The "Ethiopian Eunuch" Was Not Ethiopian

This post summarizes and quotes an article by Peter Unseth called “Semantic Shift on a Geographical Term.”

Acts Background

In the familiar story about Philip the evangelist, he meets a eunuch in a chariot on the Gaza road, Acts 8:26-39. The man in the chariot is traditionally referred to as “the Ethiopian eunuch.” 

And he [Philip] rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian [Aithiops], a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians [Aithiopón], who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship (Acts 8:27)

Summary of the Position

Unseth’s article argues against the legitimacy of the word “Ethiopian” in this context, showing that there has been a semantic shift from the meaning of Aithiopia to the meaning of “Ethiopia” in English and other languages at the end of the 20th century.

To whom did the Greek words Aithiops and Aithiopón refer?

1. The very broad meaning, e.g. “black” or “African,” or
2. The narrower, specific definition of northern Sudan and Southern Egypt 

Two Evidences that the Eunuch was from Northern Sudan/Southern Egypt
1.  Herodutus’ Ethiopia. 

In the 5th century, he wrote, “Ethiopians inhabit the country immediately above [i.e. south of] Elephantine... you will arrive at a large city Meroë, this is said to be the capital of all Ethiopia” (book 2.29). The city of Meroë was located in what is now the northern part of Sudan, north of Khartoum, on the Nile between the 5th and 6th cataracts.

2.  Queen’s Title Candace was Meroitic. 

The eunuch’s queen is referred to as Kandakés, (traditionally transliterated as Candace in English), which is another link with Meroë. This is not a name, but “seems in fact to be a corruption of a Meroitic title (kdke) which was borne by all the royal consorts or queen-mothers of Kush” (Adams 1977:260). 

Problem of Semantic Shift

• “Ethiopia” in old English (more than 150 years ago) = “a person with black skin,” Oxford English Dictionary
• Starting in late 1800s, “Ethiopia” in English has been used in much more specific sense for particular state in northeastern Africa, now a republic.

Traditional Practice in Handling the Passage with “Ethiopia”

• Over 45 English translations all translated the word “Ethiopia” in this verse without a footnote or textual note to address the issue of the modern location problem
• One English translation (The Twentieth Century) translated as “Abyssinia”, which is nearly synonymous geographically, though it does not designate a political state.
• European languages unanimously translate as the state of Ethiopia
• One European translation exception (Polish) translated it as “black people”
• World’s languages translate with their equivalent of “Ethiopia” (e.g. Habesh, Arabic)
• About a dozen Ethiopian languages translate unanimously as modern “Ethiopia”
• 13 translations in Sudan translate as “Ethiopia” or Arabic-based equivalent
• Only 1 translation in Sudan (Mabaan language) referred to the word as “Sudan”
• UBS Handbook, Louw and Nida, Newman and Nida, traditional references for translators, all commend to translators to refer to this passage as modern “Ethiopia”
• Serious commentators (e.g. Thompson, Marshall, Neil, Munch, Williams, Lenski, et al.) unanimous that eunuch’s homeland was not Ethiopia but Sudan (#2 above)

Some Problems in Translating the Passage as “Ethiopia”

• It is a wrong, misleading term, an incorrect translation
• Many have assumed that the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, a church with ancient roots in Ethiopia, can trace her origin to the conversion of the eunuch and his subsequent evangelistic efforts upon his return to his homeland. 
• There is no reliable record of the eunuch planting a church anywhere, not even in his homeland in Meroë. “One may presume that the conversion of the eunuch of Candace remained an isolated fact, with no impact” (Vantini 1980, quoted in Crocker 1986:71 and Unseth:4)
• The Ethiopian church traces its origin to the 4th century AD, when Frumentius, a shipwrecked Syrian Christian was used by God to lead to the conversion of the Axumite king, Ezana
• This early delivery of the Gospel to an “Ethiopian” reaffirms the mistaken idea held by many Ethiopians that of all the peoples of the earth, God has a special relationship with not only the descendants of Israel, but also with the peoples of the state of Ethiopia
• There is a compounded error of misidentifying Candace with the Queen of Sheba, the Queen of Sheba being popularly believed in Ethiopia to have been from the present state of Ethiopia

Suggested Solutions for Acts 8:27

1. “Ethiopia”: 

Negative - Avoid translating as this, as the present state in the Horn of Africa

2. “Sudan”: 

Positives - geographically more accurate, 

Negatives - but less than ideal. The queen did not rule over much of Sudan, and Sudan’s borders have been and are pressure to be changed

3. “Nubia”: 

Positives - This ancient, broad, geographical label included the area of Candace’s reign and there is no current political state called “Nubia.” Would probably require an explanatory footnote, but would not confuse readers with the present state of Ethiopia

Negatives - In contemporary Sudan, however, Nubia refers to a specific area and to specific peoples within the borders of Sudan, so for languages in Sudan, extra testing would be required

4. Neutral term politically: 

Positives - For many non-African languages, it might be specific enough to say that the eunuch was from Africa (or northeast Africa) and that “Candace was queen of part of Africa.” For languages in Africa, this may be too broad, so a narrower geographic term might work, referring to the Upper (or Middle) Nile.

5. “Meroë”: 

Positives - Could state Candace was “queen of the people of Meroë,” then insert an explanatory footnote about the region

6. Combine “Meroë” and neutral politics: 

Positive - Possibly translate, “Meroë in northeast Africa”