The Good Confession and Baptism

Acts 8:36ff. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? ... If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.

For the eunuch and to Philip, 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.”

The eunuch of Ethiopia first makes “The ‘Good’ or ‘Great’ Confession” that must be made by all, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” Cf. Matthew 16:16; 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.

Baptism is immersion. Philip and the eunuch “went down both into the water” and both “come up out of the water.” Paedorantists 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. 

The baptism of the eunuch indicates these elements:

• Proper authority vs. 26-27
• Proper candidate vs. 36-37
• Proper mode vs. 38-39 

The Spirit of the Lord removed Philip to points beyond. Even though “the eunuch saw him no more,” he nevertheless “went on his way rejoicing.”

Acts 8:37 again

And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

On Re-Baptism (Anonymous) 3rd century?

Just as the Ethiopian eunuch, when he was returning from Jerusalem and reading the prophet Isaiah, and was in doubt, having at the Spirit's suggestion heard the truth from Philip the deacon, believed and was baptized...

On Baptism, Chapter 18 (Tertullian)

The Scripture which he was reading falls in opportunely with his faith: Philip, being requested, is taken to sit beside him; the Lord is pointed out; faith lingers not; water needs no waiting for; the work is completed, and the apostle snatched away. 

Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews (Ad Quirinium), Cyprian, Book 3, Treatise 12, chapter 43 (written in the 250’s, in Latin)

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.”

A Greek scholium attributed to Irenaeus

Philip...easily persuaded him to believe on Him, that He was Christ Jesus...

[This can be found in Catenae Graecorum Patrum, Volume 3, edited by John Anthony Cramer, on page 144.]

Metzger on Acts 8:37

Acts 8:37 And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Bruce Metzger provides an interesting comment on Acts 8:37 in his Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament:

“Although the earliest known New Testament manuscript which contains the words dates from the sixth century (ms. E), the tradition of the Ethiopian’s confession of faith in Christ was current as early as the latter part of the second century, for Irenaeus quotes part of it (Against Heresies, III.xii.8). Although the passage does not appear in the late medieval manuscript on which Erasmus chiefly depended for his edition (ms. 2), it stands in the margin of another (ms. 4), from which he inserted it into his text because he ‘judged that it had been omitted by the carelessness of scribes (arbitror omissum librariorum incuria).’” (A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Bruce Metzger, page 360)

Bruce Manning Metzger (1914–2007) was an American biblical scholar, translator, textual critic, and an instructor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. By denomination, he was Presbyterian. He served on the board of the American Bible Society and United Bible Societies, and was an editor of the UBS Greek New Testament. He wrote much on the Greek language, the New Testament, and New Testament textual criticism. Metzger is widely respected as a New Testament scholar, though those of us on the right side of the conservative-liberal spectrum consider his outlook liberal. Metzger himself apparently did not accept Acts 8:37 as authentic.

Should Acts 8:37 be included in the Bible?

Question: Should Acts 8:37 be included in the Bible?

Acts 8:37 King James Version  And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Many modern versions of the Bible do not include Acts 8:37, and/or have a note that some Bibles include it, or that it was not in the oldest manuscripts. The New American Standard has this note: “Early mss do not contain this verse.”

For example, the New International Version:
Acts 8: 36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” [37] [c] 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.

It is true that these words are omitted in old manuscripts such as Sinaiticus (4th century), Vaticanus (4th century) and Alexandrinus (5th century). The Codex Laudianus, also known as  Ea or 08 contains an almost complete text of the Book of Acts. It is the oldest or earliest known manuscript which contains the words of Acts 8:37. This manuscript is dated to the 6th century.

Nevertheless, there are two sources for the reading which are earlier than the manuscripts that omit it. This indicates it was in some early manuscripts not now extant, and part of the original writing of Luke.

In Against Heresies (3.12.8), Irenaeus of Lyons (circa AD 180) makes a reference to this as scripture:

8. But again: Whom did Philip preach to the eunuch of the queen of the Ethiopians, returning from Jerusalem, and reading Esaias the prophet, when he and this man were alone together? Was it not He of whom the prophet spoke: “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb dumb before the shearer, so He opened not the mouth? But who shall declare His nativity? for His life shall be taken away from the earth.” [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.”

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):

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.

In addition to these, in the Life and Passion of St. Cyprian Pontius the Deacon alludes to Philip believing with “his whole heart” – which comes from this text.

3. The apostle’s epistle says that novices should be passed over, lest by the stupor of heathenism that yet clings to their unconfirmed minds, their untaught inexperience should in any respect sin against God. He first, and I think he alone, furnished an illustration that greater progress is made by faith than by time. 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.

These three references combined show that these words were known by early Christian writers, indicating manuscripts such as Sinaiticus and Vaticanus omit something which was originally there rather than Laudianus adding something that was not.