Passage

Acts 8.30

Book: Acts · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

28. and he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29. And the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.

30. And Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?

And he said, How can I, except some one shall guide me? And he besought Philip to come up and sit with him. 32. Now the passage of the scripture which he was reading was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; And as a lamb before his shearer is dumb, So he openeth not his mouth: (Acts 8:28-32, ASV)

WEB

28. He was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29. The Spirit said to Philip, “Go near, and join yourself to this chariot.”

30. Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

He said, “How can I, unless someone explains it to me?” He begged Philip to come up and sit with him. 32. Now the passage of the Scripture which he was reading was this, “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter. As a lamb before his shearer is silent, so he doesn’t open his mouth. (Acts 8:28-32, WEB)

KJV

28. Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. 29. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.

30. And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?

And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. 32. The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: (Acts 8:28-32, KJV)

YLT

28. he was also returning, and is sitting on his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29. And the Spirit said to Philip, 'Go near, and be joined to this chariot;'

30. and Philip having run near, heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, 'Dost thou then know what thou dost read?'

and he said, 'Why, how am I able, if some one may not guide me?' he called Philip also, having come up, to sit with him. 32. And the contents of the Writing that he was reading was this: 'As a sheep unto slaughter he was led, and as a lamb before his shearer dumb, so he doth not open his mouth; (Acts 8:28-32, YLT)

See this page's graph and discover linked topics

Setting

Speaker: Luke, narrating. Acts is the second volume of a two-part work addressed to Theophilus (Acts 1:1, compare Luke 1:1-4). An angel and the Spirit speak to Philip; Philip and the eunuch converse.
Audience: Theophilus and the wider church. Within the scene, one royal official traveling home.
Location: "The way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza" (8:26), the road southwest to the coast and on toward Egypt. Hautē estin erēmos, "the same is desert," may describe the road or the old city of Gaza; the Greek allows either.
Time period: c. AD 33-35, after the Samaritan mission (8:25). Acts was composed c. AD 62-90; the date is debated, and Colin Hemer (The Book of Acts in the Setting of Hellenistic History) argued for the early 60s.

Theological reading

"And Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?" (Acts 8:30, ASV)

Reading aloud. Philip "heard him reading." Ancient readers commonly read aloud, even alone, which is how Philip could recognize the text as Isaiah from beside the chariot.

A wordplay. Ara ge ginōskeis ha anaginōskeis? "Do you know what you are reading?" The verbs for "know" and "read" share a root, a pun that English cannot keep. The particle ara ge frames the question as doubtful: reading the words is not the same as understanding them.

"How can I, except some one shall guide me?" The eunuch's reply (verse 31, ASV) uses hodēgēsei, "will guide," the same verb Jesus used of the Spirit: "he shall guide you into all the truth" (John 16:13, ASV). The Spirit who sent Philip to the chariot now guides the reader through Philip.

Scripture and its interpreter. The verse is not a warrant for keeping Scripture from ordinary readers; the eunuch already owned and read the scroll. It shows the need for the key Jesus himself supplied when "he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27, ASV).

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

G1097 - ginosko, ginosko, Strong's G1097
G0191 - akouo, akouo, Strong's G0191

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Africa in the Table of Nations, via Acts 8.26-40
Black Hebrew Israelite Doctrine, via Acts 8.26-40
Black People Shouldnt Be Christian, via Acts 8.26-35
Christology, via Acts 8.30-35
Ethiopian Orthodox Church, via Acts 8.26-40
Evangelist, via Acts 8.26-40
Mission Geography (Acts 1-8), via Acts 8.26-40
OT Authorship and Prophetic Tradition, via Acts 8.30-35
Preaching to Non-Believers
Seeking God, via Acts 8.26-39

People:

Ethiopian Eunuch, via Acts 8.26-40

Notes

Your annotations.

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.