Acts 8 Bible study: Beginning from this Scripture

The chapter opens: "Saul was consenting to his death. A great persecution arose against the assembly which was in Jerusalem in that day. They were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except for the apostles." (8:1) (tap scattered). Then come Stephen's burial (8:2) and Saul's ravaging of the assembly (8:3). Then Acts says, "Therefore those who were scattered abroad went around preaching the word." (8:4). Here is what almost everyone misses: those who are scattered are the ones who go around preaching the word, and in the Greek scattered abroad in 8:4 is the same verb as in 8:1. The apostles are the exception in 8:1, and in 8:14 they are "the apostles who were at Jerusalem". Later Acts picks up the same verb again: "They therefore who were scattered abroad by the oppression that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch" (11:19). Favor's introduction to Acts follows the word out of Jerusalem in From Jerusalem to Rome.

Isaiah 53:7-8→leads toActs 8:32-35

"He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he didn’t open his mouth" (Isaiah 53:7). "He was taken away by oppression and judgment" (Isaiah 53:8). In Acts a man of Ethiopia (Acts 8:27) "was reading the prophet Isaiah" (Acts 8:28). "Now the passage of the Scripture which he was reading was this" (Acts 8:32), and Acts gives the words of 53:7-8 (Acts 8:32-33). "The eunuch answered Philip, “Who is the prophet talking about? About himself, or about someone else?”" (Acts 8:34). "Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture, preached to him about Jesus" (Acts 8:35). The WEB words the two differently: As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent (Isaiah 53:7) and He was led as a sheep to the slaughter. As a lamb before his shearer is silent (Acts 8:32); nothing is claimed here about the Greek.

εὐαγγελίζωeuangelizosay yoo-ang-ghel-EED-zo

Strong's: "to announce good news". Thayer: "to bring good news, to announce glad tidings". In this chapter the WEB gives it as preaching (8:4), preaching good news (8:12), preached the Good News (8:25, 8:40) and preached (8:35), and in the Greek it is the same verb all five times. Those who were scattered "went around preaching the word" (8:4); in Samaria they "believed Philip preaching good news concerning God’s Kingdom and the name of Jesus Christ" (8:12); on the road Philip "preached to him about Jesus" (8:35). Acts has it 15 times (counted in RP2018), and five of them are here. Favor's Acts 5 studies it where it first comes in Acts (5:42), and Favor's Luke 1 where it first comes in Luke.