Acts 8:15-17

8:15 These two ¹  went down and prayed for them so that they would receive the Holy Spirit. 8:16 (For the Spirit ²  had not yet come upon ³  any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) ⁴  8:17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on the Samaritans, ⁵  and they received the Holy Spirit. ⁶ 

[8:15]  ¹ 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.

[8:16]  ² tn Grk “For he”; the referent (the Spirit) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:16]  ³ tn Or “fallen on.”

[8:16]  ⁴ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[8:17]  ⁵ tn Grk “on them”; the referent (the Samaritans) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:17]  ⁶ sn They received the Holy Spirit. It is likely this special distribution of the Spirit took place because a key ethnic boundary was being crossed. Here are some of “those far off” of Acts 2:38-40.