Now an
angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that
goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his
way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the
treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had
gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was
sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit
told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”
Then Philip
ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you
understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains
it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Acts 8:26-31
The Bible
doesn’t say how the Gospel spread to Africa, except a clue found in one person,
an Ethiopian, in the book of Acts. This
treasurer for the Ethiopian Queen appeared to already be a Jewish believer and
now understood the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy in Jesus Christ. This eunuch had influence and now had divine
anointing. It would seem much of the
spread of the Gospel in Africa was helped by this man.