Acts 8:39

Πνεῦμα Κ. ἥρπασε : although the expression is simply Πνεῦμα Κ. the reference is evidently to the same divine power as in Acts 8:29, and cannot be explained as meaning an inward impulse of the Evangelist, or as denoting a hurricane or storm of wind (as even Nösgen and Stier supposed). The article is omitted before Πνεῦμα Κ. in Luke 4:18, so also in LXX, Isaiah 61:1, and we cannot therefore conclude anything from its omission here. ἥρπασε, abripuit, the disappearance, as the context shows, was regarded as supernatural, cf. LXX, 1Ki 18:12, 2 Kings 2:16 (Ezekiel 3:14, Hebrew only רוח). Thus Hilgen feld recognises not only a likeness here to the O.T. passages quoted, but that a miraculous transference of Philip to another place is implied. No doubt, as Hilgenfeld points out, πνεῦμα may mean wind, John 3:8, but this by no means justifies exclusion of all reference here to the Holy Spirit. No doubt we may see with Blass a likeness in the language of the narrative to the O.T. passages just cited, and St. Luke's informants may have been the daughters of Philip, who were themselves προφήτιδες (see Blass, in loco); but there is no reason why he should not have heard the narrative from St. Philip himself, and the rendering πνεῦμα by ventus is not satisfactory, although Blass fully recognises that Philip departed by the same divine impulse as that by which he had come. Holtzmann endorses the reference to the O.T. passages above, but specially draws attention to the parallel which he supposes in Bel and the Dragon, Acts 8:34 ff. But this passage should be contrasted rather than compared with the simple narrative of the text, so free from any fantastic embellishment, while plainly implying a supernatural element; cf. for the verb ἁρπάζω, 1 Thessalonians 4:17; 2 Corinthians 12:2; 2 Corinthians 12:4 (a reference to which as explaining Philip's withdrawal is not to the point, since the narrative cannot imply that Philip was ἐκτὸς τοῦ σώματος), Revelation 12:5, used of a snatching or taking up due to divine agency, cf. Wis 4:11, where it is said of Enoch ἡρπάγη. Both in classical Greek and in the LXX the word implies forcible or sudden seizure (John 6:15). καὶ οὐκ εἶδεν … ἐπορεύετο γὰρ κ. τ. λ. If these two clauses are closely connected as by R.V., they do not simply state that the eunuch went on his own way (Rendall), (in contrast with Philip who went his way), rejoicing in the good news which he had heard, and in the baptism which he had received; and R.V. punctuation surely need not prevent the disappearance of Philip from being viewed as mysterious, even if the words καὶ οὐκ εἶδον αὐτὸν οὐκέτι do not imply this. Moreover αὐτοῦ may rather emphasise the fact that the eunuch went his way, which he would not have done had he seen Philip, but would perhaps have followed him who had thus enlightened his path (so Weiss, in loco, reading αὐτοῦ τῆν ὁδόν αὐτοῦ emphatic: see also St. Chrysostom's comment in loco). χαίρων : “the fruit of the Spirit is … joy,” Galatians 5:22 (the word at the end of a clause is characteristic of Luke; Luke 15:5; Luke 19:6, see Vogel, p. 45). Eusebius describes the eunuch, to whom he gives the name of Indich, as the first preacher to his countrymen of the tidings of great joy, and on the possible reception in the earliest Christian times of the Gospel message in the island of Meroë at least, see “Ethiopian Church,” Dict. of Christ. Biog., ii., 234 (Smith & Wace). In the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch men have seen the first fulfilment of the ancient prophecy, Psalms 68:31 (Luckock, Footprints of the Apostles as traced by St Luke, i., 219, and C. and H., p. 66).