Father Augustus Bisping: Commentary on Acts of Apostles 8:4-24
Conversion of the Samaritans; Simon the Magician (vv. 4–24)
Acts 8:4: “Those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.” (Greek literally: came through, namely, passing through the lands into which they had fled.) Tertullian somewhere says: “The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians,” and the truth of this saying proved itself here as well. The martyrdom of Stephen did not intimidate the believers, but rather strengthened their courage, so that wherever they went, they proclaimed the word of salvation.
Acts 8:5: “But Philip went down to a city of Samaria and preached Christ to them.” From this general description of the missionary activity of the scattered believers, the narrative now focuses in vv. 5 ff. on the work of one individual. The Philip mentioned here is the deacon (cf. Acts 6:5), as is clear from Acts 8:14 and from Acts 21:8, not, as some have thought, the apostle of the same name from Bethsaida (cf. Matt 10:3; John 1:44). He is also called in Acts 21:8 εὐαγγελιστὴς ἐκ τῶν ἑπτὰ (one of the seven evangelists).
If we read with Sachse, following codices A, B, Sinaiticus, 31, 40: εἰς τὴν πόλιν (to the city), the chief city of Samaria (Sebaste) is meant; without the article, it remains unspecified which city is intended. It was perhaps Shechem, where Jesus had already found receptive ears (cf. John 4:39 ff.), and where around this time Trypho, the grandfather of Justin Martyr, lived.
Acts 8:6-8: “And the crowds gave heed with one accord to what was said by Philip, as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing. For unclean spirits came out of many who had them, crying out with a loud voice; and many paralytics and lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city.” Thus Philip paved his way into their hearts through miracles, which drew people’s attention to him and identified him as a divine messenger sent to them. The healing of many sick people, combined with the joyful tidings of the Savior and redemption, awakened universal joy in the city.
Acts 8:9-11: “But a certain man named Simon had previously been in the city (namely, already before Philip’s arrival), practicing magical arts and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming that he himself was someone great. And they all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, ‘This man is that power of God which is called great.’ They paid attention to him because he had long amazed them with his magical arts.”
According to Justin Martyr (Apology I, 26; cf. Clementine Homilies 1:15; 2:22), the Simon mentioned here was born in the village of Gitta (Κίττα) in Samaria, and is therefore not to be confused with the Simon of Cyprus mentioned by Flavius Josephus (Antiquities 20.7.2; see on 24:24). He wandered about the land as a goet or magician and sought to deceive people’s minds through his fraudulent arts. Demonic sorcery, which had long flourished in paganism, emerged with full force during the first spread of Christianity; through it the “prince of this world” sought to maintain his dominion. And because at that time the longing for the Messiah had universally awakened, such goetes and magicians found many followers. The Samaritans also expected a Messiah under the name Taheb or קאים (= restorer), regarding him as a universal renewer, not merely political, but above all religious and moral (cf. on John 4:25). Perhaps Simon presented himself as such a great reformer. What else he taught, our text only hints at. That the people called him the “great power of God” strongly recalls the Gnostic doctrine of emanation, according to which several Aeons or powers (δυνάμεις) flow from the dark primal ground of the Godhead to bridge the infinite chasm between God and the world. If it is true, as Jerome reports (on Matt. c. 24), that Simon said of himself: “I am the Word of God (ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ), I am the beautiful, I am the Paraclete (παράκλητος, μέγας), I am the Almighty, I am all of God (μητρόπολις πάντων τῶν δυνάμεων τοῦ θεοῦ),” then there can be no doubt that Simon taught a Logos doctrine similar to Philo’s and presented himself as the divine Logos. For in the Alexandrian, all these expressions occur regarding the λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ. This Philonic Logos doctrine was a mixture of Oriental-Kabbalistic and Platonic ideas, onto which Old Testament sayings, arbitrarily interpreted, were attached as a foil (cf. Introduction to the Gospel of John and to the Epistle to the Colossians).
Acts 8:12-13: “But when they believed Philip, who was preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Simon himself also believed (namely, Philip), and after being baptized, he attached himself to Philip. And seeing the signs and great wonders that were done, he was amazed.” When the people turned away from the previously admired magician and toward Philip, Simon also attached himself to him. He believed and was baptized. But his faith was merely external, arising from amazement at the power manifested in Philip’s words and deeds, before which his own demonic illusions grew powerless. And Simon’s faith, as the very next steps of the newly baptized (vv. 18–22) reveal, was impure and hypocritical, stemming from earthly, self-serving motives.
Acts 8:14-16: “Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John. These went down (from Jerusalem to the lower-lying Samaria) and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For he had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.” The full incorporation of the Samaritans into the community of salvation in Christ through the impartation of the Holy Spirit could only proceed from the apostles. For the Lord had directly given them the authority to continue His work, had communicated to them the fullness of His Spirit, and thereby equipped them with a spiritual generative power, so that they might become fathers of a new creation. Therefore, the college of apostles in Jerusalem sent two of their number to Samaria, so that they might impart the Holy Spirit to those baptized by Philip. Why precisely Peter and John were chosen for this mission can be easily explained. The advance of Christianity beyond the borders of Judea into Samaria was epoch-making for the young Church; Samaria formed the first stage of the Church’s mission, now transcending the barriers of Jewish nationality. A new branch was grafted onto the tree of the Church. Therefore, at the first reception of the Samaritans, just as at the later first reception of the Gentiles, Peter could not be absent, the officially appointed head of the Church; to him Christ had once for all entrusted the care and leadership of the whole (cf. John 21:15 ff.). Moreover, through the reception of Samaria into the community of salvation, a schism that had existed for centuries between Jews and Samaritans was reconciled. And who could more worthily seal this longed-for brotherhood than the disciple of love, John? The verb κατέβησαν (went down), corresponding to the Hebrew יָרַד (cf. Ezek 11:5), expresses the forceful and, as it were, irresistible manner in which the Holy Spirit descended upon believers in the early Church, endowing them with wondrous charismatic gifts (cf. Acts 10:44; 11:15). εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ means: upon confession of Jesus as Lord and Savior, and by His commission (cf. Acts 2:38).
Acts 8:17: “Then they laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.” Thus, after preceding prayer, the apostles imparted to the baptized, under the external sign of the laying on of hands—the usual symbol of the communication of higher powers (cf. on Heb 6:2)—the fullness of the Holy Spirit with His graces and gifts. They therefore administered a sacrament, namely one distinct from baptism, yet standing in close relation to it as its complement, which has been continued in the Church under the name of Confirmation (confirmatio, τελείωσις, βεβαίωσις, also σφραγίς, signaculum). Cf. Council of Trent, Session VII, On Confirmation, ch. 1–3.
Acts 8:18-19: “But when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands” —and he saw this in the wondrous spiritual gifts that immediately appeared after the laying on of hands, probably in the gift of tongues (cf. 1 Cor 14)—“he offered them money, saying, ‘Give me also this power, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.’” Simon made this request out of selfishness, in the interest of his magical trade. He saw in the apostles the bearers of a special, unknown magical power, whose possession he, as a goet, desired in order to acquire money and fame. With this demand to Peter he revealed his inclination toward that blasphemous abuse of Christianity which constitutes the essence of ancient pagan heresies: “To use Christianity as magical power and to despise it as moral authority, to seize its supernatural revelations and gifts for oneself, and not to submit to its grace, humility, and sanctification, but to profane everything in the service of pride, whether the pride of the juggler or the philosopher” (Thiersch, The Church in the Apostolic Age, p. 90). With full right, therefore, the earliest Church Fathers call this Simon the arch-heretic and patriarch of all heretics. Justin designates him as the “firstborn of Satan.” From him, the Church branded with the name simony any attempt to buy spiritual things, sacraments, spiritual offices, and dignities with monetary value (bona spiritualia pretio temporali).
Acts 8:20: “But Peter said to him, ‘May your silver perish with you,’” i.e., may damnation come upon your money and upon yourself—in vivid indignation the money is personified and represented as capable of perishing—“because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money.” The δωρεὰ τοῦ θεοῦ is precisely the ἐξουσία demanded by Simon, to impart the Holy Spirit by laying on of hands.
Acts 8:21: “You have neither part nor lot in this word” (Vulgate: in sermone isto), i.e., in the receiving and imparting of the Holy Spirit just spoken of, hence as much as “in this matter” (cf. Acts 15:6). Others understand it, against the context, as “in the Gospel.” The two words μερίς and κλῆρος are synonymous; the former is literal, the latter metaphorical (taken from the division of the promised land, cf. on Matt 5:4). “For your heart is not right before God.” Because Simon sought the ἐξουσία not for his and his neighbors’ eternal benefit, but for a base, selfish purpose and by a false means, his heart, i.e., his disposition, was not straight and sincere before the eyes of God.
Acts 8:22: To the preceding severe sentence of condemnation, Peter adds a serious call to repentance: “Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord, that perhaps this thought of your heart may be forgiven you; for I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” In acting thus, Peter followed the Church’s practice in all ages: she punishes without ceasing to seek the salvation of the punished. Toward sin she maintains the seriousness of eternal justice; toward the sinner she exercises mercy. With εἰ ἄρα ἀφεθήσεταί σοι Peter presents forgiveness as problematic due to the high degree of Simon’s guilt and subjective hardness. The word μετάνοια is a vox media; whether it is to be understood in a good or, as here, a bad sense, must be determined by the context.
Acts 8:23: Many translate: “For I see that you have fallen into the gall of bitterness and into the bond of iniquity.” But εἶναι ἐν τινί means “to be engaged in something” (Plato, Alc. I, p. 126 A), and there is no reason to depart from this meaning. The expression χολὴ πικρίας literally means “gall of bitterness.” Gall is equivalent to poison (cf. Job 20:14), perhaps because the seat of serpent venom was thought to be in the gall (Pliny, N.H. 11.37); hence the whole phrase is an image of the most dangerous moral corruption (cf. Heb 12:15), just as the following expression σύνδεσμος ἀδικίας is an image of the bondage, the slavery, into which unrighteousness, i.e., sin, leads. The sense of εἰς χολὴν πικρίας κ.τ.λ. is therefore: “For I recognize you as a man who will morally poison many and hold them in the fetters of sin and unbelief.” Peter recognized this partly from Simon’s brazen proposal (Acts 8:19), but chiefly through supernatural illumination, which granted him a glimpse into Simon’s soul and showed him what disastrous significance he would hold for the Church.
Acts 8:24: “But Simon answered and said, ‘Pray to the Lord for me, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.’” This request for intercession did not spring from believing humility, but from superstitious terror. He saw in Peter’s threatening word (v. 20) only a magical curse formula. Thus the apostles, from whom the magical ban had proceeded, should now also break it through their intercession. Of any personal, repentant cooperation, the obstinate man is silent (Meislich).
Around Simon’s later life, about which Holy Scripture henceforth says nothing, a whole cycle of legends has grown, and it is not easy to extract the historical kernel from them. This much is fairly certain: from now on he emerged as a decided opponent of Christianity, traveled to Rome under Emperor Claudius, and attained great prestige there through his juggling arts. So reports Justin Martyr (Apol. I, c. 26 sqq.). Later reports claim that toward the end of his life Simon came to Rome a second time and encountered Peter there. Having presumptuously claimed he would fly to heaven, and actually having been lifted into the air by evil spirits, he fell to the ground at Peter’s prayer and thus met a miserable end (cf. Windischmann, Vindiciae Petrinae, p. 75 seqq.). Another legend concerning his end says: he preached under a plane tree, had himself buried alive there with the claim that he would rise again, but naturally did not rise again (Hippolytus, Philosophumena, p. 176; cf. Göllinger, Christenthum und Kirche, p. 130).
CONTINUE
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