Acts Chapter 21 verse 8 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 8. - On the morrow for the next day A.V.; we for we that were of Paul's company, A.V. and T.R.; entering we for we entered... and, A.V.; who for which, A.V. Unto Caesarea. They seem to have come from Ptolemais to Caesarea by land, a two days' journey; the word. ἐξελθόντες, as Howson justly remarks, pointing to a land-journey. Philip the evangelist. When last we heard of him (Acts 8:40) he had just reached Caesarea; apparently he had been working there as an evangelist ever since. His old home at Jerusalem (Acts 6:5) had been broken up by the persecution (Acts 8:5), and thus the deacon had become an evangelist (Acts 8:12). Evangelists are mentioned by St. Paul(Ephesians 4:11) as one of the higher orders of the Christian ministry; and Timothy is bid "do the work of an evangelist" (2 Timothy 4:5). In later times the term was restricted to the four writers of the Gospels. Philip's old association with Stephen in the diaconate must have been keenly remembered by St. Paul. We abode with him. This seems to imply that Philip was well to do, and had a good house.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(8) We that were of Paul's company departed.--Better, simply, we departed. The Greek which answers to the intervening five words is wanting in the best MSS., and seems a needless interpolation, there being no apparent reason for any change in the writer's previous phraseology, or for his distinguishing "Paul's company" from some other person or persons unknown. In some of the MSS. in which it is found, the verb is in the third person: "They that were of Paul's company came . . . ."Came unto Caesarea.--Comp. Acts 8:40; Acts 10:1. This was, it will be remembered, St. Paul's third visit there (Acts 9:30; Acts 18:22), and we may well believe that he was simply renewing the intercourse of a previous friendship with Philip.Philip the evangelist.--The title given to him is interesting as showing that the work of "serving tables," i.e., of superintending the distribution of alms, had been merged in the higher work of a missionary preacher. (See Note on Acts 6:3.) He was no longer known, if, indeed, that title had ever been applied to him, as Philip the deacon, but as Philip the evangelist. The office so described is recognised by St. Paul in his enumeration of spiritual gifts and functions, in Ephesians 4:11, as coming next in order of importance to those of apostles and prophets, and before pastors and teachers. It would seem, accordingly, to have been distinct from the "orders," in the later sense, of presbyter or deacon, though capable of being united with either of them. Timotheus was exhorted by St. Paul when he was left at Ephesus, with the authority of a bishop, or, more strictly, of a vicar apostolic, to "do the work of an evangelist," as that to which he had been called (2Timothy 4:5). It followed, from the nature of the office, as analogous to that of the missionary of later times, that, though residing mainly at Caesarea, Philip's labours extended beyond its limits; and we have seen reason to trace his work (see Notes on Acts 8:40; Acts 15:3; Acts 21:3; Acts 21:7) all along the coasts of Palestine and Phoenicia. As far as we know, Philip and St. Luke had not met before, and we can imagine the satisfaction with which the latter, himself, probably, an evangelist in both senses of the word (2Corinthians 8:18), and already contemplating his work as an historian, would welcome the acquaintance of the former, how he would ask many questions as to the early history of the Church, and learn from him all, or nearly all, that we find in the first eleven chapters of this book. . . .