See Alford's _Greek Testament_ on Acts viii. 26, and Wordsworth's _Greek Testament_ on the same passage, which he thus explains: "Go by the road which leads to Gaza--which is desert; Almighty GOD has something for thee to do there. He can enable thee to do the work of an Evangelist, not only in the city of Samaria, but in the wilderness of Philistia." Note on Acts viii. 38.--Deacons in the early Church, notwithstanding the precedent of St. Philip, were not usually allowed to baptise alone. Wordsworth's _The Ministry of Grace_, p. 161. FOOTNOTES: [4] In Judith ii. 28; 1 Macc. x. 86, xi. 60; both in A.V. and R.V. Askelon is called Ascalon. [5] Ethnology of the Bible. _The Bible Educator_, vol. iii, pp. 197-200. [6] See also _The Historical Geography of the Holy Land_, 1902, p. 189. [7] See Josephus, _Antiq. Jews_, XI. 8, 4, section 325. [8] The Revised Version of the Apocrypha reads "against Gazara." See Josephus, _The Jewish War_, Book I, Chap. II, section 2 (50). [9] In the Old Testament the distinction between a town and a village is not generally defined. The former, as a rule, was an inhabited place surrounded by a wall. The latter, one that is not so enclosed (Lev. xxv. 29-31). Towns themselves, however, are also sometimes distinguished as walled and unwalled (Deut. iii. 5; Esther ix. 19). The New Testament and Josephus uniformly distinguish between πόλις and κώμη (an unwalled village, opposite to a fortified city).--Schürer, II. i. 154. CHAPTER II SUMMARY OF CHIEF EVENTS RELATING TO GAZA[10] FROM 1503 B.C. to A.D. 1913 _Section_ I (1503 B.C. to 30 B.C.)[11] 1503-1449 B.C.--Eighteenth Dynasty. In the twenty-second year of his reign, 1481 B.C. (according to Sayce), Thothmes III made his first determined attempt to subdue Canaan. Gaza was occupied with much difficulty. The fortress of the Prince of Gaza is mentioned in the great expedition of Thothmes III. _c._ 1444 B.C.--Eighteenth Dynasty. Amen-hetep II, successor of Thothmes III, has hieroglyphic inscriptions in Gaza, which have been lately discovered. They show that a temple had been built by this Egyptian king to the goddess An Mut. _c._ 1366 B.C.--Nineteenth Dynasty. Seti Mer-en Ptah I, the father of Rameses II, drove the Beduins before him from the frontiers of Egypt to those of Canaan, and established a line of fortresses and walls along "the way of the Philistines," which ran by the way of the shore to Gaza (Sayce). 1348-1281 B.C.--Nineteenth Dynasty. Rameses II, User-Maāt-Ra (the Great), continued to hold Gaza till at least 1292, or later. _c._ 1225 B.C.--Twentieth Dynasty. Rameses III, Hik-An, captured Gaza, but it does not seem to have remained long in the possession of the Egyptians (Sayce). 734-732 B.C.--Tiglath-pileser III, the founder of the second Assyrian Empire, plundered Gaza, and made it subject to Assyria. It soon revolted against its new masters, relying, no doubt, upon help from Egypt, but in vain.