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Art is by Mengistu Cherenet |
Acts 8:26-40 New
Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
26 Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) 27 So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” 30 So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. 32 Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:
“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,and like a lamb silent before its shearer,so he does not open his mouth.33 In his humiliation justice was denied him.Who can describe his generation?For his life is taken away from the earth.”
34 The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. 36 As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” 38 He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
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Here
lies one of the most unique passages in scripture. It involves two primary
characters—Philip, one of the Seven called by the church to serve tables (Acts
6) and the Ethiopian Eunuch, who is traveling home from Jerusalem by way of the
road leading from Jerusalem to Gaza (most likely to pick up a ship that would
transport him toward home). There is also an angel of God, who sets up a meeting
between these two men. Standing behind this encounter is the church’s mission statement
found in Acts 1:8. In that verse Jesus tells his followers that when the Spirit
comes, they will bear witness to him beginning in Jerusalem, and from there to
Judea and Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth. Philip has already
participated in that expansion by preaching in Samaria, in what was the first outreach
of the early church beyond the original core Jewish audience. Now, with this encounter,
it appears that the expansion continues, with Ethiopia being opened up to the
message of the gospel. But not only that, but there is a word of inclusion of
one who had been excluded or at least marginalized.