Acts 8:1 b - Acts 8:4. Persecution and Dispersion. There has been no great persecution of the believers as yet. A night's imprisonment and beating was all they had to suffer. Now we are told that on the day of Stephen's death, a great persecution arose against the Church at Jerusalem, as if the passion that brought about the death of Stephen had sought further satisfaction. Such a persecution would be aimed specially at the Hellenistic side of the Church, not at those who went to the Temple and upheld the customs. The Jewish side of the Church suffered less; the apostles remained at Jerusalem, where we find them seated and recognised as the central authority (Acts 8:14; Acts 9:26 f., Acts 11:1; Acts 11:27-30; Acts 15:1 f.), and retaining with them many members who did not feel the persecution to be aimed at them. The all of :1 must be understood with this qualification; see Well-hausen, Noten zur Apostelgeschichte, pp. 9 ff. Eusebius (H.E. V. xviii. 14) tells us of a tradition that Christ had enjoined on the apostles not to depart from Jerusalem for twelve years (Acts 1:4 *), and the injunction (Matthew 10:5 f.) would act in the same way. The scattered members are found in the regions of Judæ a and Samaria.
There is a discrepancy between Acts 8:1 and Acts 8:2; Acts 8:1 reporting the flight of all the believers but the apostles, so that no one else was left to bury Stephen; and they evidently are not meant. Acts 8:1 is continued at Acts 8:4; Acts 8:3 is also detached. Was the persecution Saul undoubtedly carried on (Galatians 1:13) directed against Jewish Christians at Jerusalem, or against those of Stephen's way of thinking in the provinces (Acts 9:1 *)? The persecution by Saul is said to have been severe, embracing domestic inquisition, and summary imprisonment. The same statement as to the scattering of the believers at the death of Stephen is found in Acts 11:19, whore the story of these missionaries is taken up again. An example of their activity is given here in the mission of Philip to Samaria.