Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 8:27

"And he arose and went: and behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her treasure, who had come to Jerusalem to worship;" — Acts 8:27 (ASV)

It is difficult to determine from the text itself how Luke wanted his readers to understand the Ethiopian eunuch’s relation to Judaism. It is also uncertain how first-century Judaism would have viewed a eunuch coming to worship at Jerusalem. While Dt 23:1 explicitly stipulates that no emasculated male could be included within the Jewish religious community, Isaiah 56:3–5 speaks of eunuchs being accepted by the God of boundless lovingkindness. Nor is it clear what the Ethiopian’s physical condition was, for the word “eunuch” (GK 2336) frequently appears in the LXX and in secular Greek writings as a euphemism for high military and political officials, without necessarily suggesting emasculation. Therefore, we are probably justified in taking this eunuch as a governmental officer in an Oriental kingdom and in emphasizing two facts when considering his relation to Judaism: (1) he had been on a religious pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and (2) he was returning with a copy of the prophecy of Isaiah in his possession, which would have been difficult for a nonJew to get.

The ancient kingdom of Ethiopia lay between Aswan and Khartoum. It was ruled by a queen mother who had the dynastic title Candace and ruled on behalf of her son the king, since the king was regarded as the child of the sun and therefore too holy to become involved in the secular functions of the state. The minister of finance in the Ethiopian government had become either a full proselyte or a Proselyte of the Gate and had gone to Jerusalem to worship at one of the Jewish festivals. He was now returning home reading Isaiah; possibly Isa 56:3–5, the passage that refers to God’s lovingkindness to eunuchs, first caught his attention and caused him to return to Isaiah again and again. But whatever got him into Isaiah’s prophecy, the interpretation of the Servant passage of Isa 52:13–53:12 troubled him.