Acts 8:27

καὶ ἀναστὰς ἐπορεύθη : immediate and implicit obedience. καὶ ἰδού, see on Acts 1:11; cf. Hort, Ecclesia, p. 179, on the force of the phrase; used characteristically by St. Luke of sudden and as it were providential interpositions, Acts 1:10; Acts 10:17; Acts 12:7, and see note on Acts 16:1. εὐνοῦχος : the word can be taken literally, for there is no contradiction involved in Deuteronomy 23:1, as he would be simply “a proselyte of the gate” (Hort, Judaistic Christianity, p. 54). The instances sometimes referred to as showing that the exclusion of eunuchs from the congregation of the Lord was relaxed in the later period of Jewish history can scarcely hold good, since Isaiah 56:3 refers to the Messianic future in which even the heathen and the eunuchs should share, and in Jeremiah 38:7; Jeremiah 39:15 nothing is said which could lead us to describe Ebed Melech, another Ethiopian eunuch, as a Jew in the full sense. On the position and influence of eunuchs in the East, both in ancient and modern times, see “Eunuch,” B.D. 2, and Hastings' B.D. St. Luke's mention that he was a eunuch is quite in accordance with the “universalism” of the Acts; gradually the barriers of a narrow Judaism were broken down, first in the case of the Samaritans, and now in the case of the eunuch. Eusebius, H. E., ii., i., speaks of him as πρῶτος ἐξ ἐθνῶν, who was converted to Christ, and even as a “proselyte of the gate” he might be so described, for the gulf which lay between a born Gentile and a genuine descendant of Abraham could never be bridged over (Schürer, Jewish People, div. ii., vol. ii., p. 326, E.T.). Moreover, in the case of the Ethiopian eunuch, descended from the accursed race of Ham, this separation from Israel must have been intensified to the utmost (cf. Amos 9:7). No doubt St. Luke may also have desired to instance the way in which thus early the Gospel spread to a land far distant from the place of its birth (McGiffert, Apostolic Age, p. 100). δυνάστης : noun in apposition to ἀνὴρ Αἰθ., only used by St. Luke here and in his Gospel, Luke 1:52, and once again by St. Paul, 1 Timothy 6:15. In LXX frequent (used of God, Sir 46:5, 2Ma 15:3; 2Ma 15:23, etc.; so too of Zeus by Soph.), for its meaning here cf. Genesis 1:4, Latin, aulicus. Κανδάκης : not a personal name, but said to be a name often given to queens of Ethiopia (cf. Pharaoh, and later Ptolemy, in Egypt), Pliny, N. H., vi., 35, 7. In the time of Eusebius, H. E., ii., 1, Ethiopia is said to be still ruled by queens, Strabo, xvii., I., 54; Bion of Soli, Ethiopica (Müller, Fragm. Hist. Græc., iv., p. 351). According to Brugsch the spelling would be Kanta-ki: cf. “Candace,” B.D. 2, and “Ethiopia,” Hastings' B.D. γάζης : a Persian word found both in Greek and Latin (cf. Cicero, De Off., ii., 22; Virg., Æn., i., 119; and see Wetstein, in loco). In LXX, Ezra 6:1 (Esther 4:7), treasures; Acts 5:17; Acts 7:20, treasury; Acts 7:21, treasurers; cf. also Isaiah 39:2, and γαζοφυλάκιον in LXX, and in N.T., Luke 21:1; Mark 12:41 (2), 43, John 8:20. “Observat Lucas, et locum, ubi præfectus Gazæ Philippo factus est obviam, Gazam fuisse vocatum” Wetstein; see also on the nomen et omen Felten and Plumptre, and compare on the word Jerome, Epist., cviii. 11. If the second ὅς is retained (R.V.) it emphasises the fact that the eunuch was already a proselyte Weiss). προσκυνής ων : proves not that (he was a Jew, but that he was not a heathen (Hackett). The proselytes, as well as foreign Jews, came to Jerusalem to worship. We cannot say whether he had gone up to one of the feasts; St. Chrysostom places it to his credit that he had gone up at an unusual time.