A host of biblical scholars note that today's reading from Acts 8:26-40 stands as such a complete story in itself that it could be lifted out of the book without causing any discernible interruption in the Lukan text. The story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch stands almost wholly on its own.

There may be no obvious narrative links between today's pericope and the text that surrounds it. But the story of the Ethiopian eunuch is necessary to balance the scales in two competing arguments presented in the book of Acts. The Lukan author insists on two answers to the question of who was the first Gentile convert in the infant Christian church and who was responsible for first bringing the Good News to a Gentile seeker. According to Acts 10:1-11:18, those specifically designated as apostles, a…