ACC ~ Acts 8 v26

ANGELS ASSIST THE PREACHING. CHRYSOSTOM: Look how the angels are assisting the preaching: they themselves do not preach but call these [to the work]. The wonderful nature of the occurrence is also shown by this, that what was rare before and hardly done now takes place, and with what readiness and encouragement to them! HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 19.

ETHIOPIA IN PROPHECY. BEDE: It is well that it was in the South that this man was sought, found and washed clean. Burning with devotion in his breast he deserved to be consecrated to God as, so to speak, the firstfruits of the Gentiles. In him especially was fulfilled that saying of the psalmist, “Ethiopia will stretch out its hands to God.”COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 8.26A.

THE WAY TO GAZA. BEDE: It is not the road but Gaza that is referred to as a desert. For the old Gaza, which was formerly “the Canaanites’ boundary with Egypt,” was destroyed down to its foundations, and in a different place another [Gaza] was built to replace it. Allegorically this designates the people of the Gentiles, who were once separated from the worship of God, uncultivated by the preaching of the prophets. The road that went down to this same place from Jerusalem and opened the fountain of salvationis the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” From the Jerusalem above he “came down” to our infirmities, and with the water of baptism he made white the blackness of our guilty condition. COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 8.26B.

Acts