Passage

Acts 8.39

Book: Acts · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

38. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.

39. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip; and the eunuch saw him no more, for he went on his way rejoicing.

But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached the gospel to all the cities, till he came to Cæsarea. (Acts 8:37-40, ASV)

WEB

38. He commanded the chariot to stand still, and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

39. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, and the eunuch didn’t see him any more, for he went on his way rejoicing.

But Philip was found at Azotus. Passing through, he preached the Good News to all the cities, until he came to Caesarea. (Acts 8:37-40, WEB)

KJV

37. And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 38. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.

39. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.

But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea. (Acts 8:37-40, KJV)

YLT

37. [And Philip said, 'If thou dost believe out of all the heart, it is lawful;' and he answering said, 'I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God;'] 38. and he commanded the chariot to stand still, and they both went down to the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him;

39. and when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, and the eunuch saw him no more, for he was going on his way rejoicing;

and Philip was found at Azotus, and passing through, he was proclaiming good news to all the cities, till his coming to Caesarea. (Acts 8:37-40, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Luke, narrating (1:1)
Audience: Philip the evangelist and "a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians" (8:27)
Location: The desert road from Jerusalem down to Gaza (8:26)
Time period: The early 30s AD, after the persecution that followed Stephen's death scattered the church (8:1, 4)

Theological reading

"And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing" (Acts 8:39, KJV).

Who the Ethiopian was. "Ethiopia" in the Greek sense meant the Nubian kingdom of Kush, south of Egypt, ruled from Meroë. "Candace" (Kandakē) was a royal title for its queens, not a personal name. The official was her treasurer, "who had the charge of all her treasure" (8:27). He had travelled to Jerusalem to worship and was reading Isaiah aloud on the way home.

Isaiah 53 explained. He was reading "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter" (8:32, from Isaiah 53:7-8) and asked, "of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?" (8:34). Philip "began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus" (8:35). The Isaiah 53 question that divides Jewish and Christian readers today was being asked on that road.

Rejoicing. Philip is taken away, and the official goes home with nothing but his baptism, his scroll and his joy. Irenaeus reports that he went on to preach in his own country (Against Heresies 3.12.8).

Africa in the first generation. The Kemetic Religion vs the Christian God comparison cites this verse among the evidence that Christianity reached Africa within its first years, before it reached much of Europe. See Africans in Scripture Argument and Acts 13.1.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G4151 - pneuma, pneuma, Strong's G4151
G1492 - oida, oida, Strong's G1492
G2962 - kyrios, kyrios, Strong's G2962

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Astral Projection
Black Hebrew Israelite Doctrine, via Acts 8.26-40
Ethiopian Orthodox Church, via Acts 8.26-40
Evangelist, via Acts 8.26-40
Mission Geography (Acts 1-8), via Acts 8.26-40
Preaching to Non-Believers, via Acts 8.26-40
Seeking God, via Acts 8.26-39

Passages:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.