Acts 8:27-28

We can see Philip’s yieldedness to the Spirit’s control in his obedience. On the road he met the man who was evidently in charge of the Ethiopian treasury (cf. Isaiah 56:3-8; Psalms 68:31). The name "Ethiopia" at this time described a kingdom located south of modern Egypt in Sudan (i.e., Nubia). It lay between the first Nile cataract at Aswan and the modern city of Khartoum, many hundreds of miles from Jerusalem.

"When told that a man was Ethiopian, people of the ancient Mediterranean world would assume that he was black, for this is the way that Ethiopians are described by Herodotus and others." [Note: Tannehill, 2:109. See Herodotus 2.22, 3.101; and Philostratus, The Life of Apollonius 6.1. See also J. Daniel Hays, "The Cushites: A Black Nation in the Bible," Bibliotheca Sacra 153:612 (October-December 1996):408.]

There is no evidence that there was prejudice based on skin color in antiquity. [Note: Witherington, p. 295.]

". . . in ancient Greek historiographical works there was considerable interest in Ethiopia and Ethiopians precisely because of their ethnic and racially distinctive features. . . . Furthermore, in the mythological geography of the ancient Greek historians and other writers as well, Ethiopia was quite frequently identified with the ends of the earth . . . in a way that Rome most definitely was not. We are entitled, then, to suspect that Luke the historian has decided to portray in miniature a foreshadowing of the fulfillment of the rest of Jesus’ mandate (Acts 1:1) in Acts 8 . . ." [Note: Ibid., p. 290.]

Candace was the dynastic title of the queen mother who at this time served as the head of the government in Ethiopia. Her personal name was evidently Amanitare (sometimes spelled Amantitere; A.D. 25-41). [Note: Piers T. Crocker, "The City of Meroe and the Ethiopian Eunuch," Buried History 22:3 (September 1986):67.] The king of Ethiopia did not involve himself in the routine operations of his country since his people regarded him as the child of the sun.

It was not uncommon for men in high Near Eastern government positions to be castrated. This prevented them from impregnating royal women and then making claims on the throne. However the word "eunuch" (Gr. eunouchos) appears often in the Septuagint (e.g., of Potiphar, Genesis 39:1) and in other Greek writings describing a high military or political figure. [Note: Longenecker, p. 363.] This eunuch may, therefore, not have been emasculated but simply a high official. Some scholars believe he was both. [Note: E.g., Barrett, pp. 425-26; and Witherington, p. 296.] Luke repeatedly referred to him as a eunuch (Acts 8:27; Acts 8:34; Acts 8:36; Acts 8:38-39). Emasculated men could not participate fully in Israel’s worship (Deuteronomy 23:1).

This official had made a pilgrimage to worship Yahweh. Somehow he had heard of Him and had come to reverence Him. He was making the trip home, probably to the capitol city of Meroe, in his "covered wagon." [Note: Bruce, Commentary on . . ., p. 186.] While traveling, he was reading the Septuagint translation of Isaiah’s prophecy (i.e., Isaiah 53:7-9; cf. Isaiah 56:3-8). Perhaps he had purchased this roll of Isaiah in Jerusalem.

"The chariot would have been in fact an ox-drawn wagon and would not have moved at much more than a walking pace, so that it would cause no difficulty for Philip to run alongside it and call out to the occupant." [Note: Marshall, The Acts . . ., p. 162.]

It was unusual for a non-Jew to possess a personal copy of the Old Testament. [Note: Longenecker, p. 363.] Scrolls were expensive in the first century, but this man could afford one. Perhaps he was able to do so because of his high government position, or perhaps he had only a part of Isaiah’s prophecy that he or someone else had copied. In any case his great interest in the Jews’ religion is obvious.

"In those days the world was full of people who were weary of the many gods and the loose morals of the nations. They came to Judaism and there they found the one God and the austere moral standards which gave life meaning. If they accepted Judaism and were circumcised and took the Law upon themselves they were called proselytes; if they did not go that length but continued to attend the Jewish synagogues and to read the Jewish scriptures they were called God-fearers. So this Ethiopian must have been one of these searchers who came to rest in Judaism either as a proselyte or a God-fearer." [Note: Barclay, p. 70.]

"Some of the God-fearers were only one step from becoming converts [to Judaism], while others just added the Jewish God to their pantheon. So long as they showed some kind of sympathy with the Jewish religion they were considered God-fearers." [Note: Levinskaya, p. 78. See also pp. 120-26, "God-fearers in the Book of Acts."]