ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH. — Minister of Candace, queen of Ethiopia, converted and baptized by the deacon Philip (Act. 8: 26–39).
That this personage was a pagan, one of those «God-fearers» to whom the centurion Cornelius also belonged (Act. 10: 2), is not certain; indeed, it would seem to be excluded by Peter’s assertion (Act. 15: 7) that God had chosen him for the first conquests among the gentiles. The e. may have been a Jew (there were many in Upper Egypt, as the papyri of Elephantine attest, and in Ethiopia, according to Philo (In Flaccum, 6)), or else a proselyte incorporated into the people of God through circumcision. His physical condition does not constitute an insuperable difficulty, since the prohibition in Deut. 23: 1 against the entry of eunuchs into the community of Israel had gradually been relaxed over time. Moreover, the term «eunuch» was sometimes used (cf. Gen. 39: 1) improperly, to designate those who performed duties that had once been proper to eunuchs. But this does not seem to be the case in Act. 8: 27, where the designation «minister» (δυνάστης) follows, which would almost amount to a tautology.
The e. was a kind of minister of finance at the court of Candace (hieroglyphic Knik): probably a common title for the queens of the Ethiopians. The rabbis recommended the reading of the Bible to those who traveled alone, and it was normally practiced aloud. Thus the e. must have been reading the passage of Isola on the «servant of Jahweh», almost certainly in the version of the Septuagint, when Philip approached him; beginning from this prophetic passage, he evangelized Jesus to him and prepared him to receive Baptism.
It is impossible to verify the accuracy of the information of s. Irenaeus (III, 12, 8; PG 7, 902), Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., II, 1; PG 20, 137), and s. Jerome (In Isaiam, 53, 7 agg.; PL 24, 527 sg.), according to which the e. became an apostle of Ethiopia.
Teodorico da Castel San Pietro