The second deacon from the list in Acts 6 is Philip. He is more commonly known as Philip the Evangelist. And shouldn’t be confused with Philip the Apostle, who preached to the Greeks.
He is commended, like Stephen, to be a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.
After Stephen was stoned to death, Philip went to Samaria to proclaim the Gospel. The Holy Spirit performed many signs and wonders, including exorcisms and healings.
Simon Magus
A sorcerer called Simon Magus came to see Philip, who according to the local people, was the ‘Great Power’. Clement writes that Simon’s teaching was that he was the Son of God to the Jews, the Father to the Samaritans and the Holy Spirit to the pagans. It was a strange quasi-Trinitarian Gnostic teaching.
When he met Philip, who was preaching the true Trinity, he renounced his old beliefs and was baptised. Soon after, Peter and John went to pray that these Samaritans would receive the Holy Spirit. Simon Magus tried to buy the ability to impart the Holy Spirit to others. But Peter rebuked him.
According to Church tradition, it is recorded Simon Magus returned to his magic. And several ancient Gnostic groups in the ancient Near East traced their theology back to him.
Philip and the Ethiopian
Then an angel tells Philip to travel South towards Gaza. While en-route, Philip meets an Ethiopian eunuch, who was reading the Book of Isaiah.
Isaiah 53 v 7-8
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.
Luke writes that the eunuch had gone to the temple to worship. But as an eunuch, he would not have been permitted to enter the temple gates.
Deuteronomy 23 v 1
No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.
It seems strange there was a Jewish convert from Ethiopia, but there was a Jewish community there. They had moved from Egypt, after the war between Cleopatra and Augustus Caesar around 40 BC. So he may have been a Jewish convert through this community. Though a convert, because he was an eunuch, he would not be allowed to fully become a Jew. And yet, in Isaiah 56, he would go on to read, that in the future, eunuchs would be allowed into the temple.
Isaiah 56 v 4
For this is what the Lord says: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant — to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever.
The eunuch saw Philip and asked him who the prophet was talking about in Isaiah 53. Philip was able to tell the eunuch about Christ. The eunuch was then baptized.
Eber-Melek
Eber-Melek was an Ethiopian eunuch who saved Jeremiah from the cistern he was imprisoned in.
Jeremiah 38 v 11
So Ebed-Melek took the men with him and went to a room under the treasury in the palace. He took some old rags and worn-out clothes from there and let them down with ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern.
In the same way the prophet of God was in the cistern, concerned for his own life, so too was the Ethiopian eunuch. He was sitting in his chariot, vexing over the writings in Isaiah. Philip comes, like Ebed-Melek, and metaphorically lifts him from his troubles by helping him understand the Scripture. Symbolically, the cistern was Jeremiah’s baptism moment, while the eunuch experienced a complete baptism from Philip.
The Symbolism of Ethiopia
All through Scripture, Ethiopia or Cush was considered to be the edge of the World. A place where the most unusual things could exist. The strange and the strangest were common. There are even stories of dog-headed people who became Christians in Ethiopia.
By the eunuch becoming a Christian, Luke is telling us that not only are the shunned acceptable to God (if they follow Christ), but also the unusual, the weird and those who live on the fringes.
Philip’s Translation
As we read the story of the Philip, we get a sense that he was teleported or ‘translated’ to Azotus. This was probably many miles away. The typical understanding is Philip supernaturally appeared in another place without physically travelling there.
Acts 8 v 39
When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.
However, another view is to look at the Greek word for ‘suddenly took’, harpazo. It is normally used to describe when someone is seized and forced to go somewhere. We see it used again later in Acts.
Acts 23 v 10
The dispute became so violent that the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force and bring him into the barracks.
Here soldiers are ordered to take Paul away by force. The same word used when Philip was seized by the Holy Spirit. Maybe there was no supernatural event and Philip simply walked off after the baptism and ended up in Azotus. He was compelled and seized by God to immediately leave the eunuch and go where he was told to go.
Whether it was a supernatural event or not, doesn’t really matter. As what it tells us is that when God asks us to do something, we need to do it.
Philip’s Daughters
The next time we see Philip is in Acts, is when Paul visits him in Caesarea.
Acts 21 v 8
Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.
Here Paul is confronted by Agabus, a prophet, who tells him that if he continues along this path, he will be arrested and handed over to the Gentiles.
Church tradition tells us that Philip’s daughters were called Hermione, Eutychis/Eukhilda, Irais and Chariline. They were prophetesses. They remind me of the story when Saul goes to Ramah, the School of the Prophets (1 Samuel 19). Here Saul loosens his clothes, begins to prophesize and lies immobile on the floor.
At Philip’s house, the place of the prophetesses, Paul’s belt is taken from him and Agabus uses it to tie himself up on the floor, making himself immobile.
This connection tells the reader that whereas David is on the run from a king who wants to kill him, Paul is running towards the Roman emperor.
Hermione started up the first Christian hospital, and in her story she encounters both Emperors Trajan and Hadrian. It is an incredible story and I would encourage you to read it.
Philip’s Last Days
Unlike the other faithful deacons, Philip was not martyred, but lived out his days in Hierapolis (in modern day Turkey). Two of his daughters stayed with him as he grew old.
He had a profound impact on the early Church. He was indeed full of faith and filled with the Holy Spirit.
Do we get Simony from Simon Magus?
Praise God I have a slow day at work today and can take a little time to catch up on my Substack inbox. I've just read through all three of the "Deacons" posts. I just want to thank you for your work and for sufficiently blowing my mind a little bit this morning. The simple role of a deacon being a servant of Christ and his Body is not something I've ever come across in my protestant circles. In my experience, deacons are just people to cut the church's lawn or perform various maintenance tasks. It's becoming increasingly clear that I may not fit in with that way of being any longer.
Anyhow, I very much appreciate the way you point to symbolism. Specifically here:
"In the same way the prophet of God was in the cistern, concerned for his own life, so too was the Ethiopian eunuch. He was sitting in his chariot, vexing over the writings in Isaiah. Philip comes, like Ebed-Melek, and metaphorically lifts him from his troubles by helping him understand the Scripture. Symbolically, the cistern was Jeremiah’s baptism moment, while the eunuch experienced a complete baptism from Philip."
The symbolic way of seeing the world is relatively new to me but it's fascinating and helps me to see creation as something less mechanical and more beautiful. In my past few years of diving into the likes of Jonathan Pageau and others in the Orthodox community, it's become a bit easier to see the world this way but I still struggle getting past my embedded "enlightenment" mind. I feel your work is yet another way that God is allowing me access to this more enchanted worldview and for that I am grateful.
God bless,
Derek