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

Where was Ethiopia?

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

The Ethiopia of biblical times was different from the Ethiopia we know today. It refers to the Nubian kingdom which was south of Egypt, in modern-day Sudan.1 This kingdom was one in which dark-skinned (black African) people lived,2 and it was located around 1,600 kilometres south of the Mediterranean.3 The Old Testament refers to this region as Cush and its people feature in certain prophecies concerning the scope and extent of the Lord’s saving work (Isaiah 11:11; Zephaniah 3:9–10; Psalm 68:31).4