What Happened in Samaria?

We speak of the baptism of the Holy Spirit as an event that took place in the first century, at the very beginning of church history. That’s correct. Notwithstanding the practices of some charismatic groups, most Christians today do not expect groups of new believers to receive the Holy Spirit accompanied by tongues of fire and the expression of the prophetic word in foreign languages as in Acts 2. If we are honest, nothing that we see happening in those churches today corresponds authentically to the events we read about in Acts.

So then, we consign the baptism of the Holy Spirit to the past, where we believe it belongs. It was a historic manifestation of the power of God by which “in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body”.

One Baptism in Several Phases

All the same, we should not neglect to note that this seminal event took place in several phases over a relatively short period, and this sometimes creates problems for new Christians reading about the coming of the Holy Spirit for the first time. They wonder, why was it like this?

In the first instance, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit filled Jews who were already believers. Tongues of fire rested on them, and they began to speak in the recognizable languages of their audience in Jerusalem. That’s in Acts 2. Then in Acts 10, in the household of Cornelius, upon hearing Peter’s message and believing, Gentiles too began to speak in tongues and glorify God as spontaneously and miraculously as Jews had at the beginning.

That’s one pattern: belief, followed by the gift of the Spirit. In between these two similar cases, we have Acts 8, when the coming of the Holy Spirit does not accompany belief. Something more is required. The Samaritans believe Philip’s gospel preaching and are baptized. And yet, no Holy Spirit, no tongues, no evidence of salvation beyond “much joy in that city”, until the apostles Peter and John come down from Jerusalem and pray for these Samaritans to receive the Holy Spirit, and lay their hands on them. In Samaria, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is associated with apostolic laying on of hands. For the Jews in Jerusalem and the Gentiles in Caesarea, this was not a necessary step.

Why the difference? What happened in Samaria?

An Attempt at an Answer

Colin Anderson addressed the question in 1986. I’ve transcribed his answer below.

Campbell Morgan Weighs In

That brings us into a real difficulty, doesn’t it? G. Campbell Morgan, a noted expositor of a few years back, said this:

“The story as it stands reminds us once more that we have no right to base our theology on any one picture given us in Acts.”

Here were people believing in Jesus and afterwards receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. There are other pictures where people believe and receive the Spirit immediately. Then he goes on to say, “I have no answer.”

When he says, “I have no answer,” I’m not going to blame him. It’s a very puzzling thing, isn’t it? Why is it that it’s this way? Well, let me just draw your attention to a few things that may help us to come to some kind of answer.

The Household of Cornelius

First of all, this is not the way Gentiles received the Holy Spirit later on in the book of Acts. In Acts 10, for example, we read these words: “While Peter was still speaking” — still preaching the gospel message. No laying on of hands. No waiting for a period of time before the apostles come down to confirm these people are believers. “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all those who were listening to the message.”

But these [in Acts 8] were Samaritans. They were a special class of people, as we shall see in a moment.

When the Gentiles heard the word of God [in Acts 10], they received the Spirit immediately; in fact, before Peter had even pronounced the benediction at the end of his sermon. Before he’d finished, God the Holy Spirit interrupted the man. He said, “Enough, Peter, they’ve believed!” and the Spirit of God came upon those people and they were brought into the kingdom of God. Peter was astonished at what had happened, and he realized that without any of the preliminaries that were usually associated with becoming [a proselyte of Judaism], the Gentiles could be received into the kingdom of God. Peter had to learn that he was to receive them because God had cleansed them.

Sealed When You Believed

Ever afterwards, they referred back to that incident. When they had problems at Jerusalem later on in Acts 15, they referred back to what took place in Acts 10 and they said, “You know what? It happened to the Gentiles just as it did on us at the beginning.” That was at Pentecost. The very same thing happened. So they said, “We can’t refuse them. God has accepted them.”

Well, what we have here — waiting for the Holy Spirit to come upon people after Peter and John or somebody has laid hands upon them — that’s not the way it happened later on to Gentiles, so we can’t say it was a pattern that always had to be followed.

Let’s go a little bit further. We come to the books of doctrine from which we get our understanding as far as what should be today. I refer to the letter that Paul wrote to the Ephesians. He says to those Ephesians, “Having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” No laying on of hands. None of those things required. But the moment you believed, “you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise”.

A Suggestion

Why this exception? Let me offer a suggestion for you to ponder. Down through the centuries, there had been tremendous rivalry between the Samaritans and the Jews. They had two rival temples, one in Jerusalem and one on a mountain in Samaria, and there was great enmity between the two, so that you remember the woman of Samaria in John 4 said even to the Lord Jesus, “How is it that you being a Jew talk to me, who am a woman of Samaria?”

Can’t understand it. We have no dealings with one another.

Now, let us suppose that the Spirit of God had come upon those Samaritans apart from any association with the Jews who had already believed. If you were a Samaritan, awfully proud of your brand of religion, what would you do? You’d say, “Well, we’re as good as the Jews!”, wouldn’t you? You’d set up a Samaritan church. You’d say, “You have your Jewish church. You have the Holy Spirit and we have the Holy Spirit. We’ve got the Samaritan church. We’re as good as you are.” And right away we would have had two churches. Right from the very foundation of Christianity, you would have had a Jewish church and you’d have had a Samaritan church.

God the Holy Spirit did not come on those people who had received the word of God and believed it until those two groups got together representatively and Peter and John laid their hands on them and said to these despised Samaritans, “We’re one with you.” And the Spirit of God said, “Yes, that’s what my coming is all about”, for “by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body.”

Not two bodies, one body. So we suggest that’s the reason.

More to be Said

It’s a perfectly reasonable explanation and a good deal better than a mere suggestion. What happened in Samaria required concessions from both sides: from the Jews, acknowledging that those despised Samaritans were now their brothers in Christ; from the Samaritans, acknowledging (even tacitly) that this new thing of which they had become a part had originated in Judaism and had (at least at the time) exclusively Jewish leadership. The grace and submission required to lay hands on Samaritans, on the one side, and to accept it, on the other, are very much in keeping with the spirit of the later New Testament writings about the submission and humility that should characterize believers.

But new believers often have follow-up questions. Here are a few: What’s all this about laying hands on people? Why did they do that anyway? What was it supposed to communicate? Was it always accompanied by miracles?

Much to my surprise, that’s a subject we’ve never covered here in any depth. Time to fix that! Tuesday, Lord willing.