Acts 8:26 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." This is a desert place.

NIV: Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza."

NASB: But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, 'Get ready and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.' ( This is a desert road.)

CSB: An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip: "Get up and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This is the desert road. )

NLT: As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, 'Go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.'

KJV: And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.

NKJV: Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is desert.

Luke promised Theophilus that his first letter, which we know as the Gospel of Luke, was an "orderly account" of the eyewitness testimony of Jesus' story (Luke 1:1–4). It's reasonable to assume Luke continued this goal with this second letter, the book of Acts. "Orderly" does not necessarily mean strictly chronological. In the Old Testament, the stories of minor characters are often succinctly given before the accounts of the major figures: Cain's line is described before Abel's (Genesis 4:17–26) and Esau's descendants are lumped together in Genesis 36 before the narrative continues with his brother Jacob. This is a way of being thorough without continually interrupting the main story.

It's possible that Luke did the same here. We don't know where the account of the Ethiopian official fits with Paul's conversion (Acts 9) or Peter's encounter with Cornelius' household (Acts 10). But placing the story here completes the main story of Philip and introduces the evangelism of the Gentiles—which Peter affirms, Paul carries out, and the rest of the book records. The story of Philip and the Ethiopian official may have happened any time before Acts 21:8. Philip is not mentioned again until Acts 21:8–9 when Paul visits him on his way to Jerusalem.

This Philip is one of the church's first deacons (Acts 6:5). He fled Jerusalem when Saul began persecuting the church and first went north to Samaria (Acts 8:1–25). He is not the disciple Philip (Matthew 10:3) nor the brother of Herod Antipas (Matthew 14:3). He will eventually settle in Caesarea where he will have four daughters who are prophetesses (Acts 21:8–9).

This verse features an idiomatic phrase which is easily lost when translated. "South," literally, is "about noon," from the Greek term mesēmbrian. Since Israel is north of the Tropic of Cancer, at noon, the sun is always due-south. "Desert" here can mean uninhabited grassland or wilderness. Where we would say the road "goes down" from Jerusalem to Gaza because it goes south, Jerusalem is higher than Gaza, so the road literally goes downhill. Gaza was a city in the same place it is now—the modern-day Gaza Strip on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. From Gaza is a major road that goes to Egypt, then south to Ethiopia.

Acts 8:26–40 completes the story of Philip's early ministry. Driven out of Jerusalem by persecution, he first travels north into Samaria and spreads the gospel to a people Jews had believed accursed (Acts 8:5–13). Now, an angel tells him to go south where he meets an official of the Ethiopian court who is reading from the book of Isaiah. Philip's ministry shows that God doesn't care if someone is born into His chosen people, or are ethnically and theologically confused, or are even a foreign eunuch. He loves equally and desires that everyone will repent and come to Him.

Jesus told the apostles they would spread the gospel (Acts 1:8) and persecution makes that happen. Upon the death of the first Christian martyr (Acts 7:54–60), a young Pharisee named Saul builds on the momentum to arrest and, if possible, execute Jesus followers (Acts 8:1–3; 26:10). The apostles mostly stay in Jerusalem, but the church members flee, spreading the gospel to Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. Important encounters in this passage include a magician named Simon and the conversion of an Ethiopian court official.

Acts 1:8 gives the outline of the book of Acts; Acts 1—7 describes the spread of the gospel through Jerusalem; Acts 8:1—11:18 shows the gospel spreading in Judea and Samaria; Acts 11:19—28:31 sees the gospel spread to the ''end of the earth,'' finalizing in Rome. Ironically, although Paul is the central figure in spreading Jesus' good news to the ends of the earth, his early persecution of the church in Jerusalem is instrumental in spreading the gospel through Judea and Samaria.

The summary of the book of Acts is provided in Jesus' words in Acts 1:8: ''But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.'' In Acts 2:1–13, the Christ-followers receive the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:14—7:60 describes the rapid growth of the church in Jerusalem. Chapters 8—12 find Jewish persecution inadvertently spreading the gospel throughout Judea and Samaria. And in chapters 13—28, Paul and his companions spread the good news throughout the Roman Empire.