1. Acts 8:27 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What is the Ethiopian doing in Jerusalem?

Acts 8:27 (ESV)

27 And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship

He makes a long journey. When we pinpoint Ethiopia (or Nubia), we ought to think of current Sudan, at the source of the Nile River which is 1 800 kilometres south of Egypt. With horse and chariot, he comes to Jerusalem, some 1,800 kilometres! The travel company will have been travelling for up to five months, on roads that are not all that good! Being a court official, he would not have travelled by himself and was most likely surrounded by one or two other persons.

As minister, he will have done international travel before, and he spoke and read the world language of that time, namely Greek. Via contacts with Jews from Jewish settlements (perhaps in his own country and surely in Southern Egypt), the Ethiopian got acquainted with the Jewish religion and showed his interest. As a pilgrim he goes to Jerusalem to worship the God of Israel (“proskunѐo”). “Proskunѐo” (ESV: worship) means bending down deep to worship God, as the magicians come from the East to worship the Child (Matthew 2:8, Matthew 2:11). He who has an interest in the God of Israel may be called God-fearing. By the way, he could not join the Jewish people as full proselyte, as he was a eunuch.