Acts 8

8:1-4 Though persecution must not drive us from our work, yet it may send us to work elsewhere. Wherever the established believer is driven, he carries the knowledge of the gospel, and makes known the preciousness of Christ in every place. Where a simple desire of doing good influences the heart, it will be found impossible to shut a man out from all opportunities of usefulness.

8:1 At that time there was great persecution against the Church - Their adversaries having tasted blood, were the more eager. And they were all dispersed - Not all the Church: if so, who would have remained for the apostles to teach, or Saul to persecute? But all the teachers except the apostles, who, though in the most danger, stayed with the flock.

CHAPTER 8Ac 8:1-4. Persecution Continued, in Which Saul Takes a Prominent Part—How Overruled for Good.1. Saul was consenting unto his death—The word expresses hearty approval.they were all scattered abroad—all the leading Christians, particularly the preachers, agreeably to their Lord's injunctions (Mt 10:23), though many doubtless remained, and others (as appears by Ac 9:26-30) soon returned.except the apostles—who remained, not certainly as being less exposed to danger, but, at whatever risk, to watch over the infant cause where it was most needful to cherish it.

"\nAnd devout men carried Stephen to his burial,.... These men were not Jewish proselytes, but members of the Christian church; who were eminent for their religion and piety, and who had courage enough, amidst this persecution, to show a respect to the dead body of this holy martyr; which they took from under the stones, washed it, and wound it up in linen clothes, and put it into a coffin, or on a bier: they did everything preparatory to the funeral, which, is chiefly designed by the word here used, rather than the carrying of him out to his grave; though this also they did, and buried him: and to bear a corpse and follow it to the grave, and bury it, were with the Jews {x} reckoned among acts of kindness, mercy, and piety, and which would not fail of a reward; they have a saying {y}, that\n\n"he that mourns, they shall mourn for him; and he that buries, they shalt bury him and he that lifts up (his voice in weeping lamentation), they shall lift up for him; he that accompanies (a dead corpse), they shall accompany him; he that "carries", they shall carry him;''\n\nas these devout men did, who would not suffer Stephen to be buried in the common burying place of malefactors, but interred him elsewhere, in a more decent manner: but whether they had leave from the sanhedrim so to do, or whether they did this of themselves, is not certain; if the latter, which seems most likely, it is an instance of great boldness and resolution, and especially at this time; for\n\n"they did not bury one that was stoned in the sepulchres of his fathers, but there were two burying places appointed by the sanhedrim, one for those that are stoned and burnt, and another for those that are slain with the sword and strangled {z}.''\n\nSo that, they acted contrary to the Jewish canon, as they also did in what follows:\n\nand made great lamentation over him; though they did not sorrow as those without hope, yet they did not put on a stoical apathy; but as men sensible of the loss the church of Christ had sustained, by the death of a person so eminent for his gifts and grace, they mourned over him in a becoming manner: in this they went contrary to the Jewish rule, which forbids lamentation for those that died as malefactors, and runs thus {a}\n\n"they do not mourn, but they grieve; for grief is only in the heart;''\n\ntheir reason for this was, as the commentators say {b}, because they thought that\n\n"their disgrace was an atonement for their sin:''\n\nbut these devout men knew that Stephen needed no such atonement, and that his sins were atoned for another way: otherwise the Jews looked upon mourning for the dead to be to the honour of him; hence they say {c}, that mourning\n\n"is the glory of the dead--whoever is backward to the mourning of a wise man shall not prolong his days; and whoever is sluggish in mourning for a good man, ought to be buried alive; and whoever causes tears to descend for a good man, lo, his reward is reserved for him with the holy blessed God.''\n\n{x} Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Peah, c. 1. sect. 1. {y} T. Bab. Cetubot, fol. 72. 1. & Moed Katon, fol. 28. 2. {z} Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 6. sect. 5. {a} Misn. Sanhedrin, sect. 6. {b} Jarchi & Bartenora in ib. {c} Maimon. Hilch. Ebel, c. 12. sect. 1, 2.\n\n\n "

"\nAs for Saul, he made havoc of the church,.... Did evil to the saints, destroyed them that called upon the name of Christ, Ac 9:13 and persecuted and wasted the church of God, as he himself says, Gal 1:13 and now did Benjamin, of which tribe Saul was, ravine as a wolf, Ge 49:27\n\nEntering into every house; where the saints dwelt:\n\nand haling men and women: in a violent manner, without any regard to age or sex:\n\ncommitted them to prison; delivered them up into the hands of the chief priests and magistrates, in order to be committed and sent to prison; this he himself confesses, Ac 22:4.\n\n\n "

"\nTherefore they that were scattered abroad,.... By reason of the persecution in Jerusalem: the seventy disciples, and other ministers of the word; or the hundred and twenty, excepting the apostles,\n\nwent every where; or went through the countries of Judea and Samaria, as far as Phenice, Cyrus, and Antioch:\n\npreaching the word; the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions add, "of God", and so some copies; the Gospel, which is the word of God, and not man; which was not of men, nor received from men, but came from God, and by the revelation of Christ; and which was good news and glad tidings, of peace, pardon, righteousness and salvation, by Jesus Christ.