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1 Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch Acts 8:26-40 Voice a – Storyteller

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1 Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch Acts 8:26-40 Voice a – Storyteller !1 ! Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch Acts 8:26-40 Voice A – Storyteller Voice B – Various voices Voice C – Storyteller Voice D – Eunuch (Notes: This is a marvelous story, perhaps not well-known by your listeners, and very suitable for dramatic reading. Here we get a glimpse that the gospel is not just for Jews and will ultimately be taken to the ends of the earth. The eunuch was a spiritual seeker. He would have had a high social standing in his capacity as treasurer for the queen of the Ethiopians. However, he would have been excluded from worship at the Temple both because he wasn’t Jewish, and because he was a eunuch. You may be interested to learn that the oldest Christian church is the Coptic Church of Ethiopia. Legend has it that it was founded by this eunuch!) *** A: Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, B: Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. A: (This is a wilderness road.) C: So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. A: He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; !2 C: seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. A: Then the Spirit said to Philip, B: Go over to this chariot and join it. C: So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, B: Do you understand what you are reading? A: He replied, D: How can I, unless someone guides me? C: And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. A: Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this: B: Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth. D: About whom, may I ask, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else? C: Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. A: As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, D: Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized? C: He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. !3 A: When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; C: the eunuch saw him no more; and went on his way rejoicing. A: But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. Copyright © 2006 by Pamela J. Abbey Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible, copyright 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America and used by permission. The original purchaser may photocopy material in this publication for use as it was intended (copies for those reading in worship). No additional permission is required for such copying by the original purchaser only..
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