Passage

Acts 8.36

Book: Acts · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

34. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other? 35. And Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this scripture, preached unto him Jesus.

36. And as they went on the way, they came unto a certain water; and the eunuch saith, Behold, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?

And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. (Acts 8:34-38, ASV)

WEB

34. The eunuch answered Philip, “Who is the prophet talking about? About himself, or about someone else?” 35. Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture, preached to him about Jesus.

36. As they went on the way, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Behold, here is water. What is keeping me from being baptized?”

He commanded the chariot to stand still, and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. (Acts 8:34-38, WEB)

KJV

34. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? 35. Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.

36. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?

And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 38. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. (Acts 8:34-38, KJV)

YLT

34. And the eunuch answering Philip said, 'I pray thee, about whom doth the prophet say this? about himself, or about some other one?' 35. and Philip having opened his mouth, and having begun from this Writing, proclaimed good news to him, Jesus.

36. And as they were going on the way, they came upon a certain water, and the eunuch said, 'Lo, water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?'

[And Philip said, 'If thou dost believe out of all the heart, it is lawful;' and he answering said, 'I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God;'] 38. and he commanded the chariot to stand still, and they both went down to the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him; (Acts 8:34-38, YLT)

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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 as they went on the way, they came unto a certain water; and the eunuch saith, Behold, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?" (Acts 8:36, ASV)

"What doth hinder me?" Ti kōlyei me baptisthēnai? The verb kōlyō, to hinder or forbid, recurs at key moments: Jesus' "forbid them not" concerning the children (Luke 18:16), Peter's "Can any man forbid the water" at Cornelius' house (Acts 10:47, ASV), and his "who was I, that I could withstand God?" (11:17, ASV). Oscar Cullmann argued that the verb reflects a question asked in early baptismal practice.

The weight of the question. For a eunuch, the question was not abstract. The Law had excluded such a man from the assembly (Deuteronomy 23:1), while Isaiah promised eunuchs who hold fast God's covenant "a name better than of sons and of daughters" (Isaiah 56:5, ASV). In Christ the promise is kept: nothing hinders him.

No delay. Baptism follows at once on hearing and believing, at the first water on the road. The later church developed a period of instruction before baptism; Acts records immediate baptism of new believers (2:41; 8:12; 16:33).

Into the water. "They both went down into the water... and when they came up out of the water" (verses 38-39, ASV). The text describes going down into and coming up out of water; how much it settles about the mode of baptism is debated between traditions. See Baptism.

The missing verse. Verse 37 in the KJV, the eunuch's confession, is absent from the earliest manuscripts; see Acts 8:37.

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.

G0907 - baptizo, baptizo, Strong's G0907

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Africa in the Table of Nations, via Acts 8.26-40
Baptism, via Acts 8.26-39
Black Hebrew Israelite Doctrine, via Acts 8.26-40
Ethiopian Orthodox Church, via Acts 8.26-40
Evangelist, via Acts 8.26-40
Mission Geography (Acts 1-8), via Acts 8.26-40
Preaching to Non-Believers, via Acts 8.26-40
Seeking God, via Acts 8.26-39

People:

Ethiopian Eunuch

Passages:

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.