2026.07.19 | The ethiopian eunuch
“The Ethiopian Eunuch”
Acts 8:26-40
Rev. Ashley Wai'olu Moore
Eden United Church of Christ
Cherryland, CA
July 19, 2026
Good morning Beloved!
It is the anniversary of Eden becoming an Open and Affirming congregation. Happy Pride! (Yesterday…)
On Pentecost, we remembered the coming of the Holy Spirit to the disciples through tongues of fire and the ability to speak and understand many languages. After that event, the Book of Acts says that three thousand people received the message and were baptized. The Apostles then began preaching the gospel in Jerusalem, telling people about Jesus’ resurrection and proclaiming that his New Creation had begun. They even taught in the courtyards of the Temple. The number of converts was growing. All of this angered the Temple leadership. The disciple Stephan was stoned to death.
Now we arrive at today’s reading from the 8th chapter of Acts begins by telling us that “a severe persecution began against the (Jesus followers)...and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria.” They continued preaching the gospel and gaining new disciples wherever they went. The apostle Philip went down to the city of Samaria proclaiming the Messiah to them and performed many miracles. The people were amazed and many converted.
The next morning, scripture says that the Angel of the Lord appeared to Philip and told him, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” As you heard earlier, Philip does so and there encounters the Ethiopian eunuch.
While I was in seminary, I wrote a paper titled Paul and the New Creation in which I took an in depth look at the apostle Paul’s intersectional life and how he came to believe that Jesus’s coming heralded the beginning of a new creation - that is, the beginning of an egalitarian reality that would destroy the pillars of what author Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza defines as the Kyriarchy: “intersecting structures of domination gender, race, class, imperialism/colonialism" and, “other forms of dominating hierarchies in which the subordination of one person or group to another is internalized and institutionalized.” In that paper, I used this story from Acts 8 to demonstrate how that understanding of the new creation informed the beliefs and actions of the apostles. I would like to share that excerpt with you today.
Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26-40)
For all of its brevity, the story of Philip’s encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch is rich and layered. In the story, many of the intersectional aspects of kyriarchal privilege and oppression are in play in the subtext. On the empowered side of the equation, the eunuch held a courtly office like many eunuchs of his time.
In fact, Eunuchs served the rulers of most of the ancient world kingdoms stretching from Rome, Greece, and North Africa, throughout the biblical lands, and on across the Asian continent. They were even featured members of the Vatican choirs until as recently as 1878. In China, there were armies with thousands of eunuchs that guarded and served the Emperors until the 1920s.
Acts 8 tells us that the Ethiopian eunuch was in charge of the Ethiopian Queen Candice’s treasury. Accordingly, he is depicted displaying some affluence: he is depicted riding in a chariot, with a driver, travelling on the road, holding a scroll that he presumably purchased and had the ability to read. He had travelled from Ethiopia to worship in Jerusalem and such an undertaking was not easy nor cheap. The journey was 1000 miles and took nearly two months to complete. These details attest to the multiple privileges the eunuch held under the kyriarchal system.
On the other side of the equation, he was a gentile travelling in Jewish territory. He was also African, a foreigner with darker skin moving through the Roman occupied lands. Like most women in the bible, his name is not recorded. It is said that he went to worship in Jerusalem, but as a eunuch he would not have been welcomed (Deut 23:1). Yet the text seems to suggest that he wished to be a Jewish proselyte, to convert to Judaism, even though eunuchs are excluded from the priesthood (Lev. 20:21). Already we can see the many intersections of kyriarchal power and oppression located in this one individual.
Then there are the texts that the eunuch is reported to be reading. Author Aaron Perry explores this intertexture between Acts and Isaiah brilliantly. When Philip encounters him, the eunuch is reading Isaiah 53:7—8 which depicts
“the suffering of a leader as the means of sacrificial cleansing for a people. Philip’s interpretation of this passage as prophetic of Jesus reveals an interpretation of the death of Jesus. Jesus’ death is a sacrificial death for the benefit of the people of Israel. However, the nearby, though not immediate, surrounding text of Isaiah 53 must also be considered. Isaiah 56:3—7 reveals that those previously expelled from the covenant community, specifically the eunuch and the foreigner, will be welcome. The text of Acts reveals an initial form of this inclusion as the eunuch has come from Jerusalem where the eunuch has been worshiping. Yet now the interpretation of the Isaiah 53 passage by Philip reveals a deeper theological text: the death of Jesus has been the means of securing the eunuch’s (adoption) into the covenant (of the new creation). (Thus) the event becomes a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy where foreigners to Israel come to worship Israel’s God (Ps. 68:31, Isa. 2:1-4).
Jesus is now the King with multiple descendants in his kingdom, most notably in this passage: the eunuch who is present. The gender of the eunuch, previously instrumental in setting the eunuch outside the covenant, is brought into the community of Jesus through the death of the now ascended Jesus. This inclusion is an important part of the Good News that Philip brings to the eunuch.”
Thus, through baptism, the old kyriarchy is ended and the eunuch is welcomed into Christ’s new creation as Abraham’s offspring and heir. All the kyriarchal ethnic, social and gender divisions were transcended and rendered insignificant. Additionally, Philip can be said to be perfectly embodying new creation behavior: he acts with complete hospitality, does not judge the eunuch or treat him with anything other than kindness, selflessly seeking only to help him understand the ramifications of what he is reading. He baptized the eunuch without hesitation and without looking back! In this exchange, the eunuch’s social location as African, gentile, gender non-conforming, outsider is both affirmed and rendered inconsequential. The kyriarchy has been defeated for him. God has lifted up the humble eunuch and he has become one of Abraham’s heirs at the final eschatological banquet.”
The text then reports that the “Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; (and) the eunuch went on his way rejoicing.” Notice how active the Holy Spirit has been throughout this story, both directing Phillip to travel down this desolate back road, guiding him to speak to the eunuch and then spiriting him away to another city.
Although The Ethiopian eunuch’s name is lost to history, he is said to have been the first black African to embrace the gospel message and become a Christian. Tradition holds that he joyfully brought the faith to Africa and that he was instrumental in founding the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
So one of the very first recorded baptisms of a non-jewish convert was that of a third gendered individual or, in our parlance, a non-binary individual!
For many years this passage has also been regarded as an important story by LGBTQ+ people and has brought hope to many. By engaging with and baptizing this eunuch, thus acting in accordance with his belief in the new creation of Jesus, the apostle’s actions affirm that God’s kingdom is for all people and that the old kyriarchical distinctions have been defeated. Yes, everyone has a seat at the table!
In my own faith journey, once I saw that both the Hebrew and Christian texts affirmed eunuchs, the ubiquitous third gender of the old world, I felt the shackles that had bound me since childhood fall away. Instead of feeling cursed, I began to feel blessed! When I began to see myself through the lens of God's unconditional and everlasting love, it no longer mattered to me what the world thought I should do with my life. Instead, I became determined to challenge these distortions and spread the truth so that others would not suffer as I had!
Acts 8:1
Schussler Fiorenza, Elisabeth, "Feminist Studies Religion and Theology In-Between
Nationalism and Globalism," Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 21, no 1 (Spring 2005)
111-19.
Wikipedia.org, “Kyriarchy,” available from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyriarchy. Accessed July 17, 2026.
Chinese Cultural Studies: Mary M. Anderson, “Hidden Power: The Palace Eunuchs of Imperial China,” available from http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/eunuchs1.html, Internet; accessed 5/18/2015.
Perry, Aaron. "Lift Up the Lowly and Bring Down the Exalted: Gender Studies,
Organizations, and the Ethiopian Eunuch." Journal of Religious leadership, ATLA Serials, 14,
no. 1 (2015): 60-61. Accessed December 10, 2017.
Perry goes on to offer many other reflections about how the eunuch also relinquishes his
privilege in the story, not all of which I agree with.