And Saul was consenting to his being killed. And on that day there arose a great persecution against the assembly which was in Jerusalem, and all were scattered into the countries of Judaea and Samaria except the apostles.
Stephen's death did not silence the message in Jerusalem. It sent that message everywhere else. This one verse names the man who approved the killing and the storm that followed. It also records a strange detail: the twelve apostles stayed behind while everyone else ran.
Saul was no thug on the edge of the crowd. He stood for the religion of his day at its best. His consent showed how far the resistance to Jesus had gone.
Saul approved of Stephen's death, and Saul was the expression of Jewish feeling at its best. It was now guilty of resisting to the point of blood — not merely as their fathers had done, but resisting the heavenly testimony of Jesus. Still, the God who vindicated the honour of the crucified Jesus did not forget the martyred Stephen.
What Saul counted as his credit became the wound he carried. As Paul, he kept returning to this scene.
In the eyes of Saul of Tarsus, and in the eyes of most of his own nation, this was the highest proof of his devotion to God. But to Paul the apostle it was a grief he could never forget. His part in the murder of Stephen seems to have stayed with him all his days: "And when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him" (Acts 22:20). Such is the heart of the most religious of men!
The regions named in the verse are not random. They are the next two steps the Lord had marked out for His witnesses. The persecution drove the believers straight into them.
Not content with killing Stephen, the religious leaders in Jerusalem now launched the first great persecution against the church. Saul stood out in it. He ravaged the church like a wolf, invading the privacy of homes to seize his victims. As a result, the disciples were scattered through the provinces of Judaea and Samaria. In the Lord's words to His disciples in Acts 1:8, these provinces come after Jerusalem. Their mission would then widen out to the ends of the earth. So again it was a case of God making man's wrath serve His purpose. Yet, remarkably enough, the apostles were the exceptions to the rule, though the commission was theirs. They still remained in Jerusalem.
Commentators differ here. Some read the exception as a failure. The men told to flee were the ones who stayed.
The whole assembly, except the apostles, is scattered. It is also questionable whether the apostles did right in remaining, and whether a simpler faith would have made them go away. That would have spared the assembly many a conflict and many a difficulty, since Jerusalem continued to be a centre of authority. The Lord had even said, with Israel in view, "When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next." … It may be said that the twelve were not persecuted. That is possible, and I say nothing decided on the point.
Others read the same fact as God's arrangement, made for a purpose that only later events made clear.
But for now, in the face of that great persecution, the apostles stay. Divine wisdom ordered everything rightly. They remain there together, unmoved by the storm that dispersed all the others, for important purposes that appear later. The spread of the good news falls under the good hand of the Lord to His scattered saints. No one beforehand could have foreseen such a result from such an outburst.
Both views agree on the result. The gospel spread without the apostles at its head.
They were all scattered abroad except the apostles, so that the preaching could not seem to come from them. And "those who were scattered went about preaching the word." Who sent them? Persecution. Who enabled them? The grace and Spirit of God. And it reached the Gentiles… The ordinary Christians went ahead of the apostles, so that the work clearly did not come from them.
The scattering also prevented something. Jerusalem never became the fixed centre of the faith.
The breaking up and scattering of the church at Jerusalem stopped a Jewish-Christian centre from forming and growing in that city. Such a centre would have been the very opposite of God's intentions.
- Consent. Saul's approval of the killing was, in his own eyes, devotion to God — and it became the grief he never forgot.
- Storm. Hatred at its fiercest was the wrath God made serve His purpose.
- Scattering. The believers landed in the very regions named in Acts 1:8 — Judea and Samaria.
- Exception. The apostles stayed. Commentators differ on whether that was failure or God's ordering. Either way, the work went on without them.
- Spread. Ordinary Christians ran ahead of the apostles. No headquarters sent them out; persecution scattered them, and the grace and Spirit of God carried them.
And pious men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him.
Stephen has just been stoned, and the church is being hunted out of Jerusalem. The men who step forward to bury him are not the ones you would expect. So who were these mourners? Why was their grief so loud? And what does a burial mean at all, once resurrection is certain?
With the church under attack, who was left to bury him? One writer traces how the funeral happened at all.
Who, then, would bury Stephen? The Christians could not come forward to give the martyr the honourable, customary funeral rites. The apostles could not do it either when the Lord was crucified. But, as in the Lord's case, God provided for this, and in a most unexpected way. If the Christians could not volunteer, devout men, godly Jews, were willing to perform the last sad duties. They buried him, and made great lamentation over him. There were pious men in Jerusalem who still professed to be Jews. Very probably they were Hellenists, or Jews from other lands. They had no part in that murder, and no sympathy with the men who stoned Stephen.
Persecution had just scattered the church. One writer sees God's care for His martyr in the funeral itself, and explains why loud weeping suited these mourners.
The God who vindicated the honour of the crucified Jesus did not forget the martyred Stephen. Persecution broke out and scattered every believer in Jerusalem, except the apostles, throughout Judea and Samaria. Even so, there was no lack of devout men to carry Stephen to his burial. Clearly they were not Christians; but God has all hearts in His keeping. And they "made great lamentation over him." This was suitable to them. Theirs was not the joy that saw into the presence of God. They felt in some measure, and rightly, the terrible deed that had been done.
Stephen died asking the Lord to receive his spirit. A little later, men carried him to a grave. One writer reads the two lines together and finds no conflict.
Take the case of Stephen next. After his martyrdom, devout men carried him to his burial and made great lamentation over him. Yet a little before, we hear him saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Obviously it was his body that men buried. While men wept over it below, his spirit was already in the blessedness of his Master's presence above.
Luke does not write that they buried Stephen's remains. He names the man. One writer builds a case for bodily resurrection on that way of speaking.
"Devout men carried Stephen to his burial." How could they do that if Stephen was not there? But if Stephen was there, Stephen shall be raised. Anyone who says Stephen was not carried to his burial flatly contradicts Scripture. So does anyone who says that the same Stephen shall not be raised from the dead.
The older translation these writers quote reads "carried Stephen to his burial." The ESV reads, "Devout men buried Stephen." Either way, the name belongs to the man they laid in the grave.
This burial came soon after the burial of Jesus, and it looked very different. One writer explains why.
Death was overthrown. Faith now celebrates what customs and ceremonies had once only pledged and foreshadowed. And faith did learn this lesson, for the burial that followed the burial of Jesus had neither its embalming nor its magnificence. It was quickly done, reverently and lovingly. "Devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him."
- Carried by strangers. The church had scattered, so God used men outside it to bury His servant — He "has all hearts in His keeping."
- Carried with tears. Their grief was real, and loud weeping suited them. But theirs "was not the joy that saw into the presence of God."
- Carried, yet already home. Men wept over the body below while the spirit was "already in the blessedness of his Master's presence above."
- Carried by name. Luke names Stephen himself, not his remains. The person goes with the body, and that same Stephen will rise.
- Carried simply. The first burial after the burial of Jesus had no embalming and no grand tomb. It was reverent, loving and quickly done.
But Saul ravaged the assembly, entering into the houses one after another, and dragging off both men and women delivered them up to prison.
The stoning of Stephen was not an isolated outburst. It opened an organised campaign against the church, led by a man named Saul. Two questions follow: how does such violence fit into God's plan, and how far can grace reach?
This was not a mob. C. E. Stuart points to how organised it was, and how new:
Nothing like this had happened before. It was systematic persecution, with the character of an inquisition. Saul invaded private homes and filled the prisons with Christians, both men and women.
The word behind "dragged off" carries force. A Bible dictionary compares it with the gentler Greek word for drawing:
Two Greek words, helkuo and suro, are both translated 'to draw.' But suro has been noticed to carry violence or force, which helkuo does not have to carry... Saul, in his zeal, dragged (suro) men and women off to prison, Acts 8:3.
Saul was a devout man, and that is what made him dangerous. William Kelly explains why hatred with religion behind it does not burn itself out:
Religious rage is the most unrelenting of all. Fresh victims do not satisfy its cruel appetite; they sharpen it. It ignores sex and age alike.
C. E. Stuart names the danger in one line: "Religious zeal, unless grace tempers it, can make its follower the most unforgiving of people."
Saul was sure he was serving God. One writer ties this to a warning Jesus gave His disciples:
No doubt Saul thought he was serving God. In religious zeal he carried his persecuting work to other places... and so he fulfilled the words the Lord spoke to His disciples in John 16:2. How very solemn that religious zeal should persecute the servants of the very One he claimed to serve! It shows plainly that he did not know the true God, who is revealed in the Son.
Saul went from house to house, and those houses carried the marks of the church. F. A. Hughes notes two very different reactions to them:
In Acts 8:3 we see features of the church in these homes. They drew down the hatred of Saul the Pharisee, but they surely gave joy to the heart of Christ, who "loved the church."
Saul meant to crush the church in Jerusalem. Instead he scattered it, and the believers carried the message with them.
He ravaged the church like a wolf, invading the privacy of homes to seize his victims. As a result, the disciples scattered through the provinces of Judaea and Samaria. In the Lord's words to His disciples in Acts 1:8, these provinces came after Jerusalem, and before the mission widened out to the ends of the earth. So once again God made man's anger serve His purpose.
The man tearing families out of their homes did not stay that way. A. J. Pollock points to what lay behind his rage, and what lay ahead of it:
His actions were terrible, and his misguided zeal was fierce and fanatical. Yet he was sincere in his wrongdoing. Years later he could describe himself as "a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent," but he received mercy because he had acted "ignorantly in unbelief" (1 Tim. 1:13). He says he was in a raging fury against God's people, and that he persecuted them "even to foreign cities" (Acts 26:11)... The terrified believers had no idea that this very Saul would become a chosen vessel of the Lord.
Mercy did not erase the memory. G. V. Wigram puts words to what it cost Paul once he saw what the church is:
He was behind no one, either in service or in suffering for Christ. But he could not forgive himself that, before grace came, he had persecuted the church... "This beautiful thing, this church, the body of Christ — and I, a miserable thing, knowing nothing of God's bright and glorious thought, I hunted it down like a hound of Satan, hoping to crush it completely."
- Zeal — Saul was sincere and devout, and he was wrecking homes. Religious passion without grace makes the cruellest persecutor of all.
- Violence — the word for "dragged off" carries force. Saul hauled men and women alike out of their houses and into prison.
- Warning — Jesus said men would persecute His followers and think they served God (John 16:2). Saul is that warning in action.
- Overruled — the scattering Saul caused carried the message into Judaea and Samaria, in the order Acts 1:8 had set out.
- Mercy — Saul received mercy because he had acted ignorantly in unbelief. The persecutor became the Lord's chosen vessel, and he never forgave himself for what he had done.
Those then that had been scattered went through [the countries] announcing the glad tidings of the word.
Stephen's death set off the first wave of violence against believers in Jerusalem, and everyone except the apostles fled. What looks like the collapse of the young church is the moment the message breaks out of the city, and it raises a sharp question: who may preach?
Nobody planned the first spread of the gospel beyond Jerusalem. One writer names what drove it out of the city.
Here we find the first general persecution. But in the hands of God it served to scatter the seed of the gospel. This also is a proof of the free activity of the Holy Spirit to make use of whomever He sees fit to select... It was not the settled plan of man. It was not the spiritual zeal of the apostles. It was the fury of the enemy that, by the wisdom of God, first spread the gospel outside the gates of Jerusalem.
The apostles alone stayed in the city. One writer weighs whether they should have stayed.
It is strange that the twelve apostles were allowed to remain. They stood at the front of the testimony, and so were special targets of the enemy's spite. It is a fair question, too, whether they ought to have gone elsewhere with the gospel... The enemy overreached himself, as he has often done before and since. It only led to the spread of the truth. Satan never meant this. His aim was to stop the testimony, not to spread it.
The English word "preaching" makes modern readers picture a pulpit and a sermon. The word behind it is simpler than that.
This is often used in the New Testament for "announcing, or making known," without the idea of preaching in a formal way, as the word is now understood. When persecution came on the church at Jerusalem, all were scattered except the apostles. They went everywhere "preaching the word."
Some readers have resisted the plain sense of the verse. One writer answers them from the Greek word behind "preaching."
All the Christians preached. "Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word" (Acts 8:4) — and those scattered were everyone except the apostles. Some critics have tried to get around this plain passage. They say it means only talking, which a man who holds no office may do. But a look at the original at once disproves the claim. It is "evangelising the word": and we read elsewhere that "the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord," Acts 11:19-21.
Another writer asks what sort of preachers these were.
Look at the devoted company scattered by the persecution that broke out over Stephen. They are a fair sample of the Church at large in her true testimony... Can we suppose that they were all evangelists with a special gift? Impossible!
So what makes a person fit to preach? One writer answers, and warns anyone who would silence a preacher.
Power makes itself felt; and gifted men should be the last to silence any Christian who can evangelise. The question is divine qualification, not human permission. Human permission is really a restraint on the Holy Spirit, an insult to Christ's grace, and a hindrance to sinners' salvation, so far as man can hinder it. How blessed is the grace of God! No apostle planned it, and no one even suggested it, yet God turned the world's scattering of the church into the sowing of gospel seed far and wide.
One of the scattered believers was Philip. The scattering had just ended his appointed job in Jerusalem.
He was one of the seven chosen by the saints and appointed by the apostles to do the work of a deacon in Jerusalem. But the ascended Lord had given him as an evangelist, as Acts 21:8 plainly shows. Here in Samaria we find him doing the work for which he had the gift, not the office to which the apostles had appointed him. The scattering of the saints from Jerusalem had put an end to the duties of that office. Gift belongs to the unity of Christ's body, so its use rises above passing circumstances and has plenty of room, even where a local charge would be out of place.
- Scattered. The believers did not choose to leave Jerusalem. The enemy's fury drove them out, and God used that fury to carry the seed of the gospel past the city walls.
- Scattered — and speaking. "Preaching" here is not a formal sermon but announcing and making known. It was something refugees did on the move.
- Scattered — and all of them. Everyone fled except the apostles, so ordinary believers did the preaching. They were not all evangelists with a special gift.
- Scattered — with no permit. The question is God's qualification, not man's permission. Silencing a Christian who can evangelise restrains the Spirit and hinders people's salvation.
- Scattered — and blessed. The hand of the Lord was with them and a great number believed. Philip's appointed work in Jerusalem ended, but the gift Christ had given him went with him into Samaria.