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Modern scholarship tends to place the Ethiopian eunuch in the " intermediate position between Jew and Gentile." Scott Shauf suggests that the "primary point of the story is about carrying the gospel to the end of the earth, not about establishing a mission to
The Ethiopian eunuch ( gez, ኢትዮጵያዊው ጃንደረባ) is a figure in the
."
After this, Philip was suddenly taken away by the Holy Spirit">Spirit of the Lord, and the eunuch "went on his way rejoicing" (verse 39).
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chris ...
of the Bible; the story of his conversion to Christianity
Conversion to Christianity is the religious conversion of a previously non-Christian person to Christianity. Different Christian denominations may perform various different kinds of rituals or ceremonies initiation into their community of believe ...
is recounted in Acts 8
Acts 8 is the eighth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records the burial of Stephen, the beginnings of Christian persecution, and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Samaria ...
.
Biblical narrative
Philip the Evangelist
Philip the Evangelist ( el, Φίλιππος, ''Philippos'') appears several times in the Acts of the Apostles. He was one of the Seven chosen to care for the poor of the Christian community in Jerusalem (). He preached and reportedly perf ...
was told by an angel
In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God.
Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles ...
to go to the road from Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
to Gaza, and there he encountered the Ethiopian eunuch
A eunuch ( ) is a male who has been castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function.
The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2nd millenni ...
, the treasurer of the Candace
Kandake, kadake or kentake ( Meroitic: 𐦲𐦷𐦲𐦡 ''kdke''),Kirsty
Rowan"Revising the Sound Value of Meroitic D: A Phonological Approach,"''Beitrage zur Sudanforschung'' 10 (2009). often Latinised as Candace ( grc, Κανδάκη, ''Kandak� ...
, Queen of the Ethiopians (Ancient Greek: Κανδάκη, the "Candace" was the Meroitic language
The Meroitic language () was spoken in Meroë (in present-day Sudan) during the Meroitic period (attested from 300 BCE) and became extinct about 400 CE. It was written in two forms of the Meroitic alphabet: Meroitic Cursive, which was written wi ...
term for "queen" or possibly "royal woman"). The eunuch had been to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home. Sitting in his chariot
A chariot is a type of cart driven by a charioteer, usually using horses to provide rapid motive power. The oldest known chariots have been found in burials of the Sintashta culture in modern-day Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, dated to c. 2000&n ...
, he was reading the Book of Isaiah
The Book of Isaiah ( he, ספר ישעיהו, ) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century B ...
, specifically . Philip asked the Ethiopian, "Do you understand what you are reading?" He said he did not ("How can I understand unless I have a teacher to teach me?"), and asked Philip to explain the text to him. Philip told him the Gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...
of Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...
, and the Ethiopian asked to be baptized. They went down into a water source, traditionally thought to be the ''Dhirweh fountain'' near Halhul, and Philip baptized
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost i ...
him.
In the King James Version
The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by sponsorship of K ...
and the Catholic Douay-Rheims Version, the Ethiopian says, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God" (verse 37), but this is omitted in most modern versions. D.A. Hubbard suggests that confession is "not supported in the better manuscripts .e._the_.e._the_Alexandrian_text-type">Alexandrian_text-type.html"_;"title=".e._the_Alexandrian_text-type">.e._the_Alexandrian_text-type",_although_the_Ethiopian_is_still_"one_of_the_outstanding_converts_in_ .e._the_Alexandrian_text-type">Alexandrian_text-type.html"_;"title=".e._the_Alexandrian_text-type">.e._the_Alexandrian_text-type",_although_the_Ethiopian_is_still_"one_of_the_outstanding_converts_in_Acts_of_the_Apostles">Acts_
The_Acts_of_the_Apostles_(_grc-koi,_Πράξεις_Ἀποστόλων,_''Práxeis_Apostólōn'';__la,_Actūs_Apostolōrum)_is_the_fifth_book_of_the_New_Testament;_it_tells_of_the_founding_of_the_Christian_Church_and_the_spread_of__its_message_...
."Christian traditions
Church Father Irenaeus, St. Irenaeus of Lyons in his book ''Adversus haereses'' (''Against the Heresies'', an early anti-Gnostic theological work) 3:12:8 (180 AD), wrote regarding the Ethiopian eunuch, "This man (Simeon Bachos the Eunuch) 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 flesh, and had been led as a sheep to the slaughter; and all the other statements which the prophets made regarding Him." InEthiopian Orthodox Tewahedo
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church ( am, የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ተዋሕዶ ቤተ ክርስቲያን, ''Yäityop'ya ortodoks täwahedo bétäkrestyan'') is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Chris ...
tradition he was referred to as Bachos and is known as an Ethiopian Jew with the name Simeon also called the Black, a name used in .
One of the traditional sites of the baptism is the Ein Hanya Spring. Others place the traditional site of baptism at the ''Dhirweh fountain'', near Halhul.
Assessment and interpretation
Religion
The Ethiopian eunuch's religion of origin is significant because of the subsequent implications of his conversion to Christianity. There are many competing theories for the eunuch's pre-conversion religious status in relation to Judaism and Christianity.
Modern scholarship tends to place the Ethiopian eunuch in the " intermediate position between Jew and Gentile." Scott Shauf suggests that the "primary point of the story is about carrying the gospel to the end of the earth, not about establishing a mission to Gentiles
Gentile () is a word that usually means "someone who is not a Jew". Other groups that claim Israelite heritage, notably Mormons, sometimes use the term ''gentile'' to describe outsiders. More rarely, the term is generally used as a synonym fo ...
," and thus Luke "does not bring the Gentile status of the Ethiopian into the foreground." However, "the suggestion that the eunuch is or at least might be a Gentile in the story, by both his ethnic and possibly physical description" may leave more formative possibility than if he had been explicitly categorized. Ernst Haenchen builds on Ferdinand Christian Baur's work (1792–1860) in concluding that "the author of Acts made the eunuch's religious identity ambiguous intentionally" so as to preserve the tradition that claimed Cornelius as the first Gentile convert as well as the tradition that claimed the Ethiopian Eunuch as the first Gentile convert.
Sexuality
Commentators generally suggest that the combination of "eunuch" together with the title "court official" indicates a literal eunuch, who would have been excluded from the Temple by the restriction in Deuteronomy 23:1. Some scholars point out that eunuchs were excluded from Jewish worship and extend the New Testament's inclusion of these men to other sexual minorities; gay Catholic priest John J. McNeill, citing non-literal uses of "eunuch" in other New Testament passages such as , writes that he likes to think of the eunuch as "the first baptized gay Christian," while Jack Rogers writes that "the fact that the firstGentile
Gentile () is a word that usually means "someone who is not a Jew". Other groups that claim Israelite heritage, notably Mormons, sometimes use the term ''gentile'' to describe outsiders. More rarely, the term is generally used as a synonym fo ...
convert
Conversion or convert may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman''
* "Conversion" (''Stargate Atlantis''), an episode of the television series
* "The Conversion" ...
to Christianity is from a sexual minority and a different race, ethnicity and nationality together" calls Christians to be radically inclusive and welcoming.
Race and origins
"Candace" was the name given in Greco-Roman historiography to all the female rulers or consorts of theKingdom of Kush
The Kingdom of Kush (; Egyptian: 𓎡𓄿𓈙 𓈉 ''kꜣš'', Assyrian: ''Kûsi'', in LXX grc, Κυς and Κυσι ; cop, ''Ecōš''; he, כּוּשׁ ''Kūš'') was an ancient kingdom in Nubia, centered along the Nile Valley in wh ...
(now part of Sudan). The capital city was Meroë
Meroë (; also spelled ''Meroe''; Meroitic: or ; ar, مرواه, translit=Meruwah and ar, مروي, translit=Meruwi, label=none; grc, Μερόη, translit=Meróē) was an ancient city on the east bank of the Nile about 6 km north-east ...
, and the title of "Candace" derives from a Meroitic word, ''kdke'', that referred to any royal woman. "Ethiopian" was a Greek term for black-skinned peoples generally, often applied to Kush (which was well known to the Hebrews and often mentioned in the Hebrew Bible). The eunuch was not from the land today known as Ethiopia, which corresponds to the ancient Kingdom of Aksum
The Kingdom of Aksum ( gez, መንግሥተ አክሱም, ), also known as the Kingdom of Axum or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom centered in Northeast Africa and South Arabia from Classical antiquity to the Middle Ages. Based primarily in w ...
, which conquered Kush in the fourth century. The first writer to call it Ethiopia was Philostorgius
Philostorgius ( grc-gre, Φιλοστόργιος; 368 – c. 439 AD) was an Anomoean Church historian of the 4th and 5th centuries.
Very little information about his life is available. He was born in Borissus, Cappadocia to Eulampia and Car ...
around 440.
Some scholars, such as Frank M. Snowden, Jr.
Frank M. Snowden Jr. (July 17, 1911February 18, 2007), was an American historian and classicist, best known for his study of black people in classical antiquity. He was a Distinguished Professor emeritus of classics at Howard University.
...
, interpret the story as emphasizing that early Christian communities accepted members regardless of race: "Ethiopians were the yardstick by which antiquity
Antiquity or Antiquities may refer to:
Historical objects or periods Artifacts
*Antiquities, objects or artifacts surviving from ancient cultures
Eras
Any period before the European Middle Ages (5th to 15th centuries) but still within the histo ...
measured colored peoples." Others, such as Clarice Martin, write that it is a commentary on the religion rather than on its adherents, showing Christianity's geographical extent; Gay L. Byron goes further, saying, "The Ethiopian eunuch was used by Luke to indicate that salvation could extend even to Ethiopians and Blacks." David Tuesday Adamo suggests that the word used here (Αίθίοψ, ''aithiops'') is best translated simply as "African."
Related figures
C. K. Barrett contrasts the Ethiopian eunuch's story with that ofCornelius the Centurion
Cornelius ( el, Κορνήλιος, translit=Kornélios; la, Cornelius) was a Roman centurion who is considered by Christians to be the first Gentile to convert to the faith, as related in Acts of the Apostles (see Ethiopian eunuch for the com ...
, another convert
Conversion or convert may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman''
* "Conversion" (''Stargate Atlantis''), an episode of the television series
* "The Conversion" ...
. He notes that while the Ethiopian continues on his journey home and passes out of the narrative, Cornelius and his followers form another church in Judea
Judea or Judaea ( or ; from he, יהודה, Standard ''Yəhūda'', Tiberian ''Yehūḏā''; el, Ἰουδαία, ; la, Iūdaea) is an ancient, historic, Biblical Hebrew, contemporaneous Latin, and the modern-day name of the mountainous so ...
, and speculates that this reflects a desire to focus on Peter rather than Philip. Robert O'Toole argues that the way Philip is taken away parallels the way Jesus disappears after he has been talking to the disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24.
There are literary parallels between the story of the Ethiopian eunuch in ''Acts'' and that of Ebed-Melech
Ebed-Melech ( he, עֶבֶד-מֶלֶךְ ''‘Eḇeḏmeleḵ''; la, Abdemelech; gez, አቤሜሌክ) is mentioned in the ''Book of Jeremiah'' chapter 38 as an Ethiopian official at the palace of king Zedekiah of Judah during the Siege of ...
, an Ethiopian eunuch in the ''Book of Jeremiah
The Book of Jeremiah ( he, ספר יִרְמְיָהוּ) is the second of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, and the second of the Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. The superscription at chapter Jeremiah 1:1–3 identifies the b ...
''.
Further reading
*References
External links
{{authority control African Christians Converts to Christianity Ethiopian saints Eunuchs LGBT and Christianity People in Acts of the Apostles Unnamed people of the Bible