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Acts 8:26–31
“The Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over and join this chariot.’ So Philip ran to [the Ethiopian eunuch] and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ And he said, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’” (vv. 29–31).
Philip, one of the first seven appointed to serve the material needs of the church, effectively evangelized the region of Samaria, as Luke tells us in Acts 8:4–8 (see 6:1–7). Yet his ministry extended beyond Samaria. In today’s passage, we read of his meeting with an Ethiopian eunuch, which led to the Ethiopian’s salvation.
Acts 8:26 indicates that God directly commissioned Philip to the place where he would meet the Ethiopian eunuch, sending an angel to tell Philip to head “south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” Gaza was the last place to get water before reaching the desert between the promised land and Egypt, so it was logical that an Ethiopian official would be traveling that route on the way home. This man was a eunuch and “court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure” (v. 27). All the queens of Ethiopia bore the title or dynastic name Candace, much as all the Roman emperors held the title Caesar. More importantly, Luke tells us that the eunuch had come to Jerusalem to worship, and that is why he was on the road back to Ethiopia. He was likely a God-fearer, a gentile who had adopted Jewish monotheism and worshiped the God of Israel but did not practice all the ceremonial regulations of the Mosaic law. His conversion would represent the extension of the gospel and salvation to yet another ethnic group beyond the Jews.
Luke tells us in Acts 8:28 that the eunuch was riding in a chariot, reading from the book of Isaiah. This was not a military chariot but rather a vehicle used for more general travel. He would have been reading the book of Isaiah aloud, since that is how most people who could read would do their reading in the ancient world, and the fact that he had his own copy of Isaiah indicates that he was a wealthy man, for books in those days were very expensive. The book would not have been a codex of several pages but rather a scroll.
The angel told Philip to go and join the moving chariot. While some say that Philip’s catching the chariot would have required a supernatural pace, it is more likely that the chariot was moving at a speed that could have been matched at a brisk walk or slight run. (Philip’s receiving word to meet the chariot was a supernatural event, however.) Philip learned that the eunuch was reading Isaiah but not fully understanding it, and the eunuch invited Philip to explain it to him (vv. 29–31). He was humble enough to admit that he needed help in understanding the Word of God.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
The doctrine of the clarity of Scripture does not mean that every part of it is easily understandable without assistance. Some parts are more difficult than others, and this is especially true when one does not have all the Scriptures. In asking Philip for help, the Ethiopian eunuch exemplifies how we should ask the church’s teachers for assistance when we have difficulty understanding what we read in the Bible.
For further study
- Isaiah 56:3–5
- Jeremiah 38:1–13
- Ephesians 4:1–16
- 2 Peter 3:15–16
The bible in a year
- 1 Samuel 1–2
- Luke 12:4–34