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EthiopiaInsight on the Scriptures, Volume 1
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The name Candace is mentioned by Greek and Latin writers as a title used by several such Ethiopian queens, evidently including the one referred to at Acts 8:27.
In what sense was the Ethiopian to whom Philip preached a eunuch?
The Ethiopian eunuch who was ‘over the treasures’ of Queen Candace, and to whom Philip preached, was obviously a circumcised Jewish proselyte. (Ac 8:27-39) He was thus not viewed as a Gentile and hence did not precede Cornelius as the first uncircumcised Gentile convert to Christianity. (Ac 10) For the Ethiopian to engage in worship at the temple in Jerusalem he must have been converted to the Jewish religion and circumcised. (Ex 12:48, 49; Le 24:22) In view of the Mosaic Law, which forbade the entry of castrated persons into the congregation of Israel (De 23:1), it is evident that the Ethiopian was not a eunuch in a fleshly sense. The Hebrew word for “eunuch” (sa·risʹ) in a broad or special sense also meant an officer, as at Genesis 39:1, where an officer of Pharaoh, Potiphar, a married man, is called a sa·risʹ. Had the Ethiopian officer been an actual eunuch, he would not have been a proselyte, and if not a proselyte, Philip would not have baptized him, since the good news had not yet begun to be extended to the uncircumcised Gentiles.
Ethiopia (Cush) is one of the lands among which the Jewish exiles were scattered after the Babylonian conquest of Judah. (Isa 11:11) Hence, this Ethiopian official may have had association with Jewish persons in his area or perhaps in Egypt, where many Jews resided. His copy of the scroll of Isaiah was likely a copy of the Greek Septuagint, originally made in Alexandria, Egypt. Since the Ethiopian kingdom had become partly Hellenized from the time of Ptolemy II (308-246 B.C.E.), this official’s being able to read the Greek language would not be unusual. His becoming a Jewish proselyte and his subsequent conversion to Christianity were in fulfillment of Psalm 68:31.
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EunuchInsight on the Scriptures, Volume 1
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The court official who was in charge of the treasury of the queen of Ethiopia and to whom Philip preached is called a eunuch. He was a proselyte to the Jewish religion who had come to Jerusalem to worship God. But since a castrated person was not accepted into the congregation of Israel under the Law, the term eu·nouʹkhos would apply here not literally but in its sense of “court official.” (Ac 8:26-39; De 23:1)
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