Luke does not relate to us what the Ethiopian has done and experienced in Jerusalem. These tourists with their dark skin will certainly have drawn attention in Jerusalem! Surely, the Ethiopian was not allowed to enter the temple grounds. By the checkpoint at the entrance (to the temple) he is being held back because he must divulge that he is a eunuch. In Deuteronomy 23:1 it says that a eunuch cannot enter the assembly of the Lord and is excluded from the service to God in the temple (also compare Isaiah 56:3–5). There only is admission for those who are circumcised, not for those who have been “cut.” God himself gave this instruction to Moses. God the Creator finds that this self-mutilation does not fit with the purpose of man, as man was created by God and as he was intended to be. The eunuch stands outside (the temple) as an unclean person. After such a long journey to worship God, he stands before a closed door! This seeker of God will surely have started disappointedly on his way home. While he seeks God and cannot go further, we see that it is God who seeks him! On the journey back home, he reads from a scroll by the prophet Isaiah. Perhaps he purchased this scroll as a souvenir in Jerusalem. Or did he bring this scroll along from Ethiopia to have something to read on the journey?
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