Philip Tells an Ethiopian about Jesus

²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord told Philip, “Get up and go south on the road that leads from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a deserted road.” ²⁷ So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, who was a member of the court of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. He was in charge of all her treasures and had come up to Jerusalem to worship. ²⁸ Now he was returning home, seated in his chariot, and reading from the prophet Isaiah.

²⁹ The Spirit told Philip, “Approach that chariot and stay near it.” ³⁰ So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah out loud.

Philip^[a] asked, “Do you understand what you’re reading?”

³¹ The man^[b] replied, “How can I unless someone guides me?” So he invited Philip to get in and sit with him. ³² This was the passage of Scripture he was reading:

³⁴ The eunuch asked Philip, “I ask you, who is the prophet talking about? Himself? Or someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip began to speak, and, starting from this Scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.

³⁶ As they were going along the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, “Look, there’s some water. What keeps me from being baptized?”^{[e] 38} So he ordered the chariot to stop, and Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water, and Philip^[f] baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch went on his way rejoicing and did not see Philip^[g] again. ⁴⁰ But Philip found himself at Azotus. As he was passing through that region,^[h] he kept proclaiming the good news in all the towns until he came to Caesarea.