Acts 8:25
In many Samaritan villages
- The gospel’s word εὐαγγελίζομαι euangelizomai · to speak good news
Original
Translations
And after Peter and John had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many of the Samaritan villages.
And they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.
They indeed, therefore, having testified fully, and spoken the word of the LORD, turned back to Jerusalem; they also proclaimed good news in many villages of the Samaritans.
두 사도가 주의 말씀을 증거하여 말한 후 예루살렘으로 돌아갈새 사마리아인의 여러 촌에서 복음을 전하니라
그들이 주의 말씀을 증언하고 선포한 뒤 예루살렘으로 돌아가며 사마리아 사람들의 많은 마을에서 복음을 선포하니라.
Commentaries
Matthew Henry on Acts 8:14-25 as a whole
The Holy Ghost was as yet fallen upon none of these coverts, in the extraordinary powers conveyed by the descent of the Spirit upon the day of Pentecost. We may take encouragement from this example, in praying to God to give the renewing graces of the Holy Ghost to all for whose…
Read the whole commentary →Wesley
Nothing on this verse itself.
Read the whole commentary →
Note
When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John. This verse closes their visit and records, in one line, what they did on the way home.
And after Peter and John had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many of the Samaritan villages.
Acts 8:25The two apostles prayed for the Samaritan believers and laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14–17). Simon saw it and offered money for the same power, and Peter answered, "May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!" (Acts 8:20). This verse comes next. Having testified in the city, the apostles took the road back to Jerusalem, and along it they brought the good news to village after village.
The verb is in the imperfect, euēngelizonto: a repeated action, one village and then the next. Its object is unusual for English. "Many villages of the Samaritans" stands in the accusative, so that the Greek says, in effect, that they gospelled the villages. The villages themselves are the ones evangelized. The first participle, diamarturamenoi, "having testified," is a strong word for solemn witness; Paul will use it at Miletus for his whole ministry, "testifying to the good news of God's grace" (Acts 20:24).
The Greek gives no names, only "they," and the KJV keeps it so: "And they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans." The BSB supplies "Peter and John," which is right and helpful: after the scene with Simon, a reader needs to know who "they" are. Here even the KJV says "preached the gospel," and the LSV says the apostles "proclaimed good news in many villages."
One of the two was John. Some years before, when a Samaritan village refused to receive Jesus on His way to Jerusalem, James and John had asked, "Lord, do You want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?" (Luke 9:54). Jesus rebuked them and went on to another village. Now John goes through many Samaritan villages, and what he brings them is not fire from heaven but good news. In a world where "Jews do not associate with Samaritans" (John 4:9), two Jewish apostles walked from village to village with the gospel.
Matthew Henry names Simon's error: "He esteemed the wealth of this world, as if it would answer for things relating to the other life, and would purchase the pardon of sin, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and eternal life" Matthew Henry. And he warns, "Think not that Christianity is a trade to live by in this world" Matthew Henry. Wesley, on Peter's call to repent, writes: "Without all doubt if he had repented, he would have been forgiven. The doubt was, whether he would repent" Wesley. Straight after the man who tried to buy the gift, Luke shows two men giving the gospel away, village by village, for nothing.
The gospel was not told only in cities. Villages whose names no one recorded heard it, and one of the men who told it had once wanted fire on such a village. The good news changes those who carry it as well as those who hear it.