the Spirit; and Acts 10:44, Acts 10:47, proves that the
Spirit may be given before baptism. As little does this incident prove that the
imposition of Apostolic hands was necessary in order to the impartation of the
Spirit. Luke, at any rate, did not think so; for he tells how Ananias’ hand laid on the
blind Saul conveyed the gift to him. The laying on of hands is a natural, eloquent
symbol, but it was no prerogative of the Apostles [Acts 10:17; 1 Timothy 4:14].
The Apostles came down to Samaria to rejoice in the work which their Lord had
commanded, and which had been begun without their help, to welcome the new
brethren, to give them further instruction, and to knit closely the bonds of unity
between the new converts and the earlier ones. But that they came to bestow
spiritual gifts which, without them, could not have been imparted, is imported into,
not deduced from, the simple narrative of Luke.
PULPIT, "There arose on that day for at that time there was, A.V.; in for at, A.V.
Saul was consenting to his death. St. Paul's repeated reference to this sad episode in
his life is very touching (see Acts 22:2,0; 1 Corinthians 15:9; 1 Timothy 1:13). (For
the WORD συνευδοκεῖν, to consent, see Acts 22:20; Luke 11:48; Romans 1:32; 1
Corinthians 7:12.) Arose on that day. The phrase is manifestly the Hebrew one, ַ‫ה‬‫אוּה‬
ַ‫בּ‬‫,מוֹיּ‬ so constantly used in Isaiah and the other prophets, not of a SI GLE day, but
of a longer or shorter time, and means, as the A.V. has it, "at that time," not the
particular Tuesday or Wednesday on which Stephen was killed. If St. Luke had
meant to state that the persecution set in the very day on which Stephen was stoned,
he would have expressed it much more pointedly, and used a different word from
‫́םופן‬‫ו‬‫̓ד‬‫ו‬. It is otherwise with Acts 2:41 and Luke 17:31, where the context defines the
meaning, and confines it to a specified day; just as the equivalent Hebrew phrase is
as commonly applied to a literal day as to a time or period. The context shows which
is the sense in which it is used. Here the thing spoken of, the persecution, did not
take place on a day. It lasted many days. Therefore ‫́סב‬‫ו‬‫̔ל‬‫ח‬ means here "time." They
were all scattered. Just as the wind blows the seed to a distance to fructify in
different places. Except the apostles. They, like faithful watchmen, remained at their
post, to confirm the souls of those disciples who for one reason or another were
unable to flee (for of course the word all must not be pressed strictly), and to exhort
them to CO TI UE in the faith, as St. Paul did later at Lystra, Iconium, and
Antioch (Acts 14:22), and to keep up the nucleus of the Church in the metropolis of
Christendom.
PULPIT, "Acts 8:1-8
The fruits of persecution.
Persecution is Satan's instrument for CHECKI G and, if possible, destroying the

truth of God. Our Savior reminds us, in the sermon on the mount, how the
prophets, who spake to the people in the ame of God, had been persecuted of old;
and foretold how the prophets and wise men and scribes whom he would send
should, in like manner, be scourged and persecuted, killed and crucified. And the
history of the Church, from the first imprisonment of the apostles related in Acts
4:1-37. down to the present day, shows the truth of the prediction. Some of the
springs and causes of persecution were noted in the homiletics on Acts 4:1-31. Our
attention shall now be turned to the fruits of persecution.
I. THE FIRST EFFECT OF THE PERSECUTIO THAT AROSE UPO THE
DEATH OF STEPHE WAS THE DISPERSIO OF THE DISCIPLES. In
accordance with the Lord's directions (Matthew 10:23), they fled, to save their lives,
from the city of Jerusalem to the neighboring cities of Judaea and Samaria. But
wherever they went they preached the WORD. Thus the immediate effect of the
persecution raised at Jerusalem for the extirpation of the faith of Jesus Christ was
that that faith was carried into cities and districts and countries where it might
never have been heard of but for the persecutions. Samaria heard the gospel; it was
DEPOSITED in the heart of the eunuch for dissemination in Ethiopia. From Azotus
to Caesarea it was proclaimed aloud. It passed on to Phoenicia and Cyprus and
Antioch. It took deep root in Antioch, and was passed on from thence through all
Asia and on into Europe.
II. A OTHER EFFECT OF THE PERSECUTIO WAS THE BREAKI G
DOW OF OPPOSI G BARRIERS OF HABIT, OPI IO , A D PREJUDICE. If
the rulers and priests, the scribes and Pharisees, had accepted the gospel, it might
have been a very hard matter to separate it from circumcision and from the temple
and from exclusive Judaism. It might have been very long before Jewish Christians
would have turned in a spirit of love and brotherhood to their Samaritan neighbors,
or sent a messenger to Ethiopia, or planted the first community who called
themselves Christians in the great heathen city of Antioch. Endless scruples,
hesitations, difficulties, would have barred the way. But persecution quickened with
a marvelous impulse the logic of reason and benevolence, ay, and of faith too. By the
force of circumstances, the persecuted disciples, expelled from country and home by
their own flesh and blood, found themselves drawn into the closest bonds with those
who were not Jews, and as it were compelled to tell them of the love of Jesus, and
then to feel that that love made them both one. It would have taken generations,
perhaps, to do what persecution did in a day. Persecution cut the Gordian knot
which the fingers of human reason would, perhaps, never have untied; and the great
persecutor himself might never have become the great chief and prince that he was
in the Church of the Gentiles, had it not been fur the part that he had played in
persecuting it in times past.
III. OR MUST WE OVERLOOK THE I FLUE CE OF PERSECUTIO S
WHE E DURED I THE TRUE MARTYR'S SPIRIT, I DEEPE I G A D
HEIGHTE I G THE FAITH, THE ZEAL, A D THE LOVE OF THE
DISCIPLE. The fire of the spiritual life in the soul of the saint burns brightest in the
darkest hours of earthly tribulation. The love of Christ, the hope of glory, the

preciousness of the gospel, are never, perhaps, felt in their living power so fully as
when the LIGHTS and fires of earthly joy and comforts are extinguished. Then, in
the presence, so to speak, of Christ's unveiled power and glory, charity and
boldness, zeal and self-sacrifice, are at their highest pitch, and the making known to
others the glad tidings of great joy seems to be the only thing worth living for. So
that the fruit of persecution is to be seen in a noble army of martyrs and confessors,
qualified to the very highest extent, and eager in the very highest degree, to preach
far and wide the unsearchable riches of Christ, and in extraordinary accessions to
the numbers of the persecuted Church.
IV. OTHER FRUITS OF PERSECUTIO , SUCH AS EXHIBITI G TO THE
EYES OF THE WORLD THE REALITY OF THAT RELIGIO WHICH THEY
DESPISE, HOLDI G UP TO ITS ADMIRATIO THE TRUE CHARACTERS OF
THOSE WHOM IT PERSECUTES, A D SHOWI G THE HOPELESS ESS OF
STAMPI G OUT THAT FIRE WHICH IS FED FROM THE LIVE COALS OF
GOD'S ALTAR I HEAVE , A D MA Y MORE, IT WOULD RE EASY TO
E UMERATE.
But these must suffice to teach us that the malice of Satan is no MATCH for the
power of God; but that the Church will eventually shine forth in all the brighter
beauty of holiness for the efforts that have been made for her disfigurement and
utter overthrow.
PULPIT, "Acts 8:1-4
Perversion and restoration.
These verses SUGGEST—
I. HOW FAR FROM RIGHT FEELI G WILL WRO G THOUGHTS LEAD
ME ASTRAY.
"Saul was consenting [rejoicing] unto his death" (Acts 8:1). "Saul made havoc of
[was ravaging] the Church," etc. (Acts 8:3). The death of the first martyr, which
was so utterly shameful to those who compassed it, and so deeply regrettable from a
human estimate, was, in the eyes of Saul, a thing in which to triumph with savage
pleasure. And this dreadful satisfaction of his grew out of strong religious
convictions—he hated Stephen so passionately because he clung to "the Law" so
tenaciously. or was this his only manifestation of distorted feeling. He was not
satisfied with the stoning of Stephen; he joined heartily in the persecution which
broke up Christian families and caused their general dispersion (Acts 8:2), himself
being the most prominent agent of the council; neither ordinary humanity, nor the
gentleness which should come with a liberal education, nor the tenderness which is
due to womanly feeling, laying any restraint upon him. Every wiser, kinder, more
generous sentiment was lost in a violent, relentless, unpitying fanaticism. So does
error pervert the mind and distort the impulses and abuse the energies of the soul.

Before we lend ourselves to any cause, before we plunge into any strife, let us very
carefully and devoutly weigh the question whether we are really right, whether our
traditions are not leading us astray as men's inherited notions have led them astray
from the truth, whether, before we act with a burning zeal, we must not alter our
POSITIO or even change our side. ot till we have an intelligent assurance that
we are in the right should we act with enthusiasm and severity; else we may be
cherishing feelings and doing actions which are diabolical rather than Divine.
II. How MUCH HOLY EAR EST ESS MAY BE CALLED TO SUFFER, The
Christians of those early times were called:
1. To sympathize, with painful intensity, with a suffering man. If Saul was
consenting to his death, with what lacerated and bleeding hearts did his Christian
friends see the first martyr die! They" made great lamentation over him" (Acts 8:2).
2. To be distressed for a bereaved and weakened Church. The cause of Christ could
ill spare (so they would naturally feel) such an eloquent and earnest advocate as he
whose tongue had been so cruelly silenced; they must have lamented the loss which,
as men bent on a high and noble mission, they had sustained.
3. To endure serious trouble in their own circumstances. There was "great
persecution … and they were all scattered abroad" (Acts 8:1). This must have
involved a painful severance of family ties and a serious disturbance in BUSI ESS
life. Holy earnestness has similar sufferings to endure now.
III. HOW WO DROUSLY GOD OVERRULES EVERYTHI G. (Acts 8:4.) He:
1. How vain and foolish, as well as guilty, is it to fight against God!
2. How confidently may we who are co-workers with him await the issue! The angry
and threatening storm which is on the horizon will perhaps only speed the good
vessel of the truth and bring her sooner to the haven.—C.
PULPIT, "Acts 8:1-13
Incidents of persecution and dispersion.
I. A GLIMPSE OF SAUL THE PERSECUTOR. Though brief and passing, it is
very significant. He was a party to the execution of Stephen. Saul was full of
ignorance and BLI D passion. What he afterwards felt about his conduct is
expressed in 1 Timothy 1:3. This example should be a standing warning to us
against trust in mere feeling and enthusiasm. The fumes of anger and violence are
no signs of pure glowing zeal for the truth, but rather of the spirit that is set on fire
of hell. It is when we are most passionately excited in the cause of party conflict that
we have most need to be on our guard. Bitter was the remorse of Saul of Tarsus for
his complicity in the murder of Stephen. Hard was it for him to forgive himself. It

was the triumph of Divine love in his heart when he could trust that through it he
had been forgiven.
II. THE EFFECTS OF PERSECUTIO . It leads to dispersion, and dispersion to
the dissemination of the truth. Through the country of Judaea and Samaria the
scattered ones went, leaving in every village, in every house and heart, stirring
memories, new thoughts. And Saul, like a ravaging wolf, went on his blind course.
There is a general historical lesson here. Persecution is ever the symptom of
intellectual change. The old dragon is ever ready to devour the child of the woman.
The hellish Python would wrestle with the glorious Apollo. Herod would put to
death the child Jesus. Saul would slay the infant Church. But the victory of eternal
light and love is not doubtful. "They that were scattered in different directions went
in different directions evangelizing the world." How beautiful is this! The true
weapon with which to meet the SWORD is the Word. The policy of the persecutor is
of all the blindest. He stimulates the movement he aims to crush. In every manly
spirit opposition rouses new energy. We love more dearly the truth for which we
have to fight and suffer. It is in the laws of the spiritual world that persecutions
should ever bring a violent reaction in favor of the principles of the persecuted.
When Christianity is patronized it becomes corrupt. When through persecution it is
thrown back upon the ground of its first principles, it springs up with new life and
vigor.
III. THE WORK OF PHILIP. Well does it stand in contrast with that of Saul in this
glimpse of early Christianity. Saul, the wolf amidst the fold, breathing out threats
and slaughter; Philip, as the shepherd, feeding and healing and comforting. Again
and again we have the repetition of the true effects of Christianity. Good WORDS
are spoken, which command attention and do good to the soul; good deeds are done
to the suffering body, which are evident "signs" of a Divine presence and power to
heal, and therefore of a Divine and loving will. And joy ever breaks out—the
reflection of recovered freedom in the body and the soul—in every city. These, then,
are the constant evidences of Christianity. o other "apologetic" can be needed, for
this is invincible. Without it the subtlest arguments are unavailing.
IV. THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIAI ITY OVER SUPERSTITIO . Simon the
Magus is the type of those who work upon the imagination of the people, as
contrasted with the true Christian teacher who appeals to the conscience. What was
to decide between the genuine teacher and healer and the eloquent and skilful
quack? Close is the shadow to the LIGHT in all the course of the gospel. In the
individual conscience lies the test. To that God speaks; that in every age is the
mirror of the truth. And to the truth and to God the conscience of the impostor
bears witness. Simon believed in the WORD of Philip, and became by baptism a
professor of the new creed. It is said that he was astonished at the signs and peat
wonders which occurred. What we call" sensationalism" in the mind, the craving
for the wonder, is the spurious form of a true instinct. Men must see in order to be
convinced; when conviction is attained, they can afterwards walk by faith in regions
where sight is not possible. We never change the habit of our thought until we find
something inexplicable where before all was plain and simple—something wondrous

where we only recognized the commonplace. To ask for belief without giving
evidence is to insult the conscience, to refuse belief when the evidence is clear is to
deny to one's self the possibility of guidance when the evidence is not altogether
clear. Let men take the evidence which is clear to them, and act upon it; that is
SAFE for the time, and the rest will become clearer by-and-by. But the case of
Simon shows how void is any kind of mere conviction unless it be followed by the
corresponding act of will. Simon was convinced, but not converted. The light
penetrated his intelligence, but failed to move his heart.—J.
BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR, "And Saul was consenting to his death.
Three great figures in the Church
I. The persecuting Saul. In this part of the narrative the name of Saul occurs three times (Act_
7:58; Act_8:1; Act_8:3). How quick the development and how sure! First of all, he watched the
clothes of the men who stoned Stephen; then he expressed in every feature of his face
satisfaction at the martyr’s death; and then he took up the matter earnestly himself with both
hands. He struck the Church as it had never been struck before. The taste for blood is an acquired
taste, but “it grows by what it feeds on.” This man Saul began as he ended. There was nothing
ambiguous about him. A tremendous foe, a glorious friend! We see from this part of the
narrative—
1. The power of the Christian religion to excite the worst passions of men. It is a “savour of
life unto life, or of death unto death.” Christianity either kills or saves. We have become so
familiar with it externally as to cast a doubt upon this. It has become possible for nominal
Christian believers to care nothing about their faith. The age has been seized with what is
known as a horror of dogmatism. But Christianity has no reason for its existence if it be not
positive. Poetry may hold parley with prose fiction, because they belong to the same
category. But arithmetic does not say, “If you will allow me, I may venture to suggest that the
multiplication of such and such numbers may possibly result in such and such a total.” Now,
in proportion as any religion is true, can it not stoop to the holding of conversation with
anybody. It is not a suggestion—it is a revelation. It is not a puzzle, to which a hundred
answers may be given by wits keen at guessing; it is an oracle. Can you wonder, then, that a
religion which claimed to be the very voice and glory of God, should have encountered
unpitying and most malignant hostility? If it could have come crouchingly, or apologetically,
and have said, “I think, I suggest, I hope,” it might have been heard at the world’s
convenience. But being with angels’ songs true, it raised the world into antagonism and
deadly conflict. So will every true life. We have no enemies because we have no gospel. We
pass along pretty easily, because we annoy no man’s prejudices or naughtinesses. We dash
no man’s gods to the ground; we stamp on no man’s idolatries; and so we have no martyrs. In
olden times Christianity attacked the most formidable citadels of thought, prejudice, and
error, and brought upon itself the fist of angry retaliation.
2. That the success of the enemy was turned into his deadliest failure. “They that were
scattered” (Act_8:4), did not go everywhere with shame burning on their cheek, nor whining
and moaning that they were doomed to a useless life. They were made evangelists by
suffering. That is the true way of treating every kind of assault. When the pulpit is assailed as
being behind the age, let the pulpit preach better than ever and more than ever, and let that be
its triumphant reply. When Christianity is assailed, publish it the more. Evangelisation is the
best reply to every form of assault.
3. Christianity followed by its proper result. “And there was great joy in that city.” Joy was a

word that was early associated with Christianity. Said the angel, “I bring you good tidings of
great joy.” Where now is that singing, holy joy? We have lost the music, we have retained
the tears. The revelling is now in the other house.
II. The dead Stephen. Already there are two graves in the early Church. In the one lie Ananias
and Sapphira, in the grave opened to-day there lies Stephen. In one or other of these graves we
must be buried! Over the first there was no lamentation. Sad grave! The liars’ retreat, the
hypocrites’ nameless hiding-place! Will you be buried there? Then there is the good man’s grave,
which is not a grave at all, it is so full of peace and promise, will you be buried there? The road
to it is rough, but the rest is deep and sweet, and the waking immortality! Will you so live that
you will be much missed for good-doing?
III. The evangelistic Philip (Act_8:5). Stephen dead, Philip taking his place—that is the military
rule! The next man, Forward! “Who will be baptized for the dead?” When Stephen was killed
the remainder of the seven did not take fright and run away in cowardly terror, but Philip, the
next man, took up the vacant place, and preached Christ in Samaria. Who will take up the places
of the great men and the good men? Is the Church to be a broken line, or a solid and invincible
square? These three great figures are still in the Church. Our Stephens are not dead. We see them
no more in the flesh, but they are mightier than ever since they have ascended to heaven, having
left behind them the inspiration of a noble example. John Bunyan is more alive to-day than he
was when he wrote the “Pilgrim’s Progress.” John Wesley is more alive to-day than he was when
he began to preach the Word in England. Your child is not dead when its memory leads you to do
some kindness to some other child. Our fathers, heroic and noble, are not dead, when we are able
at their graves to relight torches and go on with our sacred work. We cannot peruse a narrative of
this kind without feeling that we are in a great succession, and that we ought to be in proportion
great successors. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Stephen and Saul
One of the greatest demands that the Church makes on us is when she summons us to pass
abruptly from Christmas Day to the feast of St. Stephen; from the peaceful joy of the holy family
and angel songs to the violence of the mob; from the King of angels to the first who bore witness
to his faith and patience. At a scene like that of St. Stephen’s martyrdom it is a relief to place
ourselves in the position of a bystander. There stands Saul, the very antithesis of Stephen, young
and enthusiastic as he, but passionately attached to Pharisaism as Stephen was to the gospel. As
we know Paul in his Epistles, his great characteristic gift was sympathy. How then could he have
consented to this tragedy?
I. The reasons for his consent.
1. He was following the stream of opinion. All Jerusalem agreed that Stephen deserved his
fate; and Paul had as yet no reason for resisting the will of the majority.
2. He was following the instincts of religious loyalty as he understood them. To him Stephen
was a rebel against authority.
3. He was following the instincts of piety. The charge against him was that he calumniated
God, Moses,the temple, and the law. The first was clearly an inference from the rest, and
about the rest there was this much truth, that he no doubt preached to the Christians against
attending temple worship. This he thought was at variance with the world-wide mission of
Christ. Accordingly he proved before the Sanhedrin that there was nothing to show that
God’s presence was confined to the Promised Land, much less to a particular spot in it. All
this to Paul was a blasphemous novelty.

II. His reflections on the tragedy. When all was over the memories of what had passed came
back, and as he saw Stephen’s death in retrospect he felt the force of three forms of power—
suffering, sanctity, truth.
1. Suffering is power—
(1) When it is voluntary. This stirs in us a fellow feeling even when undergone for an
object we condemn.
(2) This power is great in proportion to the sacrifice it involves. The deaths of the very
old or young touch us less than that of a young man just reaching and conscious of the
maturity of his faculties. He gives the best human nature has to give. So it was with
,Stephen, and Saul as he remembered this young manly life crushed out felt the power of
suffering.
2. Sanctity is power, greatest when associated with suffering. Stephen was not merely good,
keeping clear of what is evil; he was holy. He had a spirit that reflects a higher world—“full
of faith and of the Holy Ghost.” This sanctity illuminated his bodily frame, and was made
perfectly plain in his dying prayer. This was not lost on Saul.
3. Truth is power. When Saul heard of Stephen’s declaration his whole soul rose against it;
yet the ideas of Stephen’s speech haunted the young Pharisee, and became the great
characteristic positions of his after ministry.
4. These three characteristics of the martyr find their perfect ,embodiment only in Christ.
III. Closing considerations.
1. The view a Christian should take of an opponent of Christian truth—that of a possible
convert and ally.
2. What persecutors can and cannot do. They can put clown a given belief by extermination
as Christianity was crushed out in Northern Africa and Protestantism in Spain. But if
persecution does not exterminate it only fans the flame, as did the persecuting emperors and
Queen Mary. The persecution begun by the death of Stephen only contributed to the spread
of the gospel.
3. The criminal folly of persecution by Christians since it is an attempt to achieve by outward
and mechanical violence results which to be worth anything before God must be the product
of His converting grace.
4. The signal service which martyrs have rendered to the world—enriching his country,
church, age, with new and invigorating ideas of truth, and therefore while other sufferers die
and are forgotten, the martyr rightly has his place in the calendar of the Church and in the
hearts of her faithful children. (Canon Liddon.)
After Stephen, Paul
It is said of John Huss that, on a countryman throwing a faggot at his head, he exclaimed, “Oh,
holy simplicity! God send thee better light! You roast the goose now, but a swan shall come after
me, and he shall escape your fire.” Oddly enough, “Huss” is the Bohemian for “goose,” while the
meaning of “Luther” is “a swan.”
Strong contrasts of moral character
(texts, and Act_9:5; Act_9:11):—Here is moral character—

I. Quiescently consenting to the wrong (verse 1). From Stephen’s death Saul would no doubt
catch the inspiration of his future life. His Jewish education has fitted him for this crisis. He was
quite prepared to guard the clothes of those who would slay a Christian. Here, then, he stands at
his post calmly and unmoved, the subject of two extreme influences, the surging, passionate mob,
and the earnest prayer of the martyr. This event was educational to Saul. The manly conduct,
earnest speech, and saintly death of Stephen, would appeal to his diviner sentiments; while the
tumult and murderous intentions of the crowd would influence his baser side. To which will he
yield? All the force of his past life inclines to the latter. But cannot that pale face and devout
appeal to heaven overcome his prejudice? No! he leaves the scene with a cold determination to
make it typical of his future. But, as a thought may lurk in the mind, concealed and unrecognised,
so the impulses awakened in the heart of Saul by this event only awaited the further touch of the
Divine Spirit to make them the master powers of his soul. Who can tell the formative power
which one event may exercise upon our lives? But let us not think that we can stand to look at sin
without sharing its guilt.
II. In determined hostility to the right (verse 3). This hostility was—
1. Daring. “The Church,” He might strive to pluck the stars from the Divine grasp, but to
touch the object of God’s peculiar care was beyond description bold. We wonder that men
dare to attack the Church, or to plot injury against it. Such conduct is a proof of their
hardihood, or they would be awed by her holy presence and Divine Protector.
2. Extensive. “Made havoc.” It often appears strange that God should permit men to pursue,
sometimes unchecked, a course of determined harm to His Church. This fact almost staggers
reason, and only faith can repose in its rectitude and wisdom. But men need not take the
sword; the tale of the tattler, the formality of the hypocrite is sufficient.
3. Impudent. “Entering into every house.” What right had Saul in another man’s house, and
especially for such a purpose? A man’s house is sacred, consecrated to family union and
love. No stranger unbidden, no foe should enter. But religious bigotry thinks not of social
usage, much less of Christian courtesy.
4. Inhuman. “Haling men and women.” When bigotry once gets possession of a man, it yields
to no argument, not even to that of tender womanhood. See what quiescent sin comes to.
Men that commence by keeping the clothes of persecutors, soon become persecutors
themselves. The path of sin is ever downward.
III. Aroused and inquiring (Act_9:5). The transitions of moral character are often—
1. Sudden. Saul little expected in a few months to be praying to the very Being whose
followers he was murdering; he was on an errand of rage, and he never thought that it would
turn out a mission of mercy to himself
2. Overwhelming. Saul is almost stunned. His moral being is altogether confused. The
change now working within his soul is too great to be made calmly. The only relief of his
half-unconscious soul is the cry, “What wilt Thou have me to do?”
3. Astonishing to others. What would the Jewish council say to the change that had come
over Saul? The disciples of Christ received him half with suspicion. What an impression
would his conversion make upon the general public!
4. Productive of great results to mankind. How many have received truth and benefit through
the toils of the Apostle Paul during his life; and how many minds has he instructed, how
many souls has he aided in life’s struggles by his writings! Thus we see that the sudden
changes that come over moral character are often productive of great results to the individual
himself, and to mankind at large.

IV. In communion with God (Act_9:11).
1. Prayer is an index to character. The praying man is not Saul the persecutor, but Saul the
penitent sinner. Persecutors do not pray to Jesus Christ. Whenever you see a man in earnest
prayer to Christ, you may have some idea of his moral character.
2. Prayer is a reason for help. Ananias was to go to Saul and instruct him, “for behold he
prayeth.” No matter what our circumstances, if we will but pray, God will send His aid and
comfort. It is not the rule of heaven to help a prayerless soul. Do you know of a penitent soul,
it is your duty to take to it a message of peace and hope.
3. A life commenced by prayer is likely to be useful. Has not Paul been useful to the Church
and the world? And why? Was it not because God could say of him, “Behold, he prayeth.”
4. God notices the first prayer of contrition and calls attention to it. “Behold.” It is an
interesting sight even to heaven.
5. God sends succour to contrite souls. Has He not frequently sent an Ananias to you, fellow
sinner? What have been the moral contrasts of your life? Is there a Damascus journey
amongst them? Conclusion: Learn not to entirely estimate the character of men from a past
remembrance of them. Suppose an associate of Saul’s who had known him in the earlier part
of his life, but who had not seen him for some time, had spoken of him as a persecutor and
Jewish bigot, how mistaken would have been his opinion, and how unjust to the converted
apostle! We should not be hasty to pass an opinion on our friends from a past remembrance
of them. They may have since undergone a moral change for the better. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
The wonderful ways of the Lord in the propagation of His kingdom
1. The martyr Stephen waters the Church with his blood.
2. The raging Saul serves, even as a persecutor, unconsciously to the extension of the
kingdom of Christ.
3. The fugitive Christians are the first messengers of the gospel to a distance. (K. Gerok.)
And at that town there was a great persecution.—
The persecution after Stephen
Here we have—
I. A man who became the greatest apostle of Christianity acting as its most milignant foe.
1. Saul was an accomplice in the martyrdom of Stephen, and rejoiced in it (Act_7:58; Act_
22:20).
2. He was an infuriated leader in the general persecution. The word “made havoc” is
commonly applied to wild beasts (Act_21:10; Gal_1:6). Now the fact that this man became
the greatest apostle Demonstrates—
(1) The greatness of his conversion.
(2) The power of the gospel.
(3) The infinitude of Divine mercy.

II. Men rising above the most powerfully hostile circumstances.
1. The apostles stood calmly in the scene where their lives were in the most imminent
danger, and when most of their fellow disciples had fled.
2. Devout men discharged a duty most exciting to the rage of their enemies. Away, then, with
the dogma that man is the creature of circumstances. He is only so as he loses his manhood.
III. The most intolerant persecution furthering the cause of truth Persecution—
1. Throws the persecuted more and more on their God.
2. It enables them to furnish in their lives a nobler manifestation of Christianity to the world;
more earnest, united, devout.
3. It awakens general sympathy among men on their behalf, and thus disposes them to attend
to their teachings. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The effect of persecution
The sacred fire, which might have burnt low on the hearth of the upper chamber of Jerusalem,
was kindled into fresh heat and splendour when its brands were scattered over all Judaea and
Samaria, and circumcised Gentiles were admitted by baptism into the fold of Christ. (Archdeacon
Farrar.)
They were all scattered abroad.—
The dispersion
Jerusalem was naturally the chief scene of the persecution, and the neighbouring towns, Hebron,
and Gaza, and Lydda, and Joppa, became places of refuge. It was probably to this influx of
believers in Christ that we may trace the existence of Christian communities in the two latter
cities. The choice of Samaria was, perhaps, suggested by the hatred of that people to the Jews.
Those who were fleeing from a persecution set on foot by the priests and rulers of Jerusalem
were almost ipso facto sure of a welcome in Neapolis and other cities. But the choice of this as a
place of refuge indicated that the barriers of the old antipathy were already in part broken down.
What seemed the pressure of circumstances was leading directly to the fulfilment of our Lord’s
commands, that the disciples should be witnesses in Samaria as well as in Judaea (Act_1:8).
(Dean Plumptre.)
The extension of the Church
I. God intended that His Church should be scattered all over the world.
1. There was a tendency in our humanity at first to remain together; hence the first grey
fathers endeavoured to build a central tower around which the race should rally. But God
confounded their language, and scattered them that they might people the world. Jerusalem
was first the central point of Christianity, and the tendency doubtless was to keep the centre
strong. I have often heard the argument, “Do not have too many out-stations, keep up a
strong central force.” But God’s plan was that the holy force should be distributed; the holy
seed must be sown—to do this the Lord used the rough hand of persecution. One went this
way, and one the other; and the faithful were scattered.

2. Every Church endowed with the Spirit will be spread abroad. God never means the Church
to be shut up in a shell or, like ointment, enclosed in a box. The precious perfume of the
gospel must be poured forth to sweeten the air. Now that persecution has ceased godly men
are scattered through the necessity of earning a livelihood. Sometimes we regret that young
men should have to go to a distance, that families should have to migrate. But does not the
Lord by this means sow the good seed widely? It is very pleasant to be comfortably settled
under an edifying ministry, but the Lord has need of some of His servants in places where
there is no light; and they ought of themselves to scatter voluntarily. Every Christian should
say, “Where can I do most good?” And if we will not go afield willingly, God may use
providential necessity as the forcible means of our dispersion.
II. God’s design is not the scattering in itself, but scattering of a purpose—to preach the Word.
The word “proclaim” is not quite so subject to the modern sense which has spoiled the word
“preach.” The latter has come to be a sort of official term for delivering a set discourse; whereas
gospel preaching is telling the gospel out in any way. Note—
1. The universality of the work of evangelising. All the scattered went everywhere; there
does not seem to have been any exception. You thought it would read “the apostles,” but they
were just the people who did not go at all. Generals may have to stand still in the centre of
the battle to direct the forces; but this was soldiers’ battles, and of this sort all the battles of
the Cross ought to be.
2. There were no personal distinctions. It is not said that ministers preached the Word,
scarcely anything has been more injurious to the kingdom of Christ than the distinction
between clergy and laity. No such distinction appears in the Bible. “Ye are God’s Kle?ros”:
all God’s saints are God’s inheritance. “Ye are a royal priesthood.” Though God gives to His
Church apostles, teachers, pastors, etc., yet not by way of setting up a professional caste who
are to do all the work while others sit still. Every converted man is to teach what he knows.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
The scattered Church; or good out of evil
History is God teaching by example. The worst things in history are not necessarily without some
elements which may be Divinely used for good. The reins never fall out of the guiding hand. The
heathen rage. But the Lord sits as King in Zion. The contrasted lights and shadows of this
narrative deserve, and will repay, closest attention.
I. Human sympathy and kindness manifest themselves amid exultant cruelty. The phrase in
relation to Saul means to approve, take pleasure and delight in what others have done. He was
“exceedingly mad” against the believers in Jesus. Amid such manifestations of cruel depravity
there were devout men who carried the mangled remains of the martyred deacon to a reverent
burial. The phrase refers to the better elements of Jewish society—the moderate men who hated
persecution. Violence always overreaches itself. Sympathy is awakened when wrong is boasting
its victories. Stephen dies; but those who fear God, although they have not adopted his faith, are
emboldened to breast the currents of unjust opinion and to go in the face of the mob who applaud
an infamous deed. It was the same in the case of Jesus, who was buried by Joseph and
Nicodemus in Joseph’s garden. History is full of such contrasts. Humanity has its recoil from
injustice and violence. Successful villainy is always ruinous. Passions, ecclesiastical or political,
satiated with blood, involve blunder as well as crime. Religious animosities are met by this
immense force in human nature, and there is no withstanding the influence of that pity which
unjust violence evokes. The tears shed over a martyred corpse are more potent than the mightiest
engines of persecution.

II. Adversity and persecution are overruled by the ascended Lord for the extension of the
Church. The signal, by Stephen’s death, was given for a general outbreak to exterminate the
Christians. When wild beasts taste blood their fury becomes madness. “As for Saul.” The word
used means violent outrage and physical maltreatment. He made a ruin of the Church by brutal
and bloody assaults on the persons of its members. Oriental religious fanaticism has always been
tigerish in its cruelty. Beneath the Crescent have been wrought deeds of blood which have cursed
and doomed Mahomedan fanaticism. The Lord reigneth. Christians are fugitives; but they carry
Christianity wherever they go. New centres of Christian life and organisation spring up
everywhere. When Rome drove out our own reformers they found leisure on the Continent to
perfect translations of Holy Scripture in the mother tongue. God’s hand was in it when the power
of Rome was established in our land. Caesar “meant not so, neither did his heart think so.”
Beneath his eagles was borne the cross. Britain was conquered by the Romans that it might be
conquered by Christ.
III. A principle and an encouragement respecting Church extension. Fugitive believers are the
first messengers of the gospel to distant regions. Philip was not an apostle, nor a pastor. His was
a secular Office. But when those duties ceased through the scattering, he was still ready for
service. Changing his place, he did not change his disposition. He found, new work for himself.
While within the Church, for teaching and ruling, men receive a special call and ordination of the
Lord, there is a service of Christ for which official appointment is not indispensable. Men who
are Christians can and ought to make Christ known to those who are not. Order is seemly; but it
is not to displace energy and zeal. (W. H. Davison.)
Except the apostles.—
The apostles stayed bravely in Jerusalem
They might be east into prison, or even put to death, but they would not go. They must be there
to help and comfort the poor people in their danger. I have often read of shipwrecks, and have
generally found that when the terrible waves were dashing over the ship, and the sailors were
letting down the boats that the passengers might escape, the captain and the officers remained on
deck to the very last. The apostles were like those brave officers. Will the ship sink? No; but if it
should they will sink with her. But many others left the city. It was as right for them to go as for
the apostles to stay. Several of them may have had little children dependent on them, for whose
sake they must try to live and work. Then while they lived they could speak for Christ, and so do
good to others. (S. G. Green, D. D.)
EBC, "THE FIRST CHRISTIA MARTYRDOM.
THE apology of Stephen struck the keynote of Christian freedom, traced out the fair proportions
of the Catholic Church, while the actual martyrdom of Stephen taught men that Christianity was
not only the force which was to triumph, but the power in which they were to suffer, and bear,
and die. Stephen’s career was a type of all martyr lives, and embraces every possible
development through which Christ’s Church and His servants had afterwards to pass, - obscurity,
fame, activity, death, fixing high the standard for all ages.
I. We have in this passage, telling the story of that martyrdom, a vast number of topics, which
have formed the subject-matter of Christian thought since apostolic times. We have already
remarked that the earliest quotation from the Acts of the Apostles connects itself with this scene
of Stephen’s martyrdom. Let us see how this came about. One hundred and forty years later than
Stephen’s death, towards the close of the second century, the Churches of Vienne and Lyons

were sending an account of the terrible sufferings through which they had passed during a similar
sudden outburst of the Celtic pagans of that district against the Christians. The aged Pothinus, a
man whose life and ministry touched upon the apostolic age, was put to death, suffering violence
very like that to which St. Stephen was subjected, for we are told expressly by the historian
Eusebius that the mob in its violence flung missiles at him. "Those at a distance, whatsoever they
had at hand, every one hurled at him, thinking it would be a great sin if they fell short in wanton
abuse against him." The Church of Lyons, according to the loving usage of those early times,
sent an account for all their trouble to the brethren in Asia and Phrygia, that they might read it at
the celebration of the Eucharist for their own comfort and edification. They entered into great
details, showing how wonderfully the power of God’s grace was manifested, even in the weakest
persons, sustaining their courage and enabling them to witness. The letter then goes on to note
the marvellous humility of the sufferers. They would not allow any one to call them martyrs.
That name was reserved to Jesus Christ, "the true and faithful Martyr," and to those who had
been made perfect through death. Then, too, their charity was wonderful, and the Epistle,
referring to this very incident, tells how they prayed "like Stephen, that perfect martyr, Lord,
impute not this sin to them." The memory of St. Stephen served to nerve the earliest Gallic
martyrs, and it has ever since been bound up with the dearest feelings of Christians. The
arrangements of the Calendar, with which we are all familiar, are merely an expression of the
same feeling as that recorded in the second-century document we have just now quoted.
Christmas Day and St. Stephen’s Day are closely united, -the commemoration of Christ’s birth is
joined with that of the martyrdom of St. Stephen, because of a certain spiritual instinct.
Christmas Day records the fact of the Incarnation, and then we have according to the order of the
Calendar three holy days; St. Stephen’s, St. John’s, and the Holy Innocents’ Day, which follow
one another in immediate succession. Many persons will remember the explanation of an old
commentator on the Calendar and Liturgy, of which Keble makes a very effective use in his
hymns in the "Christian Year" set apart for those days. There are three classes of martyrs: one in
will and deed like St. Stephen, -this is the highest class, therefore he has place next to Christ;
another in will, but not in deed, like St. John the Divine, who was ready to suffer death, but did
not, -this is the second rank, therefore his place comes next to St. Stephen; and lastly come the
Holy Innocents, the babes of Bethlehem, martyrs in deed but not in will, and therefore in the
lowest position. The Western Church, and especially the Church of Northern Europe, has always
loved the Christmas season, with its cheerful fires, its social joys, its family memories; and
hence, as it was in the Church of the second century, so with ourselves, none has a higher or
dearer place in memory, doubtless largely owing to this conjunction, than the great proto-martyr.
Men have delighted, therefore, to trace spiritual analogies and relationships between Stephen and
Christ; fanciful perhaps some of them are, but still they are devout fancies, edifying fancies,
fancies which strengthen and deepen the Divine life in the soul. Thus they have noted that
Christmas Day and St. Stephen’s Day are both natal days. In the language of the ancient Church,
with its strong realising faith, men spoke of a saint’s death or martyrdom as his dies natalis. This
is, indeed, one of the many traces of primitive usage which the Church of Rome has preserved,
like a fly fixed in amber, petrified in the midst of her liturgical uses. She has a Martyrology
which the ordinary laity scarcely ever see or use, but which is in daily use among the clergy and
the various ecclesiastical communities connected with that Church. It is in the Latin tongue, and
is called the "Martyrologium Romanum," giving the names of the various saints whose memories
are celebrated upon each day throughout the year, and every such day is duly styled the natal or
birthday of the saint to whom it is appropriated. The Church of Rome retains this beautiful
custom of the primitive Church, which viewed the death-day of a saint as his birthday into the
true life, and rejoiced in it accordingly. That life was not, in the conception of the primitive
believers, a life of ghosts and shadows. It was the life of realities, because it was the life of
eternity, and therefore the early Christians lived for it, they longed for it, and counted their
entrance upon it their true natal or birthday. The Church brought the two birthdays of Christ and

Stephen into closest union, and men saw a beautiful reason for that union, teaching that Christ
was born into this lower world in order that Stephen might be born into the heavenly world. The
whole of that dreadful scene enacted at Jerusalem was transformed by the power of that beautiful
conception. Stephen’s death was no longer a brutal murder; faith no longer saw the rage, the
violence, the crushed body, the mangled and outraged humanity. The birthday of Jesus Christ,
the Incarnation of the Master, transfigured the death-scene of the servant, for the shame and
sufferings were changed into peace and glory; the execrations and rage of the mob became
angelic songs, and the missiles used by them were fashioned into messengers of the Most High,
ushering the faithful martyr through a new birth into his eternal rest. Well would it be for the
Church at large if she could rise to this early conception more frequently than she commonly
does. Men did not then trouble themselves about questions of assurance, or their Christian
consciousness. These topics and ideas are begotten on a lower level, and find sustenance in a
different region. Men like Stephen and the martyrs of Vienne and Lyons lived in the other world;
it was the world of all their interests, of all their passionate desires, of all their sense of realities.
They lived the supernatural life, and they did not trouble themselves with any questions about
that life, any more than a man in sound physical health and spirits cares to discuss topics dealing
with the constitution of the life which he enjoys, or to debate such unprofitable questions as,
How do I know that I exist at all? Christians then knew and felt they lived in God, and that was
enough for them. We have wandered far enough afield, however; let us retrace our steps, and
seek to discover more in detail the instruction for the life of future ages given us in this first
martyr scene.
II. We have brought before us the cause of the sudden outburst against Stephen. For it was an
outburst, a popular commotion, not a legal execution. We have already explained the
circumstances which led the Sanhedrin to permit the mob to take their own course, and even to
assist them in doing so. Pilate had departed; the imperial throne too was vacant in the spring or
early summer of the year 37; there was an interregnum when the bonds of authority were relaxed,
during which the Jews took leave to do as they pleased, trusting that when the bonds were again
drawn tight the misdeeds of the past and the irregularities committed would be forgotten and
forgiven. Hence the riot in which Stephen lost his life. But what roused the listeners-Sanhedrists,
elders, priests, and people alike - to madness? They heard him patiently enough, just as they
afterwards heard his successor Paul, till he spoke of the wider spiritual hope. Paul, as his speech
is reported in the twenty-second chapter, was listened to till he spoke of being sent to the
Gentiles. Stephen was listened to till he spoke of the free, universal, spiritual character of the
Divine worship, tied to no place, bounded by no locality. Then the Sanhedrin waxed impatient,
and Stephen, recognising with all an orator’s instinct and tact that his opportunity was over,
changes his note-charging home upon his hearers the same spirit of criminal resistance to the
leadings of the Most High as their fathers had always shown. The older Jews had ever resisted
the Holy Ghost as He displayed His teaching and opened up His purposes under the Old
Dispensation; their descendants had now followed their example in withstanding the same Divine
Spirit manifested in that Holy One of whom they had lately been the betrayers and murderers. It
is scarcely any wonder that such language should have been the occasion of his death. How
exactly he follows the example of our Saviour! Stephen used strong language, and so did Jesus
Christ. It has even been urged of late years that our Lord deliberately roused the Jews to action,
and hastened his end by his violent language of denunciation against the ruling classes recorded
in the twenty-third chapter of St. Matthew. There is, however, a great lesson of eternal
significance to be derived from the example of St. Stephen as well as of our Lord. There are
times when strong language is useful and necessary. Christ’s ordinary ministry was gentle,
persuasive, mild. He did not strive nor cry, neither did any man hear His voice in the streets. But
a time came when, persuasion having failed of its purpose, the language of denunciation took its
place, and helped to work out in a way the Pharisees little expected the final triumph of truth.
Stephen was skilful and gentle in his speech; his words must at first have sounded strangely

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