Acts 8:31Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Here is yet another praiseworthy quality. What is it? That although he did not understand, he read. Then, after reading, he tried to understand.

See how wisely the eunuch answers: "How can I," he says, "unless someone guides me?"

He did not look at Philip's outward appearance. He did not say, "Who are you?" He did not reproach him, become vainglorious, or say that he knew.

Instead, he acknowledges that he does not understand, and therefore he receives instruction. He shows the wound to the physician.

He understood that Philip both knew this and wished to teach him. He noticed Philip's humility, since he was not in splendid clothing.

So great was his desire to hear and attend to Philip's words that the words of Scripture were fulfilled in him: "He who seeks finds," Mt 7:8.

In the Acts of the Apostles, the holy eunuch, or man, for Scripture calls him by both names, was reading the prophet Isaiah. When Philip asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" he answered, "How can I understand, unless someone guides me?" Acts 8:30-31.

I will say, in passing, concerning myself, that I am not holier or more diligent than this eunuch.

He left the royal court and came from Ethiopia, that is, from the farthest borders of the world, to the temple.

He loved the Law and divine knowledge so much that he read Holy Scripture even in his carriage. Yet, holding the book, pondering the words of the Lord, and pronouncing them with tongue and lips, he still did not understand Him.

Without knowing it, he was venerating Him in the book.

And now he was returning to his homeland, riding in a carriage and accompanied by his retinue. In accordance with the rules of the rabbis, he spent the time reading Holy Scripture.

At that very moment he was reading aloud, from the Greek translation of the Seventy, the prophecy of Isaiah: "As a sheep He was led to the slaughter. And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He does not open His mouth.

In His humiliation His judgment was taken away. But who shall declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth," Is 53:7-8.

Philip asked him whether he understood what he was reading. The eunuch admitted that all this was dark to him. He invited Philip to sit with him in the carriage and asked who the one was of whom the prophet spoke.

In this way Philip received the opportunity to unfold the Christian interpretation of this great prophecy.

With humility and childlike simplicity, the traveling nobleman admits that he does not understand what he is reading and would like an interpreter and teacher. From the question put to him, he understood that the questioner possessed the true understanding of the passage. He also saw that he was inclined to share it with him and to be his teacher and guide in this matter. Therefore he offers him a place beside himself in the chariot, so that while traveling with him he might learn from him. This is a good trait in a nobleman of high rank, cf. Chrysostom.

The eunuch humbly confesses that he does not understand what he is reading. He even considers such understanding impossible without a special explanation.

Seeing in Philip one who could give this explanation, he asked him to sit with him in the carriage. It is evident that Philip was traveling on foot, like the other Apostles.

The courtier's humility is remarkable. Still more significant is his desire to know the sense and meaning of the prophetic book, his reverent attitude toward it, and his zeal in reading it despite insufficient understanding.

In the East, people learn to read aloud and read in the same manner. Therefore it is not surprising that the eunuch read aloud while alone.

This only proves how exact the writer is, and how faithful to the reality he reports.

Saint Philip asks the eunuch, "Do you understand what you are reading?" He answered, "How can I understand, unless someone guides me?"

How often those who read the word of God and the writings of the Fathers experience the same thing. What is read does not fit into the mind.

The mind cannot attend to it or grasp it, as though the speech concerned something foreign to it, matters from an unknown realm.

Here one needs an interpreter who is familiar with the subject of the text. Saint Philip had the same Spirit who gave the prophecies, and it was not difficult for him to explain what troubled the eunuch.

So it is for us now. We must find a person who stands at the level of life and knowledge touched by the writing that troubles us. He will explain it without difficulty.