Acts 8:1-26

¹Saul was in agreement with his death. So there began on that day a great persecution against the church that was in Jerusalem; and the believers were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.

²Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him.

³But Saul greatly harmed the church; he went into house after house and dragged out men and women, and put them into prison.

⁴Yet the believers who had been scattered went about proclaiming the word.

⁵Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.

⁶When multitudes of people heard and saw the signs that Philip did, they paid attention together to what he said.

⁷Unclean spirits came out of many who were possessed, crying out with a loud voice, and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed.

⁸So there was much joy in that city.

⁹But there was a certain man in the city named Simon, who had earlier been practicing sorcery; he used to astonish the people of Samaria, while claiming that he was an important person.

¹⁰All the Samaritans, from the least to the greatest, paid attention to him; they said, “This man is that power of God which is called Great.”

¹¹They listened to him, because he had astonished them for a long time with his sorceries.

¹²But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

¹³Even Simon himself believed, and after he was baptized he stayed with Philip constantly. When he saw signs and mighty deeds taking place, he was amazed.

¹⁴Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John.

¹⁵When they had come down, they prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit.

¹⁶For until that time, the Holy Spirit had not come upon any of them; they had only been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.

¹⁷Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸Now when Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money.

¹⁹He said, “Give me this power, too, that whoever I place my hands on might receive the Holy Spirit.”

²⁰But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish along with you, because you thought to obtain the gift of God with money.

²¹You have no part or share in this matter, because your heart is not right with God.

²²Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord, so that he might perhaps forgive you for the intention of your heart.

²³For I see that you are in the poison of bitterness and in the bonds of sin.”

²⁴Simon answered and said, “Pray to the Lord for me, so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”

²⁵When they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, proclaiming the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.

²⁶Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip and said, “Arise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This road is in a desert.)