26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go
toward the south [4] to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This
is a desert place. 27 And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a
eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge
of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning,
seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the Spirit
said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him and
heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are
reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited
Philip to come up and sit with him.
(Acts 8:26-31 (ESV)
Ethiopia, to this day there is a strong Christian community
there. When European Colonists came upon this area of Africa they were still
Christian and had not succumbed to Islamic invasion as had the rest of North
Africa, like Egypt where the Copts were a persecuted minority. But it all
started with Jewish proselyting during the diaspora. There were at this time
huge Jewish populations throughout Greco/Roman Africa. The whole northern coast was once a bastion of
Greeks and Romans, Romans taking everything from Libya west. It’s hard to say
how Christian these areas ever were. It is estimated by Peter Brown in “Through
the Eye of a Needle” that perhaps only ten percent of the population was
Christian at the time of Augustine. One wonders if it had moved much by the
time of the Islamic invasions. Nevertheless archeology in these areas produces
wonderful artifacts from these industrious Christians from that era, but also
many pagan artifacts depicting Greek and Roman gods, and still yet many Jewish
artifacts.
It’s hard to imagine Jewish people being zealous proselytes
today, that they ever were boggles one’s mind. Yet in the first century the
Jews were very zealous in proselyting.
Jesus even mentions this: 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For
you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes
a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell [5] as yourselves.(Matthew
23:15) And evidently they were more successful at it back then then they are
today. Sure they get a few converts here
and there even today, but mostly through marriage. Every once in a while Kabala
becomes popular with the movie starts and people start experimenting with it,
it’s hard to say how many actually convert through that Jewish discipline. I
suppose it is easier today on the converts as most men are circumcised as a
matter of course in the hospital with little thought given to it. At least they
don’t have to go through that pain when they convert. Of course, this posed and
even greater problem for the Eunuch. In order to serve the Queen, the males had
to be castrated. And the castration would mean according to Deuteronomy 23 that
they could never really be a part of the assembly. That is they could get about
as close to the holy of holy as the court of the gentiles and no further. In
the Old Testament there are many such requirements that would make a person
like this Eunuch feel as an outsider. Things that people had little control over
would exclude them from the assembly. Often it is assumed they could not then be
saved, and it seems rather cruel. But this isn’t really the case. Isaiah says
these people are saved despite their being cut off from the people, even if all
they do is observe the Sabbath. (Isaiah 56) Still, can you imagine heading to
Jerusalem for the feasts and not really being able to participate, and never having
any hope of doing so? The heart break probably explains him studying Isaiah
trying to assure himself of his salvation. And along comes Philip.
The Holy Spirit told him to approach the chariot it says. Philip
had been told by the angel of the Lord to go to Gaza, a desert place. So he
went. He doesn’t seem to know why until the Holy Spirit tells him to approach
the Eunuch’s chariot. The Eunuch has his prayers answered.
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