CHAPTER IX.

[9.1] Acts viii. 1, 4; xi. 19.

[9.2] Acts viii. 5, and following. That it was not the apostle is evident from a comparison of the passages, _Acts_ viii. 1, 5, 12, 14, 40; xxi. 8. It is true that the verse, _Acts_ xxi. 9, compared with what is said by Papias (in Eusebius His. Ecc. iii. 39), Polycrates (ib. v. 24), Clement of Alexandria (Strom, iii. 6), would identify the Apostle Philip, of whom these three ecclesiastical writers are speaking, with the Philip who plays so important a part in the _Acts_. But it is more natural to admit that the statement in the verse in question is a mistake, and that the verse was only interpolated to contradict the tradition of the churches of Asia and even of Hierapolis, whither the Philip who had daughters prophetesses retired. The particular data possessed by the author of the 4th Gospel (written, as it seems, in Asia Minor), in regard to the Apostle Philip are thus explained.

[9.3] See _Life of Jesus_, ch. xiv. It may be, however, that the habitual tendency of the author of the _Acts_ shows itself here again. See _Introd._, and supra.

[9.4] _Acts_ viii. 5-40.

[9.5] Jos. _Ant._ XVIII. iv. 1, 2.

[9.6] At this day Jît, on the road from Nablous to Jaffa, an hour and a half from Nablous and from Sebastieh. See Robinson _Bib. Res_. ii. p. 308, note; iii. 134 (2d ed.), and his map.

[9.7] The accounts relative to this personage, given by the Christian writers, are so fabulous that doubts may be raised even as to the reality of his existence. These doubts are all the more specious from the fact that in the Pseudo-Clementine literature "Simon the Magician" is often a pseudonym for St. Paul. But we cannot admit that the legend of Simon rests upon this foundation alone. How could the author of the _Acts_, so favorable to St. Paul, have admitted a doctrine the hostile bearing of which could not have escaped him? The chronological series of the Simonian School, the writings which remain to us of it, the precise facts of topography and chronology given by St. Justin, fellow-countryman of our thaumaturgist, are inexplicable, moreover, upon the hypothesis of Simon's having been an imaginary person. (See especially Justin _Apol._ ii. 15, and _Dial. cum Tryph._ 120.)

[9.8] Acts viii. 5, and following.

[9.9] Ib. viii. 9, and following.

[9.10] Justin, _Apol._ i. 26, 56.

[9.11] _Homil._ Pseudo-Clem. xvii. 15, 17; Quadratus, in Eusebius _Hist. Ecc._ iv. 3.

[9.12] _Acts_ viii. 25.

[9.13] Ib. viii. 26-40.

[9.14] I. Macc. x. 86, 89; xi. 60, and following. Jos. _Ant._ XIII., xiii. 3; XV. vii. 3; XVIII. xi. 5; _B. J._, I. iv. 2.

[9.15] Robinson _Bib. Res._, II. p. 41 and 514, 515 (2d ed).

[9.16] Talm. of Bab. _Erubin_ 53 b and 54 a; _Sota_, 46 b.

[9.17] Isaiah liii. 7.

[9.18] At this day Mérawi, near to Gebel-Barkal (Lepsius, _Denkmæler_ i pl. 1 and 2 _bis_.) Strabo XVII., i. 54.

[9.19] Strabo, XVII, i. 54; Pliny VI, xxxv. 8; Dion Cassius liv. 5; Eusebius _Hist. Ecc._ ii. 1.

[9.20] The descendants of these Jews still exist under the name of Falâsyân. The missionaries who converted them came from Egypt. Their translation of the Bible was made from the Greek version. The Falâsyân are not Israelites by blood.

[9.21] John xii. 20; Acts x. 2.

[9.22] See _Deut._ xxiii. 1. It is true that εὐνοῦχος might be taken by catachresis to designate a chamberlain as functionary of the Oriental Court. But δυνάστης was sufficient to render this idea; εὐνοῦχος ought then to be taken here in its proper sense.

[9.23] _Acts_ viii. 26, 29.

[9.24] To conclude thence that all this history was invented by the author of the _Acts_ seems to us rash. The author of the _Acts_ insists with satisfaction upon the facts which support his opinions; but we do not believe that he introduces into his narrative facts purely symbolical or deliberately invented. See _Introd._

[9.25] For the analogous state of the first Mormons, see Jules Remy, _Voyage au pays des Mormons_ (Paris, 1860), i. p. 195, and following.

[9.26] _Acts_ viii. 39-40. Compare _Luke_ iv. 14.

[9.27] _Acts_ ix. 32, 38.

[9.28] Ib. viii. 40; xi. 11.

[9.29] Ib. xxi. 8.

[9.30] Jos. _B. J._ III. ix. 1.

[9.31] _Acts_ xxiii. 23, and following; xxv. 1, 5; Tacitus _Hist._ ii. 79.

[9.32] Jos. _B. J._ III. ix. 1.

[9.33] Jos. _Ant._ XX. viii. 7; _B. J._ II. xiii. 5; xiv. 5; xviii. 1.

[9.34] Palm. of Jerusalem, _Sota_, 21 b.

[9.35] Jos. _Ant._ XIX. vii. 3-4; viii. 2.

[9.36] _Acts_ xi. 19.

[9.37] Ib. ix. 2, 10, 19.