8 ¹ And Saul approved of their killing him.

Saul Persecutes the Church

That day a severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria.^{(A) 2} Devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him.^{(B) 3} But Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison.^(C)

Philip Preaches in Samaria

⁴ Now those who were scattered went from place to place proclaiming the word.^{(D) 5} Philip went down to the city^[a] of Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah^[b] to them.^(E)

Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

²⁶ Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south^[a] to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.)^{(A) 27} So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship^{(B) 28} and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹ Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.”^{(C) 30} So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹ He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. ³² Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:

³⁴ The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.^{(E) 36} As they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?”^{[b](F) 38} He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip^[c] baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing.^{(G) 40} But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

The Ascension of Jesus

⁶ So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”^{(A) 7} He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.^{(B) 8} But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”^{(C) 9} When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.^{(D) 10} While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them.^{(E) 11} They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”^(F)