Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit:
All Commentaries on Acts 8:15 Go To Acts 8
John Chrysostom
AD 407
And (yet) great signs had been done: how then had they not received the Spirit? They had received the Spirit, namely, of remission of sins: but the Spirit of miracles they had not received. For as yet He was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. (v. 16, 17.) For, to show that this was the case, and that it was the Spirit of miracles they had not received, observe how, having seen the result, Simon came and asked for this. And when Simon saw that through laying on of the Apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. (v. 18, 19.)
The persecution, say you, gained strength. True, but at that very time to men possessed before (by a hostile power) it brought deliverance. For it planted the miracles like a stronghold, in the heart of the enemy's country.— Not even the death of Stephen quenched their rage, nay, increased it rather: it scattered wide the teachers, so that the greater became the discipleship.— And there was joy. And yet there had been great lamentation: true; but mark again the good— Of a long time was the malady, but this man brought them deliverance.— And how came he to baptize Simon also? Just as Christ chose Judas.— And beholding the signs which he did, forasmuch as the others did not receive the (power of working) signs, he dared not ask for it.— How was it then that they did not strike him dead, as they did Ananias and Sapphira? Because even in the old times, he that gathered sticks (on the sabbath-day) was put to death as a warning to others Numbers 15:32 and in no other instance did any suffer the same fate. So too on the present occasion, Peter said to him, Your money perish, because you have imagined that the gift of God is to be purchased with money.—
