Acts 8:1

8:1 And Saul agreed completely with killing ¹  him.

Saul Begins to Persecute the Church

Now on that day a great ²  persecution began ³  against the church in Jerusalem, ⁴  and all ⁵  except the apostles were forced to scatter throughout the regions ⁶  of Judea and Samaria.

Acts 8:14-15

8:14 Now when the apostles in Jerusalem ⁷  heard that Samaria had accepted the word ⁸  of God, they sent ⁹  Peter and John to them. 8:15 These two ¹⁰  went down and prayed for them so that they would receive the Holy Spirit.

Acts 8:40

8:40 Philip, however, found himself ¹¹  at Azotus, ¹²  and as he passed through the area, ¹³  he proclaimed the good news ¹⁴  to all the towns ¹⁵  until he came to Caesarea. ¹⁶ 

Acts 6:5

6:5 The ¹⁷  proposal pleased the entire group, so ¹⁸  they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, with ¹⁹  Philip, ²⁰  Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a Gentile convert to Judaism ²¹  from Antioch. ²² 

Acts 21:8

21:8 On the next day we left ²³  and came to Caesarea, ²⁴  and entered ²⁵  the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, ²⁶  and stayed with him.

¹ tn The term ἀναίρεσις (anairesi") can refer to murder (BDAG 64 s.v.; 2 Macc 5:13; Josephus, Ant. 5.2.12 [5.165]).

² tn Or “severe.”

³ tn Grk “Now there happened on that day a great persecution.” It is less awkward to say in English “Now on that day a great persecution began.”

⁴ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁵ sn All. Given that the Jerusalem church is still active after this and that the Hellenists are the focus of Acts 6-8, it is possible to argue that only the Hellenistic Christians were forced to scatter.

⁶ tn Or “countryside.”

⁷ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁸ tn Or “message.”

⁹ sn They sent. The Jerusalem church with the apostles was overseeing the expansion of the church, as the distribution of the Spirit indicates in vv. 15-17.

¹⁰ tn Grk “who.” The relative pronoun was replaced by the phrase “these two” and a new sentence was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style.

¹¹ tn Or “appeared.”

¹² sn Azotus was a city on the coast of southern Palestine, known as Ashdod in OT times.

¹³ tn The words “the area” are not in the Greek text but are implied.

¹⁴ tn Or “he preached the gospel.”

¹⁵ tn Or “cities.”

¹⁶ sn Caesarea was a city on the coast of Palestine south of Mount Carmel (not Caesarea Philippi). See the note on Caesarea in Acts 10:1.

¹⁷ tn Grk “And the.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

¹⁸ tn The translation “so” has been used to indicate the logical sequence in English.

¹⁹ tn “With” is smoother English style for an addition like this. Because of differences between Greek and English style, καί (kai), which occurs between each name in the list, has not been translated except preceding the last element.

²⁰ sn Philip. Note how many of the names in this list are Greek. This suggests that Hellenists were chosen to solve the problem they had been so sensitive about fixing (cf. 6:1).

²¹ tn Or “a proselyte.”

²² map For location see JP1-F2; JP2-F2; JP3-F2; JP4-F2.

²³ tn Grk “On the next day leaving, we came.” The participle ἐξελθόντες (exelqonte") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

²⁴ sn Caesarea was a city on the coast of Palestine south of Mount Carmel (not Caesarea Philippi). See the note on Caesarea in Acts 10:1. This was another 40 mi (65 km).

²⁵ tn Grk “and entering…we stayed.” The participle εἰσελθόντες (eiselqonte") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

²⁶ sn Philip was one of the seven deacons appointed in the Jerusalem church (Acts 6:1-7).