Ethiopian eunuch

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

The Ethiopian eunuch (

Ge'ez: ኢትዮጵያዊው ጃንደረባ) is a figure in the New Testament of the Bible; the story of his conversion to Christianity is recounted in Acts 8
.

Biblical narrative

baptized
him.

In the

omitted in most modern versions. D.A. Hubbard suggests that confession is "not supported in the better manuscripts [i.e. the Alexandrian text-type])", although the Ethiopian is still "one of the outstanding converts in Acts."[3]

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

Christian traditions

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

Gnostic theological 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." In Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo tradition he was referred to as Bachos and is known as an Ethiopian Jew with the name Simeon also called the Black, a name used in Acts 13:1.[4][page needed][5]

One of the traditional sites of the baptism is the Dhirweh fountain, near

Ein Hanya Spring.[citation needed
]

Assessment and interpretation

Religion

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, Irenaeus wrote, "Conversion is more difficult with gentiles than with Jews," indicating that the eunuch was a Jew.[6][page needed] Charles Francis Potter suggested the eunuch may have been an Essene.[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 or God-fearer.[9][page needed] Jerome (c. 347 – 420)[10][page needed]
Gentile Eunuch must have been a Gentile because he was Ethiopian.
Nicephorus Callistus (c. 1256 – 1335),[citation needed] Nicholas of Lyra (c. 1270 – 1349),[citation needed] and Martin Luther (1483–1546)[9][page needed
]
proselyte Eunuch "must be read as a proselyte (a full convert to Judaism) since Acts presents Cornelius the Centurion as 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 a God-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 the Menologion of Basil II of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch.

Modern scholarship tends to place the Ethiopian eunuch in the "

Gentiles," and thus Luke "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 on Ferdinand 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

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.

Jack Rogers writes that "the fact that the first Gentile convert to 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

Hendrick van Balen and Jan Brueghel the Younger
)

"Candace" was the name given in Greco-Roman historiography to all the female rulers or consorts of the Kingdom of Kush (now part of Sudan). The capital city was Meroë, and the title of "Candace" derives from a Meroitic word, 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 ancient Kingdom of Aksum, which conquered Kush in the fourth century. The first writer to call it Ethiopia was Philostorgius around 440.[25]

Some scholars, such as

early Christian communities accepted members regardless of race: "Ethiopians were the yardstick by which antiquity measured 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 (Αίθίοψ, aithiops) is best translated simply as "African."[29]

Related figures

C. K. Barrett contrasts the Ethiopian eunuch's story with that of Cornelius the Centurion, another convert. He notes that while the Ethiopian continues on his journey home and passes out of the narrative, Cornelius and his followers form another church in Judea, and speculates that this reflects a desire to focus on Peter rather 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 disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24.[30]

There are literary parallels between the story of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts and that of Ebed-Melech, an Ethiopian eunuch in the Book of Jeremiah.[31]

Further reading

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

References

  1. ^ Acts 8:27
  2. ^
    OCLC 23589738
    .
  3. ^ a b Hubbard, D. A. (1962). "Ethiopian Eunuch". In Douglas, J. D. (ed.). New Bible Dictionary. InterVarsity Press. p. 398.
  4. OCLC 22377610.[page needed
    ]
  5. ^ "History of the Church". stmichaeleoc.org. Archived from the original on August 2, 2021. Retrieved July 29, 2012.
  6. ^ a b Irenaeus, St (2012). Böer, Paul (ed.). Against Heresies. Veritatis Splendor Publications.[page needed]
  7. ISBN 0449130398
    .
  8. Pontius the Deacon. Life and Passion of Saint Cyprian.[full citation needed
    ]
  9. ^
    ISBN 978-1-4514-6565-5.[page needed
    ]
  10. OCLC 16266331.[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. ISBN 9781174708121.[page needed
    ]
  13. ISBN 9780802808066.[page needed
    ]
  14. ISBN 9781849026352.[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. ^
    ISBN 978-0-567-09653-1.[page needed
    ]
  17. ISBN 9781570753985.[page needed
    ]
  18. JSTOR 43726615
    .
  19. ISBN 0-8024-0759-5
    .
  20. ISBN 0-8146-5807-5
    .
  21. ISBN 9780807079317
    .
  22. ISBN 9781590211489
    .
  23. Westminster John Knox
    . p. 135.
  24. ISBN 978-0-691-09370-3
    .
  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. ISBN 0-674-07626-5
    .
  27. ISBN 0-8028-4501-0
    .
  28. ISBN 9780203471470
    .
  29. ^ Adamo, David Tuesday (2006). Africa and Africans in the New Testament. Lanham: University Press of America. pp. 89–91.
  30. S2CID 161231768
    .
  31. ^ Estigarribia, Juan Vicente (1992). "Commentaries on the Historicity of Acts of the Apostles 8, 26–39". Beiträge zur Sudanforschung. 5: 39–46.

External links

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