The Gaza Road

Rembrandt's painting of the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch: Philip baptizes the kneeling official beside his grand carriage and attendants at the water's edge. — *The Baptism of the Eunuch*, Rembrandt, 1626 -- an artist's staging of the Acts 8 scene. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

“Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert place” (Acts 8:26). The angel’s directions sent Philip – fresh from revival in Samaria – away from the crowds to an empty highway, the old route dropping from the Judean hills toward Gaza, the last watering stop before the desert road to Egypt.

Along it rolled the chariot of a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians: her treasurer, a God-fearing eunuch returning from worship in Jerusalem, reading Isaiah 53 aloud without understanding it. Philip ran alongside, asked the perfect question – “Do you understand what you are reading?” – and, “beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.” At the first water the eunuch asked, “What prevents me from being baptized?” Nothing did; the law that had barred eunuchs from the assembly (Deuteronomy 23:1) had been overtaken by Isaiah’s own promise to give them “a name better than sons and daughters” (Isaiah 56:3-5). He “went on his way rejoicing,” carrying the gospel toward Africa a full chapter before Peter ever met Cornelius.

The episode is a miniature of Acts: the Spirit directing, the Scriptures opened, one reader at a time, the good news running down every road out of Jerusalem.

In the New Testament

Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-40)
The Scripture he was reading (Isaiah 53:7-8)