to be earnest towards · verb — present active participle, nominative singular masculine
Philip
Φιλίππῳ,Philippō
G5376
fond of horses · noun — dative singular masculine, a proper name
and
τεte
G5037
both or also (properly · conjunction
wondered
ἐξίστατο.¶existato
G1839
to put (stand) out of wits · verb — imperfect middle indicative, 3rd person singular
beholding
θεωρῶνtheōrōn
G2334
to be a spectator of · verb — present active participle, nominative singular masculine
miracles
δυνάμειςdunameis
G1411
force (literally or figuratively) · noun — accusative plural feminine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
signs
σημεῖαsēmeia
G4592
an indication · noun — accusative plural neuter
done
γινομέναςginomenas
G1096
to cause to be ("gen"-erate) · verb — present middle or passive deponent participle, accusative plural feminine
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
John 5:20 For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may mar…
Acts 8:6-7 And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.
Acts 19:11 And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul:
John 8:30-31 As he spake these words, many believed on him.
Psalms 106:12-13 Then believed they his words; they sang his praise.
Mark 16:17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
Luke 8:13 They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time…
John 2:23-25 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Acts 8:4-13
Samson's riddle is here again unriddled: Out of the eater comes forth meat, and out of the strong sweetness. The persecution that was designed to extirpate the church was by the overruling providence of God made an occasion of the enlargement of it. Christ had said, I am come to send fire on the earth; and they thought, by scattering those who were kindled with that fire, to have put it out, but instead of this they did but help to spread it.
I. Here is a general account of what was done by them all (Act 8:4): They went every where, preaching the word. They did not go to hide themselves for fear of suffering, no, nor to show themselves as proud of their sufferings; but they went up and down…
Then Simon himself believed also--Left without followers, he thinks it best to join the man who had fairly outstripped him, not without a touch of real conviction.
and . . . was baptized--What a light does this throw on what is called Baptismal Regeneration!
he continued with Philip--"was in constant attendance upon" him.
Adam Clarke on Acts 8:13
Simon himself believed also - He was struck with the doctrine and miracles of Philip - he saw that these were real; he knew his own to be fictitious. He believed therefore that Jesus was the Messiah, and was in consequence baptized.
Continued with Philip, and wondered - ΕξιϚατο, He was as much astonished and confounded at the miracles of Philip as the people of Samaria were at his legerdemain. It is worthy of remark that εξιϚατο comes from the same root, εξιϚημι, as the word εξιϚων, in Act 8:9, and, if our translation bewitched be proper there, it should be retained here; and then we should read, Then Simon himself believed and was baptized, and continued with Philip, being Bewitched, behold…
Then Simon himself believed also,.... With an historical and temporary faith, as that Jesus was the Messiah, &c. or at least he pretended, to believe this, and professed that he did believe, what others did, and Philip preached:
and when he was baptized; upon profession of his faith, which he so artfully made, that Philip could not discover his hypocrisy: but taking him to be a sincere believer, admitted him to baptism: after which,
he continued with Philip; kept close to him, and got into a familiar acquaintance with him; and constantly attended on his ministry, as if he had been a sincere disciple and follower of Christ:
and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done; he…
The Church Fathers
Then Simon himself also believed. Either he truly believed in the Lord, having been overcome by the words and virtue of the blessed Philip, or, as it is more credible, he pretended to believe until he received baptism, so that, because he was very eager for praise, in such a way that he wanted to be considered the Christ, as the stories tell, he might learn from Him the arts by which he performed miracles. This is also said to have been done by his successors, who, initiated in their author's malevolent arts, customarily entered the Church by any deceit and secretly acquired baptism.
The good baptized the evil, as Simon Magus was baptized by Philip, a holy man. These four types, therefore, my brothers, are well known. Look, I repeat them again. Hold fast to them, count them, pay attention to them. Beware those types which are evil; hold fast to those which are good. The good are born from the good when holy people are baptized by holy people; the evil from the evil when both they who baptize and they who are baptized live wickedly and impiously; the good from the evil when they who baptize are evil and they who are baptized are good; and the evil from the good when they who baptize are good and they who are baptized are evil.
Thus Simon, although he was a magician and flattered the apostles, and although, like others, he had been baptized by Philip, who was one of the seven, he nevertheless did not receive the Holy Spirit through the laying on of the apostles' hands. What then? Did those baptized by Philip not receive the Holy Spirit? They received the Holy Spirit of remission, but they did not receive the Spirit of miracles. Therefore Simon, seeing that it is given through the laying on of hands, came to the apostles, daring to trade with him. For before he saw others receiving the Spirit of miracles he was not bold to ask. How then did Philip baptize such a man? As Christ chose also Judas. And why did they not remove him as Ananias? Because once in the old time one who gathered the wood was put to death as a chastisement to others, and no other suffered this. [CHRYSOSTOM]
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Apostle — A person sent by another; a messenger; envoy. This word is once used as a descriptive designation of Jesus Christ, the Sent of the Father (Heb. 3:1; John 20:21). It is, however, generally used as…
Magic — The Jews seem early to have consulted the teraphim (q.v.) for oracular answers (Judg. 18:5, 6; Zech. 10:2). There is a remarkable illustration of this divining by teraphim in Ezek. 21:19-22. We read…
Philip The Evangelist — is first mentioned in the account of the dispute between the Hebrew and Hellenistic disciples in Acts 6. He is one of the deacons appointed to superintend the daily distribution of food and alms, and…
Samaria — A watch-mountain or a watch-tower. In the heart of the mountains of Israel, a few miles north-west of Shechem, stands the “hill of Shomeron,” a solitary mountain, a great “mamelon.” It is an oblong…
Simon — The abbreviated form of Simeon. (1.) One of the twelve apostles, called the Canaanite (Matt. 10:4; Mark 3:18). This word “Canaanite” does not mean a native of Canaan, but is derived from the Syriac…
Faith · The wicked often profess — The wicked often profess
Hypocrites · Exemplified: Simon — Exemplified: Simon
Miracles Wrought Through Servants Of God · Philip: Various miracles — Philip: Various miracles
Philip · .Successfully preaches in Samaria — .Successfully preaches in Samaria
Samaria · .Visited by Philip, Peter, and — .Visited by Philip, Peter, and
Acts 8:5-13
5. And when Philip came into the city of Samaria, he preached Christ to them. 6. And the multitude gave ear to those things which Philip spake, hearing with one consent, and seeing the signs which he showed. 7. For whereas many were possessed with unclean spirits, they came out, crying with a loud voice; and many that had the palsy, and which were lame, were healed; 8. So that there was great joy in that city. 9. And a man, named Simon, had been before in the city, exercising the art magic, and bewitching the people of Samaria, saying that he was some great man: 10. To whom they all gave heed, both small and great, saying, This man is the great power of God. 11. And they had giv…
Simon the sorcerer was a showman, dazzling the people of Samaria and making self-exalting claims. Simon’s attempt to obtain spiritual power through payment gave the name simony to the later corrupt practice of buying and selling ordination to church leadership (cp. 1 Tim 6:9-10). Peter strongly rebuked Simon’s wickedness.
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
