67 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John 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...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
In this chapter we have an account of the persecutions of the Christians, and the propagating of Christianity thereby. It was strange, but very true, that the disciples of Christ the more they were afflicted the more they multiplied. I. Here is the church suffering; upon the occasion of putting Stephen to death a very sharp storm arose, which...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles. Saul, having tasted blood in the murder of Stephen, became more and more furious in his persecution of the Church of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And devout men carried Stephen to his burial,.... These men were not Jewish proselytes, but members of the Christian church; who were eminent for their religion and piety, and who had courage enough, amidst this persecution, to show a respect to the dead body of this holy martyr; which they took from under the stones, washed it, and wound it up in...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentations over him. As well they might, for his death was a serious loss to the Church. He was one of the best workers for Christ of that day; and when he was thus put to death by the judicial murder of stoning, the devout men who were spared to mourn his loss “made great lamentation...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
As for Saul, he made havoc of the church,.... Did evil to the saints, destroyed them that called upon the name of Christ, Acts 9:13 and persecuted and wasted the church of God, as he himself says, Galatians 1:13 and now did Benjamin, of which tribe Saul was, ravine as a wolf, Genesis 49:27 Entering into every house; where the saints dwelt: and...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison. At first, we can hardly believe that this was the very man who afterwards became the greatest preacher of the gospel, and the builder up of the Church of Christ, but it was even so. He was always earnest in whatever he did. When...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Therefore they that were scattered abroad,.... By reason of the persecution in Jerusalem: the seventy disciples, and other ministers of the word; or the hundred and twenty, excepting the apostles, went every where; or went through the countries of Judea and Samaria, as far as Phenice, Cyrus, and Antioch: preaching the word; the Vulgate Latin,...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word. They might have stopped at Jerusalem, and made a comfortable and strong church there, if they had not been persecuted; but, being scattered abroad, they were like seed in every furrow of the field: “they went every where preaching the word.” Now, out of this church,...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spoke, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. We cannot tell how far the soil had been prepared for the sowing of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria,.... The city which was formerly called Samaria, but now Sebaste; it had been destroyed by Hyrcanus, and was rebuilt by Herod; and called by him, in honour of Augustus, by the name of Sebaste (d); and so R. Benjamin says (e), that "from Luz he came in a day to Sebaste, היא שומרון, "this is Samaria";...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the people with one accord,.... The inhabitants of the city of Samaria, as one man, came to hear the word: and gave heed to those things which Philip spake; they listened to them, took notice of them, gave their ascent to them, believed and embraced them; being induced thereunto, not only upon the evidence by which these things came, but by...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For unclean spirits,.... Devils, so called because they were unclean themselves, defiled others, add delighted in impure persons and places; [See comments on Matthew 10:1] crying with loud voice; showing their unwillingness to remove, and the irresistibleness of divine power they could not withstand: came out of many that were possessed with them;...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed. And there was great joy in that city. But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And there was great joy in that city. Both on a spiritual account, for the good of their souls, through the preaching of Christ and his Gospel to them; and on a temporal account; for the good of their bodies, or their friends, being dispossessed of devils, and healed of their diseases.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But there was a certain man called Simon,.... Who, as Justin Martyr (f) says, was a Samaritan, and of a village called Gitton; and so a Jewish writer (g) calls him Simeon, השמרוני, "the Samaritan", a wizard: here is a but upon this new church, the success of the Gospel in this place, and the joy that was there; a man of great wickedness and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
To whom they all gave heed,.... Were not only attentive to the strange things he did, and to the wonderful things he gave out concerning himself; but they believed what he said and did as real things, and were obedient to him: and that from the least to the greatest; which does not so much respect age, though the Ethiopic version renders it, "from...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
To him they had regard,.... Which is repeated from the foregoing verse, for the sake of what follows: because that of a long time he had bewitched them with sorceries; or because he had, it may be for many years, astonished them with his magic arts, and the pranks he played in the use of them.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But when they believed Philip,.... Though they had been carried away so long with this deceiver, and had been so much attached unto him, and held in admiration of him; yet when Philip came and preached Christ unto them, such was the power that attended his ministry, and such the efficacy of divine grace that was exerted, that they not only gave...