- Acts 7:51-8:40
- Acts 7:51 – Stephen accuses them of resisting the Holy Spirit. The terms “Holy Spirit” or “Spirit” were often used interchangeably with the message from the Spirit, or the prophet carrying that message.
| Reference to the “Spirit” | Another way of saying it |
|---|---|
| “You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them” (Nehemiah 9:20) | “You…admonished them by Your Spirit through Your prophets” (Nehemiah 9:30) |
| “the Holy Spirit foretold” (Acts 1:16) | “Scripture…by the mouth of David” (Acts 1:16) |
| “You…are always resisting the Holy Spirit” (Acts 7:51) | “argued with Stephen…the Spirit with which he was speaking” (Acts 6:9-10) |
| “God who gives His Holy Spirit to you” (I Thessalonians 4:8) | “word of God which you heard from us” (I Thessalonians 2:13) |
| “just as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today if you…’” (Hebrews 3:7) | “saying through David… ‘Today if you…’” (Hebrews 4:7) |
| “the Holy Spirit also testifies…’This is the covenant’” (Hebrews 10:15) | “The words of Jeremiah…this is the covenant…” (Jeremiah 1:1; 31:33) |
| “let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 2:7) | “John…’Write in a book’” (Revelation 1:9-10) |
- Acts 8:5 – Philip went to Samaria to preach. Race and skin color made no difference to him. Race means nothing to God, and it shouldn’t mean anything to us!
- Acts 8:19-24 – This is a good example of what we should do if we have been baptized and then sin. We should repent and pray. This also directly contradicts the Calvinist view of “once saved, always saved.”
- Acts 8:27 – Candace was the title for the queen, like the title Pharaoh. The eunuch was evidently a proselyte who had traveled quite a long way to worship in Jerusalem.
- Acts 8:16-17 – Spiritual gifts were given by the apostles laying hands on them. Everyone who was baptized did not receive the Holy Spirit just because they were baptized.
- Acts 8:5, 35 – Preaching Jesus implies teaching baptism!
- Acts 8:37 – Those who study manuscript evidence tells us that there is little reason to believe that Acts 8:37 was in the original since it was not in most of the ancient manuscripts. It appears to be a case of “scribal gap-filling” (Philip Comfort, New Testament Text and Translation Commentary, p. 363). Erasmus included it in his Greek New Testament (1500s) based “on a marginal reading in codex 4.” That became part of the Received Text (Textus Receptus), which is how it came to be included in the King James Version. But even if this verse wasn’t part of the original inspired text, it doesn’t change our understanding of the necessity of confessing our faith (Romans 10:9-10).
