Acts 21:8

Paul’s company. Textual evidence attests (cf. p. 10) the reading, “and leaving the next day, we came to Caesarea.”

Unto Caesarea. See on ch. 10:1. The inference is that the journey was by land (see on v. 7). There was then an excellent highway between Ptolemais and Caesarea. For Paul’s seeming preference for land travel cf. ch. 20:13.

Philip the evangelist. Philip was one of the original “servers of tables,” or deacons, and in the list of deacons his name follows Stephen’s (ch. 6:5). For Philip this work had merged or perhaps disappeared in that of the “evangelist” (see ch. 8:5-13, 26-40). The designation is not to be thought of as a title, but as a description of his current work, the result of his reception from the Holy Spirit of that particular gift (see Eph. 4:11; see on Acts 13:1). The importance of this gift is indicated by Paul’s exhortation to Timothy to “do the work of an evangelist” (2 Tim. 4:5) and to “stir up the gift of God, which is in thee” (2 Tim. 1:6).

Philip’s labors as an evangelist doubtless took him far beyond the limits of Caesarea, where he was last seen (Acts 8:40). He may have preached up and down the coasts of Palestine and Phoenicia, along with others who were scattered abroad during the persecution following Stephen’s death (see ch. 11:19). This is probably the first time Philip and Luke had met, and likewise also the first time Philip and Paul had crossed paths.

One of the seven. The Seven of ch. 6 are still looked upon as a distinct group. Whether Luke meant this in the organizational sense, or commemoratively, the fact is that the church has maintained the order of deacons ever since then.

Abode with him. Philip’s residence was evidently at Caesarea. Luke, the historian of the early church, doubtless made the most of this opportunity to gather valuable information concerning the state of the church from Philip and his family.