Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Get up and go toward
the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This is a
wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a
court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire
treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in
his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip,
"Go over to this chariot and join it." So Philip ran up to it and
heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, "Do you understand what
you are reading?" He replied, "How can I, unless someone
guides me?" And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the
passage of the scripture that he was reading was this: "Like a sheep he
was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does
not open his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe
his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth." The eunuch
asked Philip, "About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about
himself or about someone else?" Then Philip began to speak, and
starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.
As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch
said, "Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being
baptized?" He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and
the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came
up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch
saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.[1]
Most commentators refer to the man from Ethiopia as a
Gentile turned Jew. That may be the case since nothing is said of him other than
he was from Ethiopia. However, there are longstanding traditions which could
suggest he may well have been an Ethiopian Jew and not a Gentile.
From the 7th century BCE up until 330
AD, Judaism was the official state religion of Ethiopia.[2]
Rabbi Paris speaks only of the
“TABERNACLE OF THE LAW OF GOD” (which is otherwise known as the “ARK OF THE
COVENANT”) that was allegedly transported Into Ethiopia from Israel with King
Solomon'. son- "EMPEROR MENELIK 1st, “whose mother was the greatest
monarch of her time - "EMPRESS MAKEDA" (commonly called 'QUEEN OF
SHEBA" because her EMPIRE OF ETHIOPIA also Included the ‘KINGDOM OF YEMEN’
or 'SHEBA," sometimes said to have been the capital instead of the name of
a country), In about ca. 970 B. C. E. as the sole "origin of the Agaw in
Ethiopia."[3]
… Jews migrated to Ethiopia after the
fall of the First Temple about 586 BCE.
According to another story, Jewish merchants entered Ethiopia from Yemen
in the south and converted a black Cushite tribe, the Agaw, to Judaism and
started a Jewish kingdom in Africa.
…some Jews did not cross from Egypt to
Israel, at the time of the Exodus, but traveled over hundreds of years through
Egypt. Then they proceeded up along the
Nile River to the north-western part of Ethiopia to Lake Tana.
In the 8th century BCE, Israel
consisted of twelve tribes. Ten of them
lived in territory in the north. Also,
in the 8th century BCE, the powerful kingdom of the Assyrians invaded the north
and conquered the Israelites. The ten tribes were scattered into many different
regions. One of those tribes was the tribe of Dan. Our elders tell us they are
the “lost tribe” of Israel that migrated into Ethiopia at the time to escape
from the Assyrians. They settled in the Gondar region where I was born and
where the Beta Israel live.[4]
“Now
there was an Ethiopian…” Thayer’s Greek Definitions, give the meaning of
the Greek word translated Ethiopian as, black. He was a man of Ethiopian
heritage.
“He had
come to Jerusalem to worship,” most
probably an Ethiopian Jew on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to worship at Herod’s
temple.
He was
returning home; “seated
in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.” One commentator
wrote, “…reading a ‘newly acquired’ manuscript. There is nothing in Luke’s text
to indicate it was “newly acquired”! It doesn’t say whether it was a complete
manuscript or a fragment of a copy made by some scribe, the point was that he
was reading the prophet Isaiah’s words on the sacrificial death of the Messiah.
“About
whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone
else?” A perceptive question.
“Then
Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him
the good news about Jesus.” We are left in the dark about the details of
the conversation; what we do know is that it was the “good news”, and that
whatever Philip said had life-changing impact.
“Look,
here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” Philip’s
conversation on Jesus led the Ethiopian to want to be baptized at the first
opportunity.
“Philip
and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.” Both
went into the water.
“When
they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the
eunuch saw him no more...”
It is quite amazing that the man from Ethiopia eagerly accepted Philip’s
explanation of the prophet’s words, following through with being baptized. What
is also amazing to me is that Philip was immediately removed from the scene.
Apparently unperturbed, the man from Ethiopia “...went on his way rejoicing.”
This episode poses an enigma for institutional Christianity. That God would
leave a new convert alone, with no more than Philip’s explanation of the
prophecy, seems implausible. The focus of institutional Christianity is the
Church. This event demonstrated the power of the word, and the effectiveness of
the gospel. As Paul later wrote, the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.[5]
It’s safe to say that there wasn’t a church in Ethiopia since we read that
following the persecution by Saul, “…those who had been scattered went about preaching the word. Philip went
down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them.[6] From Samaria Philip was sent to locate the Ethiopian.
Christians fleeing persecution according to Luke shared the good news of Jesus
wherever they went. Jesus told people about the kingdom of God, he assured
people that through believing in him salvation was a reality. Churches are not
against Jesus, but they are unnecessary for salvation. Churches often place
unneeded layers of obligations on believers. They can become more of a
hindrance than asset.
We can only guess why God would redirect Philip’s teaching
from Samaria to a lone traveler on a wilderness road. One might conjecture that
since the apostles visited Samaria giving the gift of the Spirit to believers,
that Philip’s work there was done. Or we could speculate that the apostles with
Peter may have taken over the work. Or, it might be that God had noticed a
believing heart, struggling with the meaning of prophecy, and decided to help.
Possibly, God may have chosen the Ethiopian man to be the witness of Jesus to
other Jews in Ethiopia. It took many centuries for the world and Israel to
recognize Ethiopian Jews, but God knew where they were all the time. Maybe, it
was God’s way of ensuring that Jews would be first to benefit from the good
news; “…you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and
Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”[7]
These are all at best, guesses. What is certain is that belief in Jesus is the
only way to be acceptable to God. Our individual relationship with Jesus, is
our assurance of hope. To me, the man from Ethiopia represents a child of God
by faith.
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