Baptism

proposed by the eunuch himself. Act 8:27 tells us that this eunuch had come
to Jerusalem to worship. He was therefore familiar with the Jewish religion, if
not actually a convert to it. If he were a convert, or if he were considering
becoming one, he must have known of the Jewish practice of baptizing all
converts to Judaism (which had been done for several centuries). The Jews
used baptism as an initiation rite for Gentiles who were converted to Judaism,
and in other religions as well.
Hence the eunuch would have been familiar with baptism even if Philip never
mentioned baptism. Remember eunuch was reading from the book of Isaiah,
when Philip joined him. He was meditating on all that he was reading about
in Isaiah. He must have also just read Isaiah 52:15, which begins, "So shall
He sprinkle many nations." The passage only mentions that he preached
Christ to him, but this does not mean that after preaching Christ to him, he
could not also have told him about baptism, and indeed about many other
things that confirms and edify believers and make them grow into the
likeness of Jesus.
Moreover, since the use of the verb 'katabaino', or "descend, go down", is
connected with the action of stopping the chariot (Acts 8:38), it does not
necessarily suggest immersion in the water but rather stepping down off of
the chariot and into the water. Indeed, the very fact that the verbs "went
down" (8:38) and "came up" (8:39) are in the plural person argues against
using this phrasing as evidence of full-immersion, for surely Philip did not
fully-immerse himself even as he dunked the Eunuch! Thus, while baptism
by full-immersion is not utterly impossible in this narrative, baptism by
infusion while standing or sitting in a shallow pool of water is far more likely
given the context. This fits with the reference in Isaiah 52:15
Act 10: 47-48
"Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have
received the Holy Spirit just as we have. So he ordered that they be baptized
in the name of Jesus Christ."
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