Acts 8:26

Philip baptizes an Ethiopian Eunuch

26. And the angel of the Lord The Gk. has an angel. While Peter and John were carrying on the work of Philip in Samaria, God directs the Evangelist to a new scene of labour.

spake unto Philip Most probably in a vision as to Cornelius (Acts 10:3) and to Peter (Acts 11:5).

saying, Arise, and go toward the south Gaza was the southernmost of the five great cities which the Philistines had formerly occupied, and was on the route which a traveller from Jerusalem to Egypt would follow. In 96 b.c. the city of Gaza had been destroyed and its inhabitants massacred by Alexander Jannæus (Joseph. Ant. xiii. 13. 3), but it had been rebuilt by Gabinius (Antiq. xiv. 5. 3), though it is said that the restored city was nearer the sea than the ancient one. It continued to be a city of importance (see Antiq. xv. 7. 3 and xvii. 11. 4), and it could not therefore be to the city that the word "desert" which follows must be referred. From Samaria Philip would come directly south, and leaving Jerusalem on the east strike the road at some distance from that city.

unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza There was more than one road from Jerusalem to Gaza, the more northern route went first to Ascalon and then by the coast to Gaza, another road was by Hebron and through the more desert country which lay to the west of it, and this is most likely the road intended in the narrative.

which is desert The Greek puts these words in a separate clause, "this is desert," as is common in Hebrew. This disjunction has raised the question whether they belong to the direction which the angel was giving to Philip, or are an insertion by St Luke to mark the scene of the interview more clearly. If they had been inserted as an explanation it is not likely they would have been so brief, whereas if we regard them as a portion of the speech of the angel they contain all that was needed for Philip's instruction. That road toward Gaza which passed through the desert explains exactly the place to which he was to go.