Eunuchs Included

Tonight, in my class on the Old Testament, I referenced how eunuchs were originally excluded from the assembly of God (Deuteronomy 23:1, written somewhere between 1200 BCE and 600 BCE). However, in Isaiah 56:4-5 (written around 515 BCE), God promises that eunuchs will soon be included.

“To the eunuchs who keep My sabbaths,

And choose what pleases Me,

And hold fast My covenant,

To them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial,

And a name better than that of sons and daughters;

I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off.

Note the eunuch joke that concludes that passage.

However, 500 years later, Philip meets an Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8. The eunuch is reading Isaiah 53 and asks who the passage is referring to. Philip applies it to Jesus, and the eunuch believes, is subsequently baptized without hindrance (verse 36), and welcomed into the Church of God.

Interestingly, I imagine if the eunuch kept reading three more chapters, he would have come upon the prediction in chapter 56 and thought, “Oh, that passage applies to me … and just did.”