Wikipedia

Ethiopian eunuch

TheEthiopian eunuch(Ge'ez:ኢትዮጵያዊው ጃንደረባ) is a figure in theNew Testamentof the Bible. The story of hisconversion to Christianityat the preaching ofPhilip the Evangelistis recounted inActs 8.

Rembrandt,The Baptism of the Eunuch,c. 1626
A stained glass diptych showing the baptisms of the Ethiopian eunuch by St.Philip the Evangelistand of Jesus Christ by St. John the Baptist, from theCathedral of the Incarnation (Garden City, New York)

Biblical narrative

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Philip the Evangelistwas told by anangelto go to the road fromJerusalemtoGaza,and there he encountered the Ethiopianeunuch,the treasurer ofCandace,Queen of the Ethiopians (Ancient Greek: Κανδάκη, "Candace" was theMeroiticterm for "queen" or possibly "royal woman" ). The eunuch had been to Jerusalem to worship[1]and was returning home. Sitting in hischariot,he was reading theBook of Isaiah,specificallyIsaiah 53:7–8.Philip asked the Ethiopian, "Do you understand what you are reading?" He said he did not ( "How can I understand unless I have a teacher to teach me?" ), and asked Philip to explain the text to him. Philip told him theGospelofJesus,and theEthiopian asked to be baptized.They went down into a water source, traditionally thought to be theDhirweh fountainnearHalhul,[2]and Philipbaptizedhim.

In theKing James Versionand the CatholicDouay-Rheims Version,the Ethiopian says, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God" (verse 37), but this isomitted in most modern versions.D.A. Hubbard suggests that confession is "not supported in thebetter manuscripts[i.e. theAlexandrian text-type]) ", although the Ethiopian is still" one of the outstanding converts inActs."[3]

After this, Philip was suddenly taken away by theSpirit of the Lord,and the eunuch "went on his way rejoicing" (verse 39).

Christian traditions

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See also:List of names for the biblical nameless § Ethiopian Eunuch baptized by the deacon Philip

Church FatherSt. Irenaeusof Lyons in his bookAdversus haereses(Against the Heresies,an early anti-Gnostictheological 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." InEthiopian Orthodox Tewahedotradition he was referred to as Bachos and is known as an Ethiopian Jew with the nameSimeon also called the Black,a name used inActs 13:1.[4][page needed][5]

One of the traditional sites of the baptism is theDhirweh fountain,nearHalhul.[2]Others place the traditional site of baptism at theEin Hanya Spring.[citation needed]

Assessment and interpretation

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Religion

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The Ethiopian eunuch's religion of origin is significant because of the subsequent implications of his conversion to Christianity. There are many competing theories for the eunuch's pre-conversion religious status in relation to Judaism and Christianity.

Religious Status Evidence Supporters
Jew After the story of the Ethiopian eunuch,Irenaeuswrote, "Conversion is more difficult with gentiles than with Jews," indicating that the eunuch was a Jew.[6][page needed]Charles Francis Pottersuggested the eunuch may have been anEssene.[7] Pontius(died c. 260),[8][full citation needed]Irenaeus(c. 130 – 202)[6][page needed]
Jew-Gentile Eunuch occupies an "intermediary position between Jew and gentile", which could indicate the status of proselyte orGod-fearer.[9][page needed] Jerome(c. 347 – 420)[10][page needed]
Gentile Eunuch must have been a Gentile because he was Ethiopian. Eusebius(c. 275 – 339),[11][page needed]Ephrem the Syrian(c. 306 – 373),[citation needed]Bede(c. 672 – 725),[citation needed]Nicephorus Callistus(c. 1256 – 1335),[citation needed]Nicholas of Lyra(c. 1270 – 1349),[citation needed]andMartin Luther(1483–1546)[9][page needed]
proselyte Eunuch "must be read as aproselyte(a fullconvert to Judaism) since Acts presentsCornelius the Centurionas the first gentile to be baptized into the Christian community. "[9][page needed] D. A Hubbard,[3]Lancelot Andrewes(1555–1626),[12][page needed]John Calvin(1509–1564),[13][page needed]John Wesley(1703–1791)[14][page needed]
God-fearer Eunuch cannot have been a proselyte and must have been aGod-fearer"since Deut 23:1 would have prohibited a castrated male from becoming a proselyte."[9][page needed] Paul Mumo Kisau,[15]C. K. Barrett,[16][page needed]Justo L. González,[17][page needed]many other contemporary scholars.[citation needed]
Illustration from theMenologionofBasil IIof Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch

Modern scholarship tends to place the Ethiopian eunuch in the "intermediate position between Jew and Gentile."[9][page needed]Scott Shauf suggests that the "primary point of the story is about carrying the gospel to the end of the earth, not about establishing a mission toGentiles,"and thusLuke"does not bring the Gentile status of the Ethiopian into the foreground." However, "the suggestion that the eunuch is or at least might be a Gentile in the story, by both his ethnic and possibly physical description" may leave more formative possibility than if he had been explicitly categorized.[18]Ernst Haenchen builds onFerdinand Christian Baur's work (1792–1860) in concluding that "the author of Acts made the eunuch's religious identity ambiguous intentionally" so as to preserve the tradition that claimed Cornelius as the first Gentile convert as well as the tradition that claimed the Ethiopian Eunuch as the first Gentile convert.[9][page needed]

Sexuality

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Commentators generally suggest that the combination of "eunuch" together with the title "court official" indicates a literal eunuch, who would have been excluded from the Temple by the restriction in Deuteronomy 23:1.[19][20]Some scholars point out that eunuchs were excluded from Jewish worship and extend the New Testament's inclusion of these men to other sexual minorities; gay Catholic priestJohn J. McNeill,citing non-literal uses of "eunuch" in other New Testament passages such asMatthew 19:12,[21]writes that he likes to think of the eunuch as "the first baptized gay Christian,"[22]whileJack Rogerswrites that "the fact that the firstGentileconvertto Christianity is from a sexual minority and a different race, ethnicity and nationality together "calls Christians to be radically inclusive and welcoming.[23]

Race and origins

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The Baptism of Queen Candace's Eunuch(c. 1625–1630, attributed toHendrick van BalenandJan Brueghel the Younger)

"Candace" was the name given in Greco-Roman historiography to all the female rulers or consorts of theKingdom of Kush(now part of Sudan). The capital city wasMeroë,and the title of "Candace" derives from aMeroiticword,kdke,that referred to any royal woman.[24]"Ethiopian" was a Greek term for black-skinned peoples generally, often applied to Kush (which was well known to the Hebrews and often mentioned in the Hebrew Bible). The eunuch was not from the land today known as Ethiopia, which corresponds to the ancientKingdom of Aksum,which conquered Kush in the fourth century. The first writer to call it Ethiopia wasPhilostorgiusaround 440.[25]

Some scholars, such asFrank M. Snowden, Jr.,interpret the story as emphasizing thatearly Christian communitiesaccepted members regardless of race: "Ethiopians were the yardstick by whichantiquitymeasured colored peoples. "[26][27]Others, such as Clarice Martin, write that it is a commentary on the religion rather than on its adherents, showing Christianity's geographical extent; Gay L. Byron goes further, saying, "The Ethiopian eunuch was used by Luke to indicate that salvation could extend even to Ethiopians and Blacks."[28]David Tuesday Adamo suggests that the word used here (Αἰθίοψ,aithiops) is best translated simply as "African."[29]

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C. K. Barrettcontrasts the Ethiopian eunuch's story with that ofCornelius the Centurion,anotherconvert.He notes that while the Ethiopian continues on his journey home and passes out of the narrative, Cornelius and his followers form another church inJudea,and speculates that this reflects a desire to focus onPeterrather than Philip.[16]: 421 Robert O'Toole argues that the way Philip is taken away parallels the way Jesus disappears after he has been talking to the discipleson the road to EmmausinLuke24.[30]

There are literary parallels between the story of the Ethiopian eunuch inActsand that ofEbed-Melech,an Ethiopian eunuch in theBook of Jeremiah.[31]

Further reading

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  • Knecht, Friedrich Justus (1910)."The Sacrament of Confirmation—Baptism of the Officer of Queen Candace.".A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture.B. Herder.

References

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  1. ^Acts 8:27
  2. ^abConder, C.R.(1879).Tent Work in Palestine.Vol. 2. London: Bentley; Palestine Exploration Fund. p.76.OCLC23589738.
  3. ^abHubbard, D. A. (1962). "Ethiopian Eunuch". In Douglas, J. D. (ed.).New Bible Dictionary.InterVarsity Press.p. 398.
  4. ^Yohannes, Paulos (1988).Filsata: The Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and the Mariological Tradition of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church(PhD). New Jersey:Princeton Theological Seminary.OCLC22377610.[page needed]
  5. ^"History of the Church".stmichaeleoc.org.Archived fromthe originalon August 2, 2021.RetrievedJuly 29,2012.
  6. ^abIrenaeus, St (2012). Böer, Paul (ed.).Against Heresies.Veritatis Splendor Publications.[page needed]
  7. ^Potter, Charles Francis (1962).The Lost Years of Jesus Revealed(2 ed.). New York: Fawcett Gold Medal. p. 103.ISBN0449130398.
  8. ^Pontius the Deacon.Life and Passion of Saint Cyprian.[full citation needed]
  9. ^abcdefBurke, Sean D. (2013).Queering the Ethiopian Eunuch: Strategies of Ambiguity in Acts.Fortress Press.ISBN978-1-4514-6565-5.[page needed]
  10. ^Jerome(1954).The Principal Works of St. Jerome.Translated by Freemantle, W. H. Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans.OCLC16266331.[page needed]
  11. ^Eusebius(November 23, 1989). Louth, Andrew (ed.).The History of the Church from Christ to Constantine.Translated by Williamson, G. (Rev. ed.). Penguin.[page needed]
  12. ^Andrewes, Lancelot(2011).Ninety-Six Sermons.Nabu Press.ISBN9781174708121.[page needed]
  13. ^Calvin, John(1995).Calvin's New Testament Commentaries, Volume 6: Acts 1-13.Grand Rapids, Mich.; Carlisle England: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.ISBN9780802808066.[page needed]
  14. ^Wesley, John(2010).John Wesley's Notes on the Whole Bible: New Testament.Benediction Classics.ISBN9781849026352.[page needed]
  15. ^Kisau, Paul Mumo (2006). "Acts of the Apostles". In Adeyemo, Tokunboh (ed.).Africa Bible Commentary.Grand Rapids, MI: Harper Collins-Zondervan.p. 1314.
  16. ^abBarrett, Charles Kingsley(1998).A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, Vol. 1: Preliminary Introduction and Commentary on Acts I-XIV.International Critical Commentary on the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, Vol. 34. Edinburgh, UK: Bloomsbury-T&T Clark.ISBN978-0-567-09653-1.[page needed]
  17. ^Gonzalez, Justo L. (November 30, 2001).Acts: The Gospel of the Spirit(First ed.). Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books.ISBN9781570753985.[page needed]
  18. ^Shauf, Scott (2009). "Locating the Eunuch: Characterization and Narrative Context in Acts 8:26-40".CBQ.71(4): 774.JSTOR43726615.
  19. ^MacArthur, John (1994).New Testament Commentary, Volume 6: Acts 1-12.Moody. p. 254.ISBN0-8024-0759-5.
  20. ^Johnson, Luke T.; Harrington, Daniel J. (1992).The Acts of the Apostles.Liturgical Press. p. 155.ISBN0-8146-5807-5.
  21. ^McNeill, John J. (1993).The Church and the Homosexual(4 ed.). Beacon Press. pp.63–65.ISBN9780807079317.
  22. ^McNeill, John J. (2010).Freedom, Glorious Freedom: The Spiritual Journey to the Fullness of Life for Gays, Lesbians, and Everybody Else.Lethe. p. 211.ISBN9781590211489.
  23. ^Rogers, Jack(2009).Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality.Westminster John Knox.p. 135.
  24. ^Adams, William Yewdale (1977).Nubia: Corridor to Africa.Princeton University Press. p. 260.ISBN978-0-691-09370-3.
  25. ^Yamauchi, Edwin M.(2006). "Acts 8:26-40: Why the Ethiopian Eunuch Was Not from Ethiopia". In Bock, Darrell L.; Fanning, Buist M. (eds.).Interpreting the New Testament Text: Introduction to the Art and Science of Exegesis.Crossway. pp. 351–66.
  26. ^Snowden, Frank M. (1970).Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience(3rd ed.). Harvard University Press. p. 2.ISBN0-674-07626-5.
  27. ^Witherington, Ben (1998).The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary.Eerdmans. p. 295.ISBN0-8028-4501-0.
  28. ^Byron, Gay L. (2002).Symbolic Blackness and Ethnic Difference in Early Christian Literature.Psychology Press. pp. 105–115.ISBN9780203471470.
  29. ^Adamo, David Tuesday (2006).Africa and Africans in the New Testament.Lanham:University Press of America.pp. 89–91.
  30. ^O'Toole, R.F. (2016). "Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts VIII 25-40)".Journal for the Study of the New Testament.5(17): 25–34.doi:10.1177/0142064X8300501705.ISSN0142-064X.S2CID161231768.
  31. ^Estigarribia, Juan Vicente (1992)."Commentaries on the Historicity of Acts of the Apostles 8, 26–39".Beiträge zur Sudanforschung.5:39–46.
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