Acts 8:27 - Printer Friendly

ESV: And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship

NIV: So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means "queen of the Ethiopians"). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship,

NASB: So he got ready and went; and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship,

CSB: So he got up and went. There was an Ethiopian man, a eunuch and high official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to worship in Jerusalem

NLT: So he started out, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship,

KJV: And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship,

NKJV: So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship,

An angel has told the deacon and evangelist Philip to go to the road in Judea that connects Jerusalem and the city of Gaza on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea (Acts 8:26). "Candace" is a title, from the Greek Kandakē, not a name, similar to the use of "Pharaoh." The territory called "Ethiopia" in the Bible is Nubia, which includes parts of modern-day southern Egypt and northern Sudan. In Ethiopia, the king was thought to be the child of the sun—far too important to do the work of running a country. His mother, the Candace, performed the royal duties.

It was common for royal court officials to be castrated. This was partly meant to curb the man's ability to be tempted by sex. It was also thought that if a man was incapable of having his own heirs, he would be more loyal to his master and not try to leave his own legacy. The money of the kingdom would be safe with a man who could not have sons.

The royal court of Ethiopia had long-time relations with Israel and Israel's God. It's believed the Queen of Sheba was Ethiopian (1 Kings 10:1–13), and an Ethiopian eunuch rescued the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 38:7–13). This official is following the Mosaic law to worship only in the place God establishes (Deuteronomy 12:5–7; 2 Chronicles 7:12, 16), despite the distance. It's unclear how much he was allowed to worship. Deuteronomy 23:1 prohibits a eunuch from entering "the assembly of the LORD," but in Isaiah 56:1–8 God welcomes the foreigners and the eunuchs. Today, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is the largest branch within Oriental Orthodoxy, the group that split from the unified church after the Council of Chalcedon, long before the Eastern Orthodox Churches split from the Roman Catholics.

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.