HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE BIBLE
BIBLE STUDY
17
Acts 8:26-39
Now an angel of God said to Philip, “Go south to the road–the desert
road–that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way
he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury
of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship
and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the
prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” Then
Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do
you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. “How can I,” he said, unless
someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: “He was led like a sheep to
the slaughter and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his
mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his
descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the
transgression of my people he was stricken. (Isaiah 53:7 & 8)
The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about,
himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture
and told him the good news about Jesus. As they traveled along the road, they
came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be
baptized?” And he ordered the chariot to stop. Then both Philip and the eunuch
went down into the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the
water, the Spirit of God suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see
him again, but went on his way rejoicing.
Actually, there are at least two stories of Ethiopian eunuchs in Scripture. In the 38th chapter of Jeremiah we meet Ebed-melech, an Ethiopian eunuch in the service of King Zedekiah. The NIV identifies him as a Cushite, an official in the royal palace, while further research identifies Cushite as Ethiopian and official (Heb. saris) as eunuch. The terms Cushite and Ethiopian generally referred to dark-skinned people, especially from the region south of Israel, that we today consider as Africa, though the territory could have extended east to include India.
As the Bible tells it, God’s prophet, Jeremiah, has been lowered into a cistern where he will be left to die for prophesying about the coming capture of Jerusalem by the king of Babylon. When Ebed-melech hears what has happened to Jeremiah he confronts King Zedekiah, pleads for Jeremiah’s life and rescues him. In return God, through Jeremiah, promises Ebed-Melech that his life will be spared in Jerusalem’s fall. Ebed-melech, the Ethiopian eunuch, is a rarely-mentioned hero of the bible.
Luke tells us that the eunuch in Acts was a very important person. He held a position of utmost trust in that he was in charge of all of the Ethiopian treasury. The word, Candace, it should be noted was not the name of a particular queen, but a word denoting rank or dynasty, the female counterpart of the word Pharaoh. The man was intelligent and educated.
The first thing we might note in the above passages of scripture is that this unnamed Ethiopian eunuch was obviously someone God singled out for particular importance, for we read that God sent an angel to Philip to direct him to the eunuch’s path.
Who was Philip? He was not the apostle, Philip, spoken of in the gospels, but one called Philip the Evangelist. We first meet him in Acts 6:5, when he was one of seven chosen by the apostles to minister to the people. Of Philip, Who’s Who in the Bible says:
“Philip did much to carry out Peter’s mandate to open the church to Gentiles and to other people traditionally shut out from Jewish society. As one of the leaders of the early church in Jerusalem, he helped meet the material needs of the Greek-speaking widows in the community, extending the church’s social services to non-Jews.
As an evangelist working with the apostle, Peter, Philip brought the Gospel to the mixed-race Samaritans….In his later years, Philip raised and trained four gifted daughters to prophesy and preach. Thus Philip pushed the frontiers of evangelism–moving beyond his deacon’s role and his parish–to embrace a wide variety of people who were typically ignored by earlier evangelists.”
In other words, Philip ministered to those who traditionally would have been considered the outcasts of his society: Gentile widows, who would have been marginalized not only because they were widows, but most especially because they were Gentiles; Samaritans, who because they practiced a sort of hap-hazard Judaism and were very lax in following the Law, were religious outcasts; and to at least this one eunuch. Philip could also rightly have been called a feminist, in that contrary to his cultural and societal mores, he trained his four daughters to become prophets and preachers.
The eunuch invites Philip to join him on his chariot, and together they read Isaiah 53:7 and 8. Then Luke says that when questioned by the eunuch Philip tells him about Jesus and the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophesy. Luke, the reporter writes “just the facts, ma’am,” but gives no indication of the emotion that the eunuch must have felt as Philip opened up the words of Isaiah to him. And though he may have been reading and questioning verses 7 and 8 at the moment, I believe we could safely assume that the eunuch had been reading more than just those verses. Perhaps we can peek over his shoulder and see what he might have read just before verses 7 and 8. What would he have seen? Would he have recognized a soul similar to his own? After all, since Jesus never married, he would himself have been considered a eunuch. Had the eunuch read verses three and four of Chapter 53 he would have found these words: He was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom we hide our faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten and afflicted. Did the eunuch recognize himself in those words?
Luke tells us that the eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship. But was he allowed in the temple? Deuteronomy 23:1ff, said that the emasculated and certain foreigners would not be allowed. Even though eunuchs held positions of prestige and power, were they vilified personally because they were not “real men?” Did he feel, like Jesus was, cut off from the people–the rest of society?
On the other hand, some scholars believe that the eunuch was either a proselyte or a God-fearer. A proselyte was a Gentile who had accepted Judaism and was circumcised, while a God-fearer was one who attended synagogue and read Jewish scriptures, but was not circumcised. If the scholars are correct, then our eunuch could not have been castrated, or he would not have been allowed in the temple. It would not be a stretch of the imagination to believe he was a gay man. Acts 8:35 tells us: Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. Can we not then safely assume that Philip continued on in Isaiah to read 56:3 to 5? Let no foreigner who has joined him-or herself to God say, “God will surely exclude me from God’s people.” And let not any eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.” For this is what our God says: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant–to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.” (NIV)
Did not the heart of the eunuch leap with joy when Philip shared with him those words? He would not be cut off! He would have an everlasting name! And, encouraged by those words, and by Philip’s story of Jesus, wouldn’t he then be emboldened to ask at the water’s edge, “Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” William Barclay, in his Daily Study Bible Series, tells us: Tradition has it that this eunuch went home and evangelized Ethiopia. We can at least be sure that he who went on his way rejoicing would not be able to keep his newfound joy to himself.
We, as gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered folk, can sit at Philip’s feet, and recognize that the words of joy and hope he gave to the Ethiopian eunuch that day, are words of hope and joy for we who are modern-day eunuchs. We can praise God, and give thanks that the words of Isaiah as well as the words of Jesus, apply to us too. We are God’s people, with an everlasting name that will not be cut off!
This ends today’s study.