1/10/2019

Acts 8:28ff

²⁸ and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah.

There are certain facts that this context tells the reader.  So it is to the advantage of any reader to ask questions of text.

1^st Question. Where is Philip “sent by the angel?“ 8:29  “Gaza.  This is a desert place.” He is sent to a desert south of Samaria.

2^nd Question. What is Philip told to do with the chariot and the Eunuch? 8:29  It is now the Spirit rather than the Angel of the Lord and tells Philip, “Go over and join the chariot.” We can gather from the text and later information that Philip got in the chariot with the Eunuch, note vs 31. Philip then preaches the Gospel of the Savior and after the Eunuch believes the Gospel, he questions Philip about baptism.

3^rd Question. Where are the two men when the question is asked? In the chariot, vs 31, “up in the chariot”, vs 28, returning “from Jerusalem” in the desert between Jerusalem and Gaza.

4^th Question. What are we told about the water? Vs 36 “some water”. In the desert, is it a small pool, a lake, a river?  It is reasonable to think a small pool of a limited extent.

5^th Question. From where do the two men go down to or into the water? 8:38. They go down from the chariot to or into the water.

6^th Question. Where do they go from the water? 8:39, Philip was carried away by the Spirit and the Eunuch returned to his chariot. We do not know how Philip was carried away but we do know the Eunuch went on his way in his chariot. As he came down from his chariot he would have had to go up into his chariot from the water.

If you do not enter this passage with a presumption of immersion baptism there is nothing to encourage that and even more to discourage it. There are two particular problems for immersion. 

1.      It is difficult almost to an impossibility to find sufficient water in the desert to immerse.

2.      Even the beginning New Testament Greek reader finds the Greek prepositions very unspecific.  They are more general and indicate a direction rather than a point or spot. The most this text says for certain is that “they went down in the direction of the water and they came up from the direction of the water.  As usual in these historic illustrations there are no points proven from them. You go in believing your doctrine and you come out unchanged.

There is really only one real difficulty, that there has never been found any recorded instance of sufficient water on this road to immerse. As there must be a tank in the jailhouse, there has to be a lake in the desert, or whatever water that is there is only sufficient for effusion.