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2.5.2 - A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age
Primitive Jewish Christianity
The Widening Field - Imparting the Holy Spirit
It was in accordance with his general customs that the author of the Acts brings the missionary work among the Samaritans under the official oversight and control of the church of Jerusalem, or rather of the apostolic college, by recording that the assembled apostles, when they heard of what had been done, sent Peter and John to Samaria; and that the latter prayed and laid their hands upon the new converts in order that they might receive the Holy Spirit, who had not as yet come upon any of them.
That Peter and John actually visited Samaria, there is no occasion to doubt; but the idea that hey were sent from Jerusalem by the apostles as an official delegation to organize the Samaritans into a church, or to give their Christianity the sanction of their approval, and thus complete the work of Philip, betrays the conceptions of a later age. The apostles did not constitute an official board whose function was to exercise oversight over the church at large, and whose sanction was necessary for the inauguration of any new missionary enterprise, and for the establishment of any new church. The conception of such an official apostolate is certainly post-apostolic. [It is widely said that the bishops were the successors of the apostle. It would perhaps be as near the truth to say that the apostles were successors of the bishops! For the official character that has been ascribed to the apostles since the second century was the result of carrying back to them the official character of the bishops.] So that even if Peter and John did come from Jerusalem to Samaria at this time, they came not in an official capacity, but as Christian brethren to Christian brethren.
In the same way, the idea that the Holy Spirit was conveyed to the new converts by the mediation of the apostles betrays the thinking of a later age. The author evidently means to indicate that the apostles possessed a peculiar function that was not shared by Philip; that they and they alone, could mediate the impartation of the Holy Spirit.
But such a connection of the gift of the Spirit with a particular office or with a particular class of men is foreign to the conceptions of the apostolic age, as is shown even by Luke himself, in many other passages. For instance, in 9:17, it is recorded that Ananias, an ordinary disciple of Damascus, laid his hands upon Paul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, who appeared unto thee in the way which thou camest, hath sent me that thou mayest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost;” in 2:4, it is stated that all the assembled disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, where certainly no human agent can be supposed; and is vs. 33 of the same chapter, Peter tells his hearers that the exalted Jesus had poured forth the Spirit whose presence had been manifested to them. That he or any other apostle was in a position to mediate the impartation of that Spirit, and that the Spirit could not be imparted without his mediation, was certainly far from his thought. [Cf. Acts 9:31, 5:32, 11:17, 13:52]
The connection of the gift of the Holy Spirit with a particular rite, such as the laying on of hands [the connection appears again in 19:6] is equally alien to the conceptions of the apostolic age, as is shown by Luke himself, not only in the passages already referred to, but also in 10:44 and 11:15, where it is distinctly stated that the Spirit fell upon Cornelius and those that were with him, while Peter was still spreading, and before they had even been baptized.
The coming upon them of the Holy Ghost, which constituted indisputable evidence that Jesus had himself accepted them, was urged by Peter as a reason why they should receive baptism. That hands were laid upon various persons on different occasions, even in the days of the apostles, as recorded by Luke, [Acts 6:6, 9:17, 13:3] there is no reason to question. But it may fairly be doubted whether the impartation of the Holy Spirit was conditioned by, or even ordinarily connected with, any such rite.
It is clear from verses 18 and 19, that the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Samaritan disciples was attended with certain visible and audible phenomena, as was common in the apostolic age. [Simon’s desire to purchase the poser to confer the Spirit upon others shows clearly enough that the effect produced by his descent upon the new converts was not their mere growth in grace and piety, but something much more tangible and striking. It shows, too, that the disciples who received the Spirit made the impression even upon unbelievers of being in the possession of a power outside and above themselves. Simon would never have offered money for a power that produces effects which might as easily be produced in other ways, and which gave no clear indication of supernatural influence.]
The gift of the Spirit meant to the early Christians in general not the inspiring and controlling power of the entire Christian life, as it did to Paul, but the ability to speak with tongues, or to prophesy, or to do some other startling and uncommon and miraculous thing.
And so the evidence of the Spirit’s presence was commonly found in these early days in such marvelous manifestations, which seem to have been very frequently witnessed.
It was because of the striking effects produced by the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the new converts, that a certain magician named Simon, who is represented as on of them, is reported to have tried to induce the apostles to confer upon him the poser which they possessed, in order that he might be able to effect like results by the laying on of his hands. His offer of money was, of course, rejected with scorn, and a severe condemnation was drawn from Peter by his blasphemous suggestion.
This Simon Magus, as he is called, played quite an important role in primitive church history. He was widely regarded as the father of all heresy, and the existence of an heretical sect which claimed him for its founder, and called itself after his name, is attested by a number of second century writers.
There can be little doubt, in the light of the references to him in the Acts and in the writings of Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, [Justin Apol. I 26, 56, II 15; Dial. 120; Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. I 23] that Simon claimed to be the Messiah, and that he instituted a Messianic movement in Samaria, which was intended to rival and supplant Christianity, or to take the place among the Samaritans of Jesus’ Messianic movement among the Jews.
His effort to rival and surpass Jesus very likely began after his contact with the Christians which Luke records. His religious system was apparently a syncretism of Jewish and Oriental elements, and resembled very closely some forms of second century Gnosticism, if it did not indeed give rise to them. Such syncretism was common in Western Asia in the first as well as in the second century.
Simon’s movement, judging from the widespread hostility that he aroused within the church, must have had considerable success, and was certainly not confined to Samaria. With the many and conflicting legends that bring him into contact with the apostle Peter, both in East and West, and with those that gather about his career in Rome it is not necessary to concern ourselves here. [In the pseudo-Clementine literature of the third century, where Simon Magus is represented as the arch heretic with whom Peter contends in defense of the true faith, Ebiontic hostility to the apostle Paul’s finds expression in a covert attack upon him under the cloak of Simon. This fact led many scholars to deny that such a person as Simon ever existed and to resolve him into a mere fiction, invented with an anti-Pauline purpose. The account in Acts was generally recognized that such a procedure is unwarranted, and the theory has been almost universally abandoned. See McGiffert’s edition of Eusebius, p. 113 sq. Luke’s account of Simon’s dealing with the apostles can hardly be accurate in all the details, for it rests upon the assumption that the Holy Spirit was given by the laying on of the apostles’ hands. But there can be little doubt as to the truth of the main fact, that Simon did come into contact with the Christians at this time, and , impressed with the wonderful effects of the Spirit’s presence, tried in some way to secure the power of imparting it to others.]
Used by permission of the publisher.
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