Philip Schaff · 6 of 60

The Confession of the Eunuch.

Acts viii. 37.

Note.—This confession of the Ethiopian Eunuch before his baptism by Philip the Deacon, together with the preceding words of Philip, 'If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest' [be baptized], according to the received text (with sundry variations), is not contained in the best Uncial MSS., and is given up by critical editors (Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford, Westcott and Hort), as an interpolation made to suit the baptismal service of the Church; but it is found even in Irenæus and Cyprian, and tends to prove the apostolical origin of a baptismal confession of faith in Christ as the Son of God.