Reaching out: Philip and the eunuch, 26-40
Direction through Spirit and Providence
Verse 26: “the angel of the Lord” speaks
to Philip and directs him where to go (cf. v. 29). “south unto the way that
goeth down” to Gaza. The Old Testament mentions Gaza several times, but only
here is it mentioned in the New Testament. According to Bock, this was the last
water stop before desert.[i]
Verse 27: “behold” – a remote pathway,
a returning pilgrim, a roving preacher, all brought together in God’s
providence. The eunuch was “of Ethiopia,” but not necessarily an Ethiopian.[ii]
He was probably a Jew – or at least a Jewish proselyte – because he “had come
to Jerusalem for to worship.”[iii]
He was “an eunuch of great authority.” He held a high rank in the queen’s
court. Jews often rose to high-ranking posts in foreign courts, such as Joseph
in Egypt (Genesis 41:39-45), and Daniel in Babylon (Daniel 2:48-49). Some think
this man was an eunuch positionally (under the authority of the queen) rather
than physically.[iv]
However, there seems little reason for Luke to mention that he was “an eunuch”
if he simply meant he was an officer. The Bible teaches the apostle Peter first
took the gospel to the Gentiles (later – in Acts 10, not Philip here in Acts 8).
It is likely, nevertheless, that this eunuch did share his good news with Gentiles
after he returned to Ethiopia.[v]
“Candace queen of the Ethiopians” – Candace
was evidently a royal title of queens in Ethiopia, as Pharaoh was for the kings
of Egypt (Genesis 12:15; 41:15; Exodus 1:11; I
Kings 3:1; Jeremiah 37:5), Abimelech for kings in Philistia (Genesis
20:2; 26:1), or Caesar for the emperors of Rome (Luke 2:1; 3:1; John 19:15;
Acts 11:28; 28:18-19).[vi]
Verse 28: “sitting in his chariot” Considering
the following circumstances, the chariot probably had stopped. “read Esaias the
prophet” The eunuch of Ethiopia was reading a portion of text from the prophet
Isaiah (cf. Isaiah 34:16). He read aloud (cf. v. 30). Providentially, this
portion of text contains a prophecy of the suffering Messiah. The honest seeker
is profitably employed when reading the word of God.
Verse 29: “the Spirit said unto Philip”
Sent here by an angelic messenger, the Spirit guides Philip’s next move. “Go
near.” This is why he is here, and this is the one whom he is to see. There should
be no apprehension, and obedience is expected.
Verse 30: Philip obeys the Spirit’s
command with haste – he “ran thither.” The eunuch read aloud from the
Scriptures, and Philip heard him read. God’s providence places them in the
right place at the right time. Philip traveling in his manner from the city of
Samaria, and the eunuch traveling in his manner from the city of Jerusalem,
converge on this one point on the same road at the same point in time.
Verses 30-31: Philip asks a question
and the eunuch responds, “How can I, except some man should guide me?” He
invites Philip to come up into the chariot and sit with him. God is at work on
the evangelist and the evangelized. He has brought Philip here “for such as
time as this,” and he had prepared the eunuch for his witness. The eunuch had
been to Jerusalem to worship, and was reading Isaiah. Doubtless God combines
these two elements in preparing him for the message of Jesus.
Verses 32-33: the eunuch reads, from
Isaiah, what we recognize as Isaiah 53:7b-8a:
…he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her
shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of
the land of the living…
A common modern Jewish interpretation
is that Isaiah 53 refers to the nation of Israel. Synagogue calendar readings
leave it out. “Because of the christological interpretation given to the
chapter [53rd of Isaiah, rlv] by
Christians, it is omitted from the series of prophetical lessons (Haftarot) for the Deuteronomy Sabbaths.
These seven lessons are called the ‘Seven (Chapters) of Comfort’, and are taken
from the preceding and following parts of the book: the omission is deliberate
and striking.”[vii]
According to Rachmiel Frydland, “Our ancient commentators with one accord noted
that the context clearly speaks of God’s Anointed One, the Messiah.”[viii]
Verses 34-35: The eunuch does not
understand the reading, whether the prophet speaks this “of himself, or of some
other man.” Philip launches from this question and preaches Jesus. He is the
“other man” of whom the prophet speaks – the Messiah, the longing of Israel. He
is the man who became obedient unto death. Now the worshipper at the Temple
recognizes the one – the One whose temple was destroyed and raised again in
three days.
Verse 36: the question of baptism
comes up. The preaching of Jesus does not exclude the preaching of baptism, which
is a testimony of his death, burial, and resurrection according to the scriptures.
The believer does not delay to obey. Compare Psalm 119:60 “I made haste, and
delayed not to keep thy commandments.”
Verse 37: ειπεν δε ο φιλιππος ει πιστευεις εξ ολης της καρδιας
εξεστιν αποκριθεις δε ειπεν πιστευω τον υιον του θεου ειναι τον ιησουν χριστον “If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest [i.e., be
baptized].” “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” The great
profession of belief before baptism, as found here in the King James Version of
the Bible, is left out of many, if not most, modern Bible versions.[ix]
This is based on claims that the “earliest and best” New Testament manuscripts (their
words) do not contain it, and that the earliest with it dates from the sixth
century (Codex Laudianus, or E).
Nevertheless, Irenaeus quotes part of the Ethiopian eunuch’s confession of
faith in Christ. The quotation is as early as the latter part of the second
century, showing it was in the scriptures he used. See Adversus Haereses (Against
Heresies), III.xii.8.
[Philip declared] that this was Jesus, and that the Scripture was
fulfilled in Him; as did also the believing eunuch himself: and, immediately
requesting to be baptized, he said, “I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of
God.”…[x]
Irenaeus references the great
confession, and about 70 years later Cyprian (circa AD 250) mentions the first
part of what we know as verse 37 (found in The
Treatises of Cyprian, Treatise 12, Book 3.43).
That he who believes can immediately obtain (i.e., pardon and
peace). In the Acts of the Apostles: ‘Lo,
here is water; what is there which hinders me from being baptized? Then said
Philip, If you believe with all your heart, you may.’[xi]
Pontius, a deacon at Cyprian’s church,
also mentions Philip’s words to the eunuch (If thou believest with all thine
heart) when writing about the life of Cyprian of Carthage (Vita Cypriani, or Life of
Cyprian, paragraph 3).
For although in the Acts of the Apostles the eunuch is described as at
once baptized by Philip, because he believed with his whole heart, this is not
a fair parallel. For he was a Jew, and as he came from the temple of the Lord
he was reading the prophet Isaiah…[xii]
Pontius the deacon wrote Vita Cypriani after Cyprian’s death,
which occurred circa AD 258. Cyprian of Carthage wrote circa AD 250. Irenaeus
of Lyons wrote Adversus Haereses circa
AD 175-185. It is clear, then, that the words recorded in Acts 8:37 were in the
manuscript of Luke’s writing used by Pontius, Cyprian, and Irenaeus. Irenaeus (ca.
AD 135-AD 202) was born within about 40 years of the writing of the last book
of the New Testament. He was born in Smyrna, and grew up under the tutelage of Polycarp,
who knew John the apostle. All three of these writings that mention the words
of Philip and the eunuch (Acts 8:37) are older than the so-called “earliest and
best” New Testament manuscripts that do not contain this verse.[xiii]
J. A. Alexander stated, “This verse is excluded from the text by the latest
critics, because wanting in several of the oldest manuscripts and versions.” He
however suggested a reason for its early exclusion: “it may be argued that the
verse, though genuine, was afterward omitted as unfriendly to the practice of
delaying baptism, which had become common, if not prevalent, before the end of
the third century.”[xiv]>
The eunuch of Ethiopia makes “The
Great Confession” that must be made by all, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God.” Romans 10:10 – “For with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Ultimately, every tongue shall confess, Romans 14:11.
Verses 38-39a: Baptism by immersion –
Philip and the eunuch “went down both into the water” and both “come up out of
the water.” Paedobaptists would have them only go “to the water,” – or even if
they went “into the water” that “they went perhaps up to the ankles or mid-leg
into the water, and Philip sprinkled water upon him” (Matthew Henry). Yet, even
the Protestant Reformer John Calvin (who did not hold to immersion only) sensibly
includes this note on Acts 8:38: “Hence we see what was the manner of baptizing
with the ancients, for they plunged the whole body into water.” Immersion was
the universal practice of the New Testament and early churches.[xv]
The baptism of the eunuch indicates
these elements:
- Proper authority 26-27
- Proper candidate 36-37
- Proper mode 38-39
[ii] The land of Ethiopia was to the south of and borders with Egypt (Ezekiel 29:10; see also Esther 1:1; Psalm 68:31; 87:4; Zephaniah 3:10).
[iii] Religious Jews came up to Jerusalem at least three times in the year – the feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles (Deuteronomy 16:16. Cf. Exodus 23:14-17). In this incident, we may see some fulfillment of Isaiah 56:4-5 and Zephaniah 3:10 (Cf. also Psalm 68:31). For eunuchs under the law, see Deuteronomy 23:1.
[iv] For example, see comments on Acts 8:27 in Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible.
[v] Irenaeus writes, “This man was also sent into the regions of Ethiopia, to preach what he had himself believed, that there was one God preached by the prophets, but that the Son of this [God] had already made [His] appearance in human nature (secundum hominem), and had been led as a sheep to the slaughter; and all the other statements which the prophets made regarding Him.” http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/irenaeus-book3.html Accessed 16 October 2020 9:45 am. According to John Gill, Damianus a Goes related in Fides, Religio, Moresque Aethiopum (Ethiopian Faith, Religion, and Mores, 1540) the following tradition, “we, almost before all other Christians, received baptism from the eunuch of Candace, queen of Ethiopia, whose name was Indich.” In Ecclesiastica Historia (2. 40), Nicephorus Callistus relayed the tradition that the apostle Matthias preached in Ethiopia and died there by stoning.
[vi] “As for the building within Meroë, there were but few houses in it: that the Isle was subject unto a ladie or queene named Candace, a name that for many yeeres alreadie went from one queene to another successively.” Holland, translator of Naturalis Historia by Pliny the Elder, p. 146.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/holland/pliny6.html Accessed 18 November 2020 7:20 pm.
[vii] Claude G. Montefiore & H. Loewe, Rabbinic Anthology: Selected and Arranged With Comments and Introductions by C. G. Montefiore and H. M. J. Loewe, with a prolegomenon by Raphael Loewe. (London: MacMillan and Co., Ltd., 1938) p. 544.
[viii] Frydland, quoted in Issues: A Messianic Jewish Perspective, 13:6, p. 3. See also Jintae Kim, “Targum Isaiah 53 and the New Testament Concept of Atonement,” in Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism, Volume 5, 2008, pp. 81-98.
[ix] For example, the Revised Standard Version leaves out verse 37, with this note, “Other ancient authorities add all or most of verse 37, ‘And Philip said, If you believe with all your heart, you may. And he replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’”
[x] http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/irenaeus-book3.html Accessed 7 October 2020 12:02 pm.
[xi] https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050712c.htm Accessed 7 October 2020 12:25 pm.
[xii] https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0505.htm Accessed 7 October 2020 12:15 pm. In the “parallel” Pontius is speaking of Cyprian “coming from the ignorant heathens” as opposed to the eunuch being a Jew or Jewish proselyte.
[xiii] Whatever value or lack thereof we find in the doctrine and interpretation of the writings by Ante-Nicene or Church Fathers, they are useful for historical discovery concerning the biblical manuscripts. Their writings help determine “whether a verse or verses existed or not in their day.” According to E. W. Bullinger, “There are nearly a hundred ecclesiastical writers older than the oldest of our Greek codices.” (Companion Bible, Appendix 168, page 190).
[xiv] Alexander, Joseph Addison. The Acts of the Apostles, pp. 349–350.
[xv] Even those who do not believe immersion is required for scriptural observance of this rite nevertheless should not foolishly deny that the ancient and universal practice of the rite of baptism was for believers by immersion in water.
[xvi] And the same as the modern village Esdud, located in the boundaries of Israel.
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