And they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.
when they had.
Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Acts 18:5 And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ.
Acts 20:21 Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
villages.
Luke 9:52-56 And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him…
they returned to Jerusalem
Jerusalem was the center of early Christian activity and the location of the first church. The apostles' return to Jerusalem signifies the importance of maintaining a connection with the church's leadership and the base of operations for the early Christian mission. This return also underscores the unity and accountability within the early church, as the apostles reported back to the other believers and leaders.
preaching the gospel in many of the Samaritan villages
The act of preaching in Samaritan villages is significant due to the historical animosity between Jews and Samaritans. By spreading the gospel in these areas, Peter and John were breaking down long-standing barriers and fulfilling Jesus' example of reaching out to marginalized groups, as seen in John 4 with the Samaritan woman at the well. This outreach demonstrates the inclusive nature of the gospel and the breaking of ethnic and cultural boundaries, aligning with prophecies such as Isaiah 49:6, which speaks of being a light to the nations. The apostles' actions here prefigure the broader mission to the Gentiles, which becomes a major theme in the book of Acts.
• Luke records that Peter and John “testified,” a legal-sounding word that underscores their firsthand witness to the risen Christ (Acts 1:8; 4:20).
• Their testimony wasn’t abstract; it confirmed that Jesus is the long-promised Messiah, fulfilling what they had seen and heard (1 John 1:1-3).
• This moment links to earlier apostolic practice: “With great power the apostles continued to give their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 4:33).
• By testifying in Samaria, the apostles validate the Samaritan believers’ faith and show that salvation through Christ is not limited to Jerusalem or Judea.
• Testifying moves naturally into proclaiming “the word of the Lord,” the authoritative gospel message (Acts 4:31; 6:7).
• Their words carry divine authority, not personal opinion—“when you received the word of God…you accepted it not as the word of men, but as the very word of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:13).
• The sequence—testimony followed by teaching—models balanced ministry: witness backed up by Scripture, experience grounded in truth.
• Jerusalem remains the church’s launching pad (Luke 24:52-53; Acts 12:25). The apostles return to report, refuel, and maintain unity with the wider body.
• Their going back does not signal retreat but completion of a circuit: the gospel goes out, bears fruit, and the carriers regroup for the next assignment.
• This rhythm mirrors the sending-and-returning pattern Jesus set with the seventy-two (Luke 10:17).
• Peter and John seize the journey home as ministry opportunity, stopping in “many” Samaritan villages. The phrase shows intentional breadth—no village too small, no people group overlooked.
• Their actions fulfill Jesus’ prophetic outline: “You will be My witnesses…in all Judea and Samaria” (Acts 1:8).
• The groundwork laid by Philip (Acts 8:5-8) now gains apostolic confirmation, echoing Jesus’ earlier harvest among the Samaritans (John 4:39-42).
• By preaching in Samaria, the apostles embody reconciliation between historically estranged Jews and Samaritans, demonstrating the unifying power of the gospel (Ephesians 2:14-18).
Acts 8:25 shows Peter and John finishing their Samaritan mission with two complementary priorities: bearing eyewitness testimony to Christ and teaching the authoritative word of the Lord. Their return to Jerusalem is not a mere withdrawal but part of a purposeful travel pattern that extends the gospel’s reach. By deliberately preaching in multiple Samaritan villages, they confirm God’s heart for all peoples and model a lifestyle that turns every journey into a kingdom opportunity.
(25) And they, when they had testified . . .--The statement involves a stay of some duration, long enough to found and organise a community of disciples. And this was followed, not by an immediate return to Jerusalem, but, as the Greek tense shows, by one with many halts, at each of which the glad tidings of "the word of the Lord" were proclaimed, and a Church founded. Did the Apostles enter on this journey into the village on which one of them had sought to call down fire from heaven (Luke 9:54)? Now, at least, he had learnt to know what manner of Spirit claimed him as his own.The curtain falls at the close of this drama on the Christians of Samaria, and we know but little of their after history. The one glimpse of them which we get is, however, of very special interest. When Paul and Barnabas after their first missionary journey went up to Jerusalem, they passed "through Phenico and Samaria" (Acts 15:3). St. Paul also had conquered the antagonism that divided the Jew, and, above all, the Pharisee, from the Samaritan. The Samaritans heard with joy of that conversion of the Gentiles which showed that old barriers and walls of partition were broken down. Many, we may believe, would elect to take their stand on the ground of the freedom of the gospel rather than on any claim to Jewish descent or the observance of the Jewish Law. Others, however, we know, adhered to that Law with a rigorous tenacity, and left their creed and ritual, their Gerizim worship and their sacred Books, as an inheritance to be handed down from century to century, even to the present day. The whole nation suffered severely in the wars with Rome under Vespasian, and Sychem was taken and destroyed, a new city being built by the emperor on the ruins--a Roman city with Temples dedicated to Roman gods--to which, as perpetuating the name of his house and lineage, he gave the name of Flavia Neapolis (= New Town), which survives in the modern Nablous. In the early history of the Church there attaches to that city the interest of having been the birthplace of the martyr Justin, and of the heretic Dositheus. In one of the Simon legends, as stated above, the latter appears as the instructor of the sorcerer, but this is probably a distortion of his real history.
Verse 25. - They therefore for and they, A.V. ; spoken for preached, A.V.; to many for in many, A.V.