6. The Task of Evangelization Expands

Acts of the Apostles

Saul was one of those who approved of Stephen’s murder. We saw in chapter 7 of Acts of the Apostles the dramatic story of the murder of Stephen, one of the 7; one of the leaders of the Hellenistic group, Jewish Christians Greek-speaking. Stephen was a man of authority in the synagogue and for this reason he was observed, was convicted and killed.

A strange thing is that the synedrion decided a death sentence and executed it immediately. If we remember the history of the gospel where only a few years before of the history of Stephen, the same synedrion, the same high priest Caiaphas, after deciding to condemn Jesus to death, they have to bring him to Pilate. When Pilate tells them to judge him, they answer, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.” They need the Roman procurator to back the sentence and in fact Jesus is condemned by the Roman authority and the torment to which Jesus is condemned is the typical Roman one, the crucifixion. Instead, Stephen is stoned, that is, he is stoned to death according to Jewish law. Or it was an explosion from the crowd and we could talk about a lynching endorsed by the synedrion or—and this is the position of some historians—we can find in this particular the argument to date the killing of Stephen.

In fact, in the summer of the year 36, Pontius Pilate, prosecutor of Judea, was called back to Rome because he was accused of bad government; he was not removed from office, but received, as we would say today, a notice of trial and had to go to court to defend himself. Not trusting his Roman colleagues, he left the task of administering everything in Jerusalem to the same synedrion, thinking about coming back soon. Instead, the Roman court condemned Pilate and he was sent into exile and disappeared from history.

In the late fall of that same 36th year, a new governor of Judea arrived in the person of Marcellus who, as a first action, deposed Caiaphas from the role of high priest and replaced him with another of his relatives. Therefore, in that short period of the year 36, the synedrion had full powers. Caiaphas was the highest authority in Jerusalem, was not dependent on a Roman governor and so they took advantage of that opportunity to attack the Christian community. In previous years, when Pilate was still there, the synedrion was content with arresting the apostles, beating them, threatening them, trying to make them stop with arguments of this kind.

When Pilate is absent and the synedrion has absolute power, they try to eliminate the most dangerous characters. And it is interesting to think that they did not eliminate Peter and John because they were not considered dangerous. They eliminated Stephen because they considered him an intellectually prepared man, a man in charge of the synagogue, a man who could give great credit to the preaching of Jesus’ disciples. They were enraged against them. Many others are thrown out, but the main victim is Stephen.

In chapter 8, the Acts recounts precisely this painful moment of persecution. “That day (the very occasion of the slaughter of Stephen) a violent persecution broke out against the Church of Jerusalem, so that all, except the apostles, were dispersed throughout the territory of Judea and Samaria.” The apostles stay; the others are sent away, but the apostles are not simply the Twelve, it is probably the Hebrew-speaking Christian group along with the Twelve. While all the others are sent away, that is, the Hellenists, those who were led by the Seven. It is thought that for Greek-speaking people, the Hellenists who became Christians is dangerous to stay in Jerusalem. Stephen is killed and the others (Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenus and Nicolaus) are sent away. The apostles were not. The Twelve remain in Jerusalem.

“Pious men buried Stephen and offered him a solemn funeral. Saul, for his part, persecuted the Church; he would go into houses, take men and women and put them in jail.” It is clear that this is not an occasional event, like the lynching done by the people, but an authentic police organization; and Saul is one of those responsible. He enters the houses and arrests the Hellenists who became Christians. It is a persecution to eliminate in a strong way those who believed that Jesus was the Christ.

This situation of diaspora, of dispersion, is a real sowing. Clearly, those who were sent outside Jerusalem felt the event as a misfortune, a painful moment of their existence because they lost their home, their work, their regular presence in Jerusalem and they had to start all over again in another place. But, rethinking the fact years later, they realized that this persecution was providential.

It was the occasion when the Lord dispersed the preachers of the gospel out of Jerusalem. Mention is made of the two neighboring regions: Judea and Samaria. If you remember, at the beginning of the Acts, in chapter 1 in verse 8, the narrator put a program in Jesus’ mouth: “You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The first part, in Jerusalem, has already taken place, now begins the second part, the apostolic preaching leaves the holy city and begins to reach other places, other people living in Judea and Samaria.

Precisely in Samaria, the preaching of Philip takes place, the second in the list of the seven leaders of the Hellenistic community. Chapter 8 is dedicated to the mission of this man who does not deal with distribution of charity in Jerusalem, but becomes a missionary abroad; he is a proclaimer of the gospel outside of Jerusalem. His task, therefore, was precisely that of the preacher. Later in the history of the Acts the same character is called ‘evangelist’.

It is interesting to note that the only person who carries the title of ‘ewanguelistés’ in the New Testament is this Philip, one of the Seven, evangelist of Samaria. “Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing. For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice, came out of many possessed people, and many paralyzed and crippled people were cured. There was great joy in that city.”

Philip’s preaching is accompanied by prodigious gestures. Jesus had made them, the apostles had made them and now they are realized by this disciple of the apostles. Philip is not one of the apostles. There is the apostle Philip, but he is someone else. This is a disciple of the second generation; he is not someone who has known Jesus directly, he is not someone who has been a disciple of Jesus during his earthly life; he is someone who learned to know Jesus through the testimony of the apostles; and he has become a preacher himself, not only with words but also with deeds. And the deeds performed by Philip are not simply the distribution of food or clothing, but the liberation of people from the unclean spirit, from paralysis, from diseases.

These prodigious gestures at the beginning of the evangelical preaching are gifts of grace that served precisely to convince people and show with strong facts that the word of Jesus heals; it heals humanity, makes the person capable of living in a new way. In that city of Samaria there was great joy. There the arrival of Philip produces a collective joy; the announcement of the gospel changes the life of those people. Then a particular episode is narrated where a strange character is found, he is called Simon, dedicated to magic. We know him as Simon Magus who “astounded the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great. All of them, from the least to the greatest, paid attention to him, saying, “This man is the ‘Power of God’ that is called ‘Great.’” He had paranormal powers or was a skillful trickster; he had made believe that he had great powers; maybe he was trying to lure people behind him with tricks or to make money with these spells. He is amazed at Philip’s power and wanted to buy the power to give the Holy Spirit.

Simon believed in the name of Jesus Christ: “Even Simon himself believed and, after being baptized, became devoted to Philip; and when he saw the signs and mighty deeds that were occurring, he was astounded.” Meanwhile, the apostles in Jerusalem have come to know that the Samaritans have accepted faith in Jesus and so they send two representatives, the two chief apostles, Peter and John, who leave from Jerusalem, precisely with the intention of being apostolic visitors; they will see the reality because it had not yet happened the formation of Christian communities outside Jerusalem and the news that the Samaritans are adhering to the gospel is important news.

The apostles arrive, verify the work of Philip, and impose their hands on the disciples and they receive the Holy Spirit. This is an important fact, a significant note. The Catholic tradition has seen in this gesture of the apostles laying their hands as an anticipation of what will be presented as the sacrament of confirmation. Or, the confirmation by the bishop of the baptism conferred by a priest.

Philip went ahead and opened the way to evangelize the foreigners who are a bit strange, half Jewish and half heretical, a hybrid and bastard population, despised by the Jerusalemites. He made that group a new Christian community. The formation, however, is not yet complete; they were baptized by Philip, but the Holy Spirit is received by the apostles Peter and John when they impose their hands on them. It is this fact that unleashes the desire of the magician Simon, to have the power to give the Holy Spirit. And to have it he is willing to pay. This is the origin of the expression, which became very important in the Middle Ages, of ‘simony’, and is linked to this magician Simon. And it is called simoniac to someone who within the ecclesiastical life wants to buy positions of power, that is, with economic means, money or power he somehow gets power documents; will buy the office of bishop or abbot not because he is interested in the service of the bishop or abbot but because he wants the power connected to the office.

Simon Magus wanted the power to give the Holy Spirit; understood it as a magical gesture, as a paranormal force. Peter responds very strongly to this proposal: “May your money perish with you, because you thought that you could buy the gift of God with money.” As in the case of Ananias and Sapphira there is money involved and there is a corruption of the Christian life. Those two in Jerusalem had lied and pretended to be nice for no reason; the magician Simon is a baptized man, he is one who has adhered to Jesus, he is a believer, but he is a believer in the wrong way. He dared to think of buying with money what is really a gift. He is put aside and his case is presented with contempt to warn the Christian community of the dangers of this kind.

Philip’s ministry continues and soon after, a very famous episode is told where Philip is sent to meet with an Ethiopian, a great minister to the Queen of Ethiopia, a eunuch who returns home after making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The scene is set in the Gaza desert, on the way to Egypt. Philip, docile to the Spirit, at the suggestion of an angel of God, goes out and reaches that person and runs to meet him; the person is reading the book of Isaiah. He begins the conversation with a question that might be impertinent: “Do you understand what you are reading?” The Ethiopian, although interested in the Bible, admits that he does not understand anything and invites Philip to get on his chariot if it is able to help him understand that text.

We have an important scene where the Christian preacher makes the walk along with a foreigner interested in the bible, gets into his chariot, sits with him, reads with the Ethiopian that page from Isaiah that speaks of the suffering servant, and from that page announces the person of Jesus. Jesus is that servant who was eliminated and yet is the source of life. Philip’s word warms the heart of the Ethiopian who wishes to be baptized; he makes the chariot stop in an oasis, they go down together to the water and Philip baptizes the Ethiopian and lets him continue his journey alone, full of joy for having believed in Jesus.

That foreigner arrives in Ethiopia and according to tradition, will be the first evangelizer of that African region, arriving as a baptized person and bringing the proclamation of the gospel. If we think about it, the episode of Philip and the Ethiopian is very similar to that narrated by Luke in chapter 24, where the risen Jesus walks with the disciples of Emmaus, explains the Scriptures, makes their hearts burn and the encounter culminates in a sacrament. He enters to stay with them, his eyes open and they recognize him in the breaking of the bread, but Jesus disappears and they return to Jerusalem with joy and begin their story of evangelization.

Now Jesus’ place is being taken by Philip. This preacher of the second generation of Christians, begins to broaden horizons and bring the gospel to an Ethiopian who will in turn bring the preaching of Jesus to that distant region of Africa. And the gospel begins to leave Jerusalem. Philip could have stayed in Jerusalem, but he was not allowed to; he was forcibly sent out. Luckily, we would say, because in this way the preaching went out to Judea, Samaria and is reaching the ends of the earth.