Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

Following the martyrdom of Stephen at the beginning of Chapter 8 of the book of Acts, followers of Christ scattered from Jerusalem to avoid persecution. One of those followers was the evangelist Philip (one of the original seven deacons of the early Christian church as described in Acts, Chapter 6, and not to be confused with Jesus' apostle of the same name). 

Philip was instructed by an angel of God in Acts 8:26 to go to a specific desert location (Gaza) for the purpose of encountering a eunuch (who was apparently a follower of Judaism) from the court of the queen of Ethiopia in Africa. The eunuch was being transported south in the course of returning to Ethiopia from a journey he had made to Jerusalem to worship. 

The eunuch was reading a prophecy of the suffering of the Messiah from the prophet Isaiah, but did not know how to interpret what he was reading. Philip explained to him how the prophecy had been fulfilled by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

As they rode along in the eunuch's chariot, they came to a body of water, and the eunuch (in response to the Gospel message that Philip had given him) confessed his faith in Christ, and asked Philip to baptize him in the water. Philip did so, and was immediately (now that God's purpose had been fulfilled) carried away by the Holy Spirit to another location. The eunuch proceeded on his way back to Ethiopia, rejoicing in the salvation that he had received.

Although the account in the book of Acts does not go further into the eunuch's story, it can reasonably be inferred that the eunuch himself subsequently would have been the first to carry and share the Gospel message to a part of the world (Ethiopia and, from there, further into Africa) that had not yet heard or received it, thus fulfilling God's will for the spreading of the Gospel.

The account of the Ethiopian eunuch illustrates God's continuing interest and active involvement (just as when the Holy Spirit was given at the feast of Pentecost when Jews of many different nations and languages were gathered in Jerusalem) in promoting maximum dissemination of the Gospel message (as part of the implementation of Jesus' Great Commission to His followers prior to His ascension to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19)).

It also shows how God can take even actions by which opponents of Christianity mean to harm the Church, and use them for His purposes to spread the Gospel.

It further indicates how the Gospel was meant for those excluded under the Mosaic Law. (According to Leviticus 21, a castrated eunuch would not have been allowed access to God's presence in the Holy of Holies within the Tabernacle.) 

Finally, it points out how the Gospel message was not intended only for the inhabitants of Israel, but for the whole world (as Jesus had commanded).

May 15 2015 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Ken van Zyl Born-again Baptist sibce 1965

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." In Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo tradition he was referred to as Bachos and in Eastern Orthodox tradition he is known as an Ethiopian Jew with the name Simeon also called the Black, the same name he is given in Acts 13:1. 
It is therefore evident that God was going to use the eunuch to spread the Gospel to the court of Queen Gersamot Hendeke VII who was the Queen of Ethiopia from ca. 42 to 52.

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