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By F. A. Heckman
There are 34 Scripture references to men named Philip. At the outset, we shall exclude
from further consideration Philip, the Tetrarch, brother of Herod (Matt. 14:3; Mk. 6:17 &
Lu.3:10)., This Philip was neither an apostle nor a disciple of Christ. Thus the remaining 31
Philip references are the ones of interest to this paper.
It was a great shock to me when I found out for the first time (at age 86!) that most Bible
scholars believe that the New Testament writers speak of two different men named Philip!
I am sorry to say that all of my life before this, I had read the Scriptures pertaining to Philip
much too casually. As a result, I completely missed the teaching about two Philips.
In order to confirm the two-Philip assertion, I looked up a number of articles on the subject.
All of the articles I consulted so far speak about the Apostle Philip (Philip-A) and Philip, the
evangelist (Philip-E), as being separate and distinct from each other. However, none of
them offered an explanation as to how they reached that conclusion; they simply said it
was so.
Thus, the reader was left to his own devices to try to explain the position taken in the
articles, namely that there must be two Philips. One may start by stating facts about men
named Philip.
First, the Gospel references and one Acts 1 reference, to Philip (of which there are 15), are
quite clearly and unambiguously to the Apostle Philip. The Gospel record of Philip-A’s
activities make no mention of evangelizing.
Second, in Acts, Chapters 6, 8 and 21, we find 16 references to a man named Philip, i.e.,
Philip-E. As mentioned above, the authors of the articles I read say that all these
references are to Philip, the evangelist. Now let us set down in step-wise order the
reasons why these beliefs are held.
1
In response, verses 2 & 3, the 12 apostles (certainly including Philip-A) summoned the
congregation of the disciples. The way Luke puts it in the NAS, the congregation seems to
be an official body in Jerusalem..
2
STEP SEVEN: Philip, the evangelist in Caesarea
We hear no more about Philip until Acts 21:8-9, where Luke tells us that the Apostle Paul
stayed with him in his house in Caesarea. In this passage, Philip is positively identified as
Philip, the evangelist, one of the seven (deacons) appointed in Acts, Chapter 6). Paul’s
visit to Philip’s house took place around 55 A.D. Thus, about 17 years elapsed between
Acts 8 and Acts 21. We know nothing about Philip’s activities during this time. However,
we do know that he had 4 virgin daughters who prophesied, thus strongly implying that he
was married (Acts 21:9).. Incidentally, there is no Scripture record saying that the apostle
Philip ever went to Caesarea.
It should be noted here that some authors hold out the possibility that there is only one
Philip in Scripture. However, the preponderance of Scriptural evidence, as presented
above, makes a very strong case for two Philips.
CONCLUSION
The steps set forth above serve to make a logical distinction between the apostle Philip and
Philip, the evangelist.. These steps in outline form follow.
In the main body of this paper above, compelling observations and deductions strongly
support the two-Philip assertion. First, Philip-E was chosen a deacon from among the
Jerusalem disciples. Second, at the time of the persecution, the disciples, including Philip-
E were scattered while the apostles, including Philip-A, remained in Jerusalem. Thus it
was clearly Philip-E who went down to Samaria, preaching and evangelizing. Third, Philip-
E continues his evangelizing activities all the way to Caesarea, where he remained, to be
visited by the apostle Paul and companions..