Acts 8:38 And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.
l. They both went down to the water.] Considering how frequently bathing was used in those hot countries, it is not to be wondered that baptism was generally administered by immersion, though I see no proof that it was essential to the institution. It would be very unnatural to suppose that they went down to the water, merely that Philip might take up a little water in his hand to pour on the eunuch. A person of his dignity had, no doubt, many vessels with him in his baggage on such a journey through so desert a country, a precaution absolutely necessary for travellers in those parts, and never omitted by them. See Dr. Shaw’s Travels, Pref. p. 4.
Philip Doddridge (1702–1751), “Philip Baptizes the Ethiopian Eunuch,” The Family Expositor; Or, a Paraphrase and Version of the New Testament, With Critical Notes, London: Frederick Westley and A. H. Davis, 1831, p. 403.
Today Philip Doddridge is perhaps best remembered as a hymnwriter. However, he was an important Non-conformist (Congregationalist) pastor, author, and educator in his day. The above quote from his comments on the baptism of the eunuch supply an oft-needed corrective to modern pedobaptists who would deny the early practice of immersion. Doddridge himself did not see immersion as inherent or essential to the ordinance, but nevertheless was able to read the immersion of the eunuch performed by Philip – without wearing pedobaptist glasses that saw it as a sprinkling or pouring.
His reference to “Dr. Shaw’s Travels” is as follows:
“We took Care in the first Place, to provide ourselves with a sufficient Quantity of Goat’s Skins, which we filled with Water, every four or five Days, or as often as we found it.” Travels; or Observations, Relating to Several Parts of Barbary and the Levant, Thomas Shaw, Oxford: At the Theatre, 1738, p. iv.
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