Archives for May 8, 2006

Acts 8:26-40 (NRSV)

Read Acts 8:26-40 on biblegateway.com

Verse ²⁶Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This is a wilderness road.) Verse ²⁷So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship Verse ²⁸and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Verse ²⁹Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go over to this chariot and join it." Verse ³⁰So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" Verse ³¹He replied, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Verse ³²Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this: "Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. Verse ³³In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth." Verse ³⁴The eunuch asked Philip, "About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?" Verse ³⁵Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. Verse ³⁶As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?" Verse ³⁸He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. Verse ³⁹When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. Verse ⁴⁰But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.