Chapter Eight
CHAPTER EIGHT
8:1
. nd they all were scattered throughout the lands of Judaea and Samaria. This is what the Lord himself commanded: When they persecute you in one city, flee to another.' It occurred according to the Lord's will, so that the occasion of tribulation might become the seedbed of the gospel."
8:6
The crowds were attentive to those things that Philip said. The present chapter and the history of the Samaritan woman? prove that these peoples' souls were ready and willing to believe.
8:13
Then Simon himself also believed. It was either that he too was overcome by the power of the blessed
Philip's words so that he truly believed in the Lord, or, as is more believable, that he pretended that he believed until he could receive baptism. For he was so eager for praise that he wished to be believed to be the Christ, as histories tell,>* and he hoped to learn from him the arts by which he worked miracles. His followers were also taught to do this. Trained in the evil arts of their founder to enter the church by any sort of deception, they were accustomed to steal baptism.°®
8:14
They [the apostles] sent Peter and John to them [the Samaritans]. Arator explains it beautifully:' Peter fre1. Mt 10:23.
2. Jer., Comm. in Mt. 1, 10, 23 (CC 77:70, 1672/1673).
3. Jn 4:39.
4. Eusebius/Rufin., Hist. eccl. 2, 1 (GCS 9, 1:107, 17-109,1).
5. Ps.-Clem./Rufin., Recog. 2, 7, 1 (GCS 51:55, 3/5).
6. Eusebius/Rufin., Hist. eccl. 2, 1 (GCS 9, 1:109, 3/4).
7. Arat., De act. ap. 1 (CSEL 72:50, 624/625).
Chapter Eight quently made John his comrade because a virgin ts pleasing to the church. \t must be noted that the Philip who preached the gospel to Samaria was one of the seven, for if he had been the apostle [Philip], he would have been able to lay hands on them himself so that they might receive the Holy Spirit.* For this is reserved only to those of pontifical rank. When priests baptize, whether in a bishop's presence or not, they are permitted to anoint those who are baptized with chrism, but because it was consecrated by a bishop, they are not allowed to make the sign of the cross on the forehead with this same oil. This ts reserved to the bishops alone when they transmit the Spirit, the Paraclete,° to those who are baptized.
8:20
May your money go with you to perdition, and so forth. When holy men deliver a curse as a sentence, they pronounce it not out of a desire for vengeance, but out of a just consideration of the case. For they interiorly perceive God's unerring judgment, and recognize that they must smite with a curse the evils which arise exteriorly.
And in the curse they do not sin insofar as they do not depart from their interior judgment. Since the one who pronounces the curse remains innocent, and at the same time the curse swallows up to the point of destruction the one who is cursed, we conclude from what happens to both parties that the sentence which has been delivered is hurled at the offender by the sole judge of that which is within.'
So it is that in the present passage Simon, who received a curse from Peter, perished ineternal damnation, and below"! [we read that] Bar-Jesus, when he had been rebuked by Paul, was presently deprived of the light of day.
8:23
I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and 8. Ac 8:16-17.
9. Innocen., Ep. ad Decent. 25, 3, 6 (PL 20:554B-555A); cf. Bede, In ep. cath. (CC 121:221, 165/72).
10. Greg., Moral. 4, 1, 2 (CC 143:165, 61:80).
11. Ac 13:6-12.
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in the bond of iniquity. The Holy Spirit descended as a dove in order to teach those who wanted to receive him to be simple.
Now one who keeps the gall of bitterness in his heart, although he may appear to be baptized, is not freed from the chains of his iniquity; but as if he was cleansed at one moment, the time of his baptism, he is soon seven times more harried by a fierce demon. In vain, therefore, did this man try to buy the gift of the Spirit, since he did not take care to rid himself of his raven-like mind.
8:26a Arise and go to the South. It is well that it was in the South that this man!* was sought, found, and washed clean. Burning with devotion in his breast he deserved to be consecrated to God as, so to speak, the first fruits of the gentiles. In him especially was fulfilled that saying of the psalmist, Ethiopia will stretch out her hands to God.'3
8:26b To the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert. It is not the road, but Gaza which is referred to as a desert. For the old Gaza, which was formerly the Chanaanites' boundary with Egypt,'* was destroyed down to its foundations, and in a different place another [Gaza] was built to replace it. Allegorically this designates the people of the gentiles, who were once separated from the worship of God, uncultivated by the preaching of the prophets.!* The road which went down to this same place from Jerusalem and opened the fountain of salvation'5 is the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, J am the way and the truth and the life. '!° From the Jerusalem above he 'came down' to our infirmities,2* and with the water of baptism he made white the blackness of our guilty condition.
8:27a And behold, an Ethiopian man, an influential eunuch. He is called a man because of his virtue3* and in12. The Ethiopian of Ac 8:27.
13. Ps 68:31 (67:32) 14. Jer., De sit. (PL 23:899B).
15. Ac 8:36.
16. Jn 14:6.
Chapter Eight tegrity of mind, and not undeservedly, for he devoted his study solely to the scriptures, and he did not stop reading them even when he was on the road.!7 Also, he showed so much love in [his] religion that, leaving behind a queen's court, he came from the farthest regions of the world to the Lord's temple. Hence, as a just reward, while he sought the interpretation of something that he was reading, he found Christ whom he was seeking.'® Furthermore, as Jerome says, he found the church's font there in the desert, rather than in the golden temple of the synagogue.'? For there [in the desert] something happened which Jeremiah declared was to be wondered at, an Ethiopian changed his skin,?° that is, with the stain of his sins washed away by the waters [of baptism], he went up, shining white, to Jesus.
8:27b Of Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians. We read also in the Book of Kings that the queen of the South came from the end of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon.?! Actually, it was customary for that nation to be always ruled by women, whom they called ""Kandakes.''22
8:27c He was in charge of all her royal treasury. The sending by the Ethiopian queen of the treasures of the nations to Jerusalem signifies that the church would bring gifts of the virtues and of faith to the Lord. The etymology of her name is also appropriate, for in Hebrew Candace means exchanged."> In the scriptures (in the psalm 'For those who will be exchanged,'4*) it is she to whom it was said, Hear, daughter, and see, and incline your ear. Forget your people and your father's home,*4 and so forth.
17. Ac 8:28.
18. Jer., Comm. in Es. 15, 56, 3 (CC 73A:631, 11/12).
L9njet., £p:. 53,5 (CSEL 54:452, 2/3).
20. Jr 13:23.
21. 1K 10:1-13.
22. Pliny, Nat. hist. 6, 35, 186.
23. Jer., De nom. Hebr. (CC 72:144, 3).
24. Ps 45:10 (44:11).
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8:29
And the Spirit said to Philip. The Spirit spoke to Philip in his heart. God's Spirit utters certain words to us by a hidden power, and tells us what must be done.
8:32a He was led like a sheep to the slaughter. Just as a sheep does not resist when it is led away to be a sacrificial offering, so too he suffered by his own will.25 Or, according to a more profound understanding, just as a lamb was customarily immolated at the pasch, so too Christ our pasch has been immolated.?*.
8:32b And like a lamb, silent before the shearer. He has not only redeemed us with his blood, but he has also clothed us with wool. This is so that with his clothing he may warm those who are cold with infidelity, and so that we may hear the apostle telling us, 'All of you who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ'.2" He did not open his mouth?® during his passion when he chose to answer very little to Pilate and the chief priests, and nothing at all to Herod.?9
8:33a In humiliation his judgment was taken away.
The judge of all did not obtain a true judgment, but, guiltless, he was condemned by the sedition of the Jews and by the voice of Pilate.>° 8:33b Who shall expound his generation? With respect to his divinity, this must be taken to mean that it is impossible to know the mysteries of his divine nativity, about which the Father said,>* 'Before the day star I begot you'.3!
Or, with respect to his virgin birth, it means that with dif25. Jer., Comm. in Es. 14, 53, 8/10 (CC 73A:592, 29/30).
IA Sy, 11 (Bier SEF!
Zi lCte ni
OOMNUAIIIELS.
14, 53, 8/10 (CC 73A:592, 34/37); Ga 3:27.
28. Ac 8:32
= Is 53:7.
29. Mt 26:62-64; 27:11-14; Lk 23:6-9.
30. Jer., Comm. in Es. 14, 53, 8/10 (CC 73A:592, 42/43).
31. Ps 110:3 (109:3).
Chapter Eight ficulty one can explain that [mystery], the plan of which the angel spoke to Mary in answer to her question when he said, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you.'*? Hence, whether by angel or by evangelist, the mysteries of his nativity are said to be so great that there are very few who can expound them.
8:33c For his life is removed from the earth. So that he might live not on earth, to be sure, but in heaven.
8:35
Philip opened his mouth, and so forth. Philip means 'the mouth of a lamp,'*4 and there is a beautiful meaning in 'the mouth of a lamp' opening his mouth as he brought the obscurities of prophecy into the light of knowledge. However, according to the historical sense°* this circumlocution can also designate the considerably longer discourse which he was then about to deliver.
8:36a They came to some water. Even today there is a village of the tribe of Judah, Bethsoro, at the twentieth milestone as one goes from Helia to Hebron. Near here a spring which bubbles up at the foot of the mountain is swallowed up by the same ground from which it is produced. Here the eunuch was baptized by Philip.>>
8:36b-8:38
'What is there to prevent my being baptized?' And he ordered the carriage to stop, and so forth. Here another translation,3° which follows the Greek model, has a few more verses in which it is written: 'Behold, bere is water. What is there to prevent my being baptized?'
And Philip said to him, 'If you believe with all your heart you will be saved.' And he answered and said, 'I believe in Christ, the son of God.' And he ordered the carriage to 32. Lk 1:35.
33. Jer., Comm. in Es. 14, 53, 8/10 (CC 73A:592, 48-593, 59).
34. Jer., De nom. Hebr. (CC 72:146, 5).
35. Jer., De sit. (PL 23:882A/B).
36. e.
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stop, and so forth. I believe that these verses were originally inserted in our version too, but through scribal error they were later removed.
8:39
The Spirit of the Lord took Philip away. As Jerome records,*" There are those who testify that an angel did this in the Holy Spirit.
8:40
He preached the gospel to all the cities until he came to Caesarea. This refers to the Caesarea in Palestine, where, as is described below,3® he [Philip] had a home, which is still shown today, and also a chamber for his four daughters, who were virgins with the gift of prophecy.
37. Jer., Comm. in Es. 17, 63, 11/14 (CC 73A:729, 45); see JB note on Ac 8:39.
38. Ac 21:8-9.
39. Jer., Ep. 108, 8 (CSEL 55:313, 15/17).
NOTES TO CHAPTER EIGHT
1. Bede enriches his metaphorical comparison between a desert and the spiritual aridity of the gentiles by a double instance of etymological wordplay which resists translation. First, he balances two participial forms of the verb desero ('to abandon' or 'give up'): 'Gaza is referred to as a desert' (deserta, the neuter plural used as anoun).
. because 'allegorically this designates the people of the gentiles, who were once separated from (desertam) the worship of God'. Second, Bede further enriches his metaphor by using two derivative forms (cultura and excultam) of the verb colo, which itself has a double meaning: an agricultural sense 'to till the soil'; and a religious sense, 'to worship.'
Bede's etymological wordplay ingeniously exploits the symbolic richness of this double meaning: 'The gentiles were once removed from the worship of God (Dei cultura), uncultivated (excultam) by the preaching of any of the prophets.'
2. 'To our infirmities': ad nostra infirma. One might consider a conjectural emendation to infima and translate 'From the Jerusalem above (superna), he came down to our lowly concerns
(infima).' Bede is fond of such antithetical parallelism. Manuscript support, however, is evidently unanimous for infirma. Cf. note
7 to ch. 4 and note 1 to ch. 9.
3. This sentence is built around etymological wordplay which is very simple but which does not come through in the translation: The Ethiopian eunuch 'is called a man (vir) because of his vir-tue (virtute) and his mental integrity or wholeness,' i.e., despite his lack of masculinity and physical wholeness.
4. Bede refers here to the title-verse of Ps 44 in the Vulgate.
5. Although Bede's comment on Ac 8:33b is almost entirely quoted from Jerome's Commentary on Isaiah, Bede has altered the sense by replacing Jerome's quotation from Pr 8:25, 'Before all the hills he begot me,' with a quotation from Ps 110:3, 'Before the daystar I begot you.' Also, Jerome apparently attributes the Proverbs quotation to Christ himself (ipse loquitur in Proverbiis), while Bede attributes the psalm quotation to the Father (de qua pater loquitur).
@ 6. ues to the historical sense': iuxta historiam. See note to ch. 1.