Acts 8:34Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Likewise he says further, "I ask you, tell me: of whom does the prophet say this?"

It seems to me that he did not know that the prophets speak about others. Or, if not, then he did not know that they speak about themselves in another person.

Let us be ashamed before this keeper of treasures, both poor and rich alike.

Yet, as I said, let us also be ashamed before the eunuch who is enlightened and reads.

Do you see what authority he had, what wealth, and yet he did not rest even on the road?

What, then, must he have been at home, if even on a journey he did not permit himself idleness? What must he have been by night?

You who are distinguished by honors, listen and imitate his humility and piety.

"I ask you, of whom...?" He knew that the prophets sometimes speak about others, or about themselves in another person. His question shows this, and it is the mark of a very observant man.

Approaching the chariot at the prompting of the Spirit of God, Philip heard that the eunuch was reading the fifty-third chapter of the prophet Isaiah.

He begins the work of evangelization by asking the eunuch, "Do you understand what you are reading?" For he supposes that the courtier does not understand the passage correctly.

That is, he does not see in it the image of the Savior of the world suffering for the sins of men.

The courtier appears so immersed in meditation on God, and so humbly and diligently striving for knowledge of the truth, that he simply admits that he does not understand what he reads.

He also asks Philip to come up into the chariot and sit with him. From Philip's question he guesses that Philip possesses knowledge of Scripture and can explain what is being read.

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.

"And the eunuch said" is more precisely, "And the eunuch answered and said to Philip."

Probably Philip, after sitting in the chariot with the eunuch, again put to him, in one form or another, the question about his understanding of what he was reading.

Or perhaps the writer transmits only the essence of the conversation, without mentioning Philip's question, to which the eunuch also answered with a question.

In any case, the eunuch's question clearly expressed that he truly did not properly understand what he had read.

It also showed that he was not even acquainted with the rabbinic opinion on this passage, which referred it to the Messiah, though not to Jesus.

For he supposes it possible that the prophet is speaking here about himself.

The eunuch's question about the inner meaning of the prophetic words he had read shows that he was fairly familiar with this prophetic book.

He was even familiar with ways of explaining it in its immediate sense and in its figurative, or prophetic, sense.

It may be supposed that, having heard of the Light in the revelation to the Gentiles, he even guessed to whom these words referred. He needed only to be confirmed in his conjecture.

If his disposition is compared with that of Simon, then Simon, being unprepared, went aside in everything. This man, on the contrary, went, so to speak, with his whole soul to meet the Gospel proclamation.