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Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus;

For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife.

And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Canaanite,

For Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John, and bound him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife: for he had married her.

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene,

But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done,

Simon, ° (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew,

The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me.

Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.

Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

New Defender's Study Bible Notes

3:14 the spirit lifted me up. This may have been a supernatural translation of the prophet, in similar fashion to the experience of Philip (Acts 8:39-40). Also compare Ezekiel 8:3. Perhaps, as a vision (see Ezekiel 1:1), his spirit was translated, somewhat as in Paul’s experience (II Corinthians 12:2-4) while his body remained in his home. In any case, the things he saw and heard were real, not dreams or symbols.

14:1 Herod the tetrarch. This Herod was Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, who had been king when Jesus was born. He was made tetrarch of Galilee, while his brother Archelaus was ruling as ethnarch over Judea (Matthew 2:22), the province in which both Jerusalem and Bethlehem were located. Another son, Philip, had been made tetrarch of Iturea (Luke 3:1).

14:3 Herodias. Another son of Herod the Great was Aristobulus, the father of Herodias. Herodias had married still another of Herod’s sons named Philip (not the tetrarch of Galilee, but a private citizen). She later left Philip to marry Herod Antipas. Both Philip and Herod Antipas were thus her uncles. Salome was the daughter of Philip and Herodias.

14:6 daughter of Herodias. The name of this “damsel” is not given in the gospels, but it was Salome, according to the Jewish historian Josephus. She later married Philip the tetrarch, her uncle. The incestuous marriages among the descendants of Herod the Great (who seems to have had about ten wives) were many and complicated.

1:43 Galilee. At this time, Jesus was apparently still in Judaea, where John had been baptizing (John 1:28), preparing to travel north nearer to His family home in Galilee. A wedding had been scheduled there in Cana, to which He had been called (John 2:1-2). Yet he called John, Andrew, Peter, Philip, Nathanael, and presumably James (John’s brother) as His disciples during these two days. All of these men lived far north in Galilee, yet Jesus first encountered them in or near Bethabara, east of Jerusalem, far from their homes. The inference seems to be that all were disciples of John the Baptist, and were with him as he preached and baptized near Jerusalem in those days.

1:51 heaven open. Nathanael had been convinced by the Lord’s miraculous knowledge concerning himself (John 1:47-49), and Jesus was very pleased to find a disciple “in whom is no guile.” The resulting prophetic promise given to Nathanael obviously referred back to the remarkable vision of Jacob’s ladder (Genesis 28:12), when he saw angels going up and down on a ladder reaching from earth to heaven. The reason for Christ’s surprising statement may well have been that Nathanael was reading that account in Genesis when Philip approached him. Jacob’s ladder thus is revealed to be a type of Christ, who is Himself the ladder from earth to heaven. He Himself had ascended and descended from heaven (John 3:13), and the time is coming “when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that…obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (II Thessalonians 1:7-8).

8:1 church which was at Jerusalem. The church at Jerusalem had grown inordinately large. In addition to the three thousand converts on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:41), there were many others who had joined. After Peter’s second sermon, it was noted that the believers numbered five thousand men, evidently not even counting the women and children (Acts 4:4). Later the disciples were called a “multitude” (Acts 4:32), and still later it was said that “the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly” (Acts 6:7). They were all staying in Jerusalem, enjoying one another’s fellowship and the preaching of the apostles. The Lord, however, had commissioned them to go throughout all Judaea and Samaria, and eventually “to the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Since they had not even started to do this, perhaps it was the Lord who allowed this persecution to arise. Soon they were, indeed, scattering into the rest of Judaea and into Samaria, and as they scattered, they “went everywhere preaching the word” (Acts 8:4). Perhaps modern churches that desire to become large and powerful should be advised by this example (note also, for example, the later church at Laodicea, which had become big and rich in material things, but lukewarm in doctrine and devotion to Christ—Revelation 3:14-20). When the Lord blesses a church with many converts and disciples, it may well be more efficient as well as Christ honoring for many of its members to “scatter abroad” to form new churches in other areas where they are more needed. Philip’s glad reception in Samaria (Acts 8:5-8) is a case in point.

8:13 believed also. Simon’s “belief” was evidently only a belief in the reality of the signs and wonders performed by Philip (note Christ’s rebuke of this kind of belief in John 4:48; also compare John 2:23-25). These wonders were greater than Simon was able to do with his sorceries (Greek mageia, from which we get our word “magic”), and he was envious. In the early Christian literature, he was called Simon Magus, and was said to be a prominent enemy of the true faith.

8:27 man of Ethiopia. Philip had been among the first to go to Samaria with the gospel; now he also was called to witness in the outside world, through this influential official of the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia. The latter seems (like Cornelius, as noted in Acts 10) to have been a proselyte of Judaism, but his witness could bring a significant opening for Christianity into Africa.

8:35 at the same scripture. Philip realized that the Ethiopian was reading from the great Messianic prophecy of Isaiah 53:7-8, and it was natural to use this Scripture to preach Christ to him. At the same time, all the Old Testament Scriptures relate to Christ in one way or another.

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