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Now for the first time, Luke indicates the Christian outreach to other than “pure” Jews. The Samaritans were, in some sense, half-Jews, able to claim Abraham as part of their heritage and having essentially the same sacred Scriptures as the Jews. Their racial impurity made them outcasts to racially pure Jews, although, in more liberal circles of Judaism, Samaritans were equated with proselytes (Gentiles who had been incorporated into the Jewish community of faith). More conservative Jews had extreme difficulty accepting even proselytes as part of the old covenant community. For them, there would be no possibility of the Samaritans' inclusion: “For Jews do not associate with Samaritans” (Jn 4:9). With the outreach to the Samaritans, the Christian community takes a decisive step.
It may be significant that Philip, one of the Hellenists, evangelizes the Samaritans and the Ethiopian eunuch. As noted (see 6:1-6), the Hellenists were more open to the larger culture of the Hellenistic world. Philip’s witness and ministry replicates that of the apostles in Jerusalem, and the response of the Samaritans is similar (8:5-8). The added note about Simon (vv.9-11) emphasizes the non-Jewish influences prevalent among the Samaritans, which caused the Jews to scorn them.
Although the Samaritans paid close attention to the Word, believed, and were baptized (8:6, 12), there is no mention of their receiving the Holy Spirit. This is not an oversight as the following section reveals (vv.14-17). The Holy Spirit does not come upon them until Peter and John are sent from Jerusalem and lay hands on them. This is not due to something inferior about the Samaritans. Rather, it serves as a sign to the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem that even the Samaritans are included in the new covenant community of God’s people. It seems likely, since Jerusalem had done nothing to evangelize Samaritans prior to this, that Peter and John were sent by Jerusalem to “investigate” what was going on. Since they evangelize many Samaritan villages on their return to Jerusalem (v.25), obviously the pair is convinced by God’s outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Samaritans.
Simon’s desire to control the gift of the Holy Spirit for his own enhancement (8:18-24) should be a warning to those in any age who attempt to contain the Holy Spirit within their own definitions, structures, and behaviors of Christian experience. Such activities are, as Peter noted, a sign that those who do such things are not participating in the reality of Christian experience, for their hearts are not right before God. Instead of being consecrated to God for God’s purposes, they seek to manipulate the gifts of God for their own purposes.