Acts 8:12-16

8:12 But when they believed Philip as he was proclaiming the good news about the kingdom of God ¹  and the name of Jesus Christ, ²  they began to be baptized, ³  both men and women. 8:13 Even Simon himself believed, and after he was baptized, he stayed close to ⁴  Philip constantly, and when he saw the signs and great miracles that were occurring, he was amazed. ⁵ 

8:14 Now when the apostles in Jerusalem ⁶  heard that Samaria had accepted the word ⁷  of God, they sent ⁸  Peter and John to them. 8:15 These two ⁹  went down and prayed for them so that they would receive the Holy Spirit. 8:16 (For the Spirit ¹⁰  had not yet come upon ¹¹  any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) ¹² 

Acts 8:36-38

8:36 Now as they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look, there is water! What is to stop me ¹³  from being baptized?” 8:37 [[EMPTY]] ¹⁴  8:38 So he ordered the chariot to stop, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, ¹⁵  and Philip baptized ¹⁶  him.

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¹ sn The kingdom of God is also what Jesus preached: Acts 1:3. The term reappears in 14:22; 19:8; 28:23, 31.

² tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

³ tn The imperfect verb ἐβαπτίζοντο (ebaptizonto) has been translated as an ingressive imperfect.

⁴ tn Or “he kept close company with.”

⁵ sn He was amazed. Now Simon, the one who amazed others, is himself amazed, showing the superiority of Philip’s connection to God. Christ is better than anything the culture has to offer.

⁶ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁷ tn Or “message.”

⁸ 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.

⁹ 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.

¹⁰ tn Grk “For he”; the referent (the Spirit) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹¹ tn Or “fallen on.”

¹² sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

¹³ tn Or “What prevents me.” The rhetorical question means, “I should get baptized, right?”

¹⁴ tc A few later mss (E 36 323 453 945 1739 1891 pc) add, with minor variations, 8:37 “He said to him, ‘If you believe with your whole heart, you may.’ He replied, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’” Verse 37 is lacking in {Ì^45,74 א A B C 33 614 vg sy^p,h co}. It is clearly not a part of the original text of Acts. The variant is significant in showing how some in the early church viewed a confession of faith. The present translation follows NA²⁷ in omitting the verse number, a procedure also followed by a number of other modern translations.

¹⁵ tn Grk “and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch.” Since this is somewhat redundant in English, it was simplified to “and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water.”

¹⁶ sn Philip baptized. Again, someone beyond the Twelve has ministered an ordinance of faith.