Acts 8:26 ¶ And the angel
of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the
way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. 27 And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of
Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians,
who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to
worship, 28 Was returning, and sitting
in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. 29
Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this
chariot. 30 And Philip ran thither to him,
and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou
readest? 31 And he said, How can I,
except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up
and sit with him. 32 The place of the
scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and
like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: 33 In his humiliation his judgment was taken
away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the
earth. 34 And the eunuch answered
Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself,
or of some other man? 35 Then Philip
opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.
36 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? 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. 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. 39 And when they were come
up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch
saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing
through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.
We move from the hated sect of Judaism to the Gentiles whom the
Jew held in contempt. Candace is a latinized version of an Ethiopian title.
Pliny the Elder, a Roman scholar who wrote an important natural history,
declared that Candace was the title the Ethiopian queens assumed. Here is not
only an Ethiopian but a black African and a eunuch. A eunuch is someone who
biologically cannot reproduce and officials were often made that way to keep
them from being naturally aggressive and assertive, that is untrustworthy in
their servile duties of trust.
The earliest mention made of eunuchs created by intentional
castration is from the Sumerian city of Lagash probably not long after the
Tower of Babel. Throughout history, eunuchs occupied court positions as well as
military positions, all places of trust where, contrary to intention, they had
the ear of powerful men and often were part of conspiracies and intrigue.
Notice how Jesus references eunuch as a person incapable of reproduction. The
following covers those who are born biologically incapable, those who are made
so by men, and those who purpose themselves to be childless for the sake of
God’s work.
Matthew 19:12 For there are
some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are some
eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made
themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive
it, let him receive it.
As a side note, the early Christian writer, Origen, according to
the church writer, Eusebius, had himself castrated because he misunderstood the
above verse. However, Origen, himself, later wrote that only an idiot would
think that verse in Matthew commended having oneself castrated according to
what I’ve read.
Philip is told to draw near to the Ethiopian’s chariot. It is
well-known among evangelical Christians that there have been many times when
they felt compelled to hand out a gospel tract or witness to someone verbally
who they would probably not have approached on their own.
The eunuch is reading to himself from Isaiah, specifically;
Isaiah 53:7b …he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a
sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. 8 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: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
There are several possible reasons why what he read was slightly
different than the actual word-for-word verse we have. It could have been a
version in the reader’s own language and translated to Hebrew, then to Greek,
then to English for us to have the passage. It could be the Holy Spirit
defining what is meant in Isaiah by the wording in Acts if you compare and
contrast. Word substitution, we have seen is a predominant way the Holy Spirit
has of clarifying itself to the reader. Philip began preaching that this was
Jesus.
Although some few voices had noted this before it wasn’t until the
eleventh century AD and a Jewish teacher nicknamed Rashi that Jews began to
believe that the individual referred to in these and the surrounding verses in
Isaiah were the suffering Jewish people themselves, not the Messiah. This was
probably a reaction to the persecution visited upon them by the Christian power
of Europe. But, Philip makes it clear that this is a reference to Jesus.
The eunuch asked what kept him from being baptized and Phillip
answered.
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.
This verse clearly states that salvation is predicated upon belief
and that baptism is something that happens after you believe, something a baby
cannot do. You have to believe and then be baptized.
Mark 16:16 He that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be
damned.
Early church fathers like Irenaeus and Cyprian commented on this
as did Tertullian in the second century. Even Augustine of Hippo in the fifth
century, venerated by the Catholic Church, supported this verse’s validity by
referencing it. It certainly doesn’t allow for infant baptism. Clearly it is a
mistake in modern Bible versions to delete it or to cast doubts on it. If your
Bible doesn’t have it or dismisses its validity then you need a different
Bible.
Philip was physically translated, removed, from the baptism after
it was performed and taken to another place. These are the same Greek and
mostly the same English words as in;
1Thessalonians 4:17 Then we
which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds,
to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Compare caught away here in 8:39 and caught up in
1Thessalonians 4:17.
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