Ethiopian Eunuch
Ethiopian Eunuch (ἀνὴρ Αἰθίοψ, εὐνοῦχος), a person described (Ac 8:27) as a chief officer (vizier) of the Ethiopian queen Candacs (δυνάστης Κανδάκης τῆς βασιλίσσης Αἰθιόπων), who was converted to Christianity through the instrumentality of the evangelist Philip (q.v.). Ethiopic tradition calls him Indich (see Bzovii Annal. ad 1524, page 542; but comp. Ludolf, Hist. AEth. 3:2), and Irenaseus (3:12) and Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. 2:1) make him thie founder of Christianity in Arabia Felix and Ethiopia, but according to Sophronius he preached in the island of Ceylon, and suffered martyrdom there. His official title does not necessarily indicate an emasculated person SEE EUNUCH, but probably here denotes a prime minister of state rather than a simple cubicularius or chamberlain (q.v.). Kuindl (ad loc.) thinks he was a Jew of the Diaspora; and certainly he was at least a proselyte (q.v.). As to the place of his power, it is not quite certain that the passage in Pliny (Hist. Nat. 6:5) refers to Meroa as the seat of government of the female sovereigns (comp. βασιλέας, Strabo, 17:2, 3); but possibly rather to Napata (Τανάπη, Dion Cass. 54:5), the capital of a different part of Ethiopia (Rawlinson, Herodotus, 2:35), or perhaps an uncertain locality (Ritter, Erdk. 1:592). On the historical elements of the question, see Laurent, Neutestamen. Studien (Gotha, 1866), page 140 sq.; Bibliotheca Sacra, July 1866, page 515; on the religious teachings of the narrative, SEE SAM. Smith, Sermon on the Eth. Eunuch's Conversion (Lond. 1632). SEE CANDACE.
