423
. From Craig S. Keener, “Novels’ ‘Exotic’ Places and Luke’s African Official (Acts
8
:
27
).” Andrews University Seminary Studies
46
(
1
,
2008
):
5–20
. Reprinted by permission from Andrews University Seminary Studies.
. Dibelius, Studies in Acts,
15
; Conzelmann, Acts,
67–68
.
. For shared techniques, see e.g., Burridge, Gospels,
245
; Aune, Dictionary of Rhetoric,
285
; Marguerat, Historian,
29
; Rothschild, Rhetoric of History,
291–92
; Soards, “Review,”
309
.
. Barrett, Acts,
422
.
. Goulder, Type,
195
.
. See e.g., Plutarch Sert.
1
.
1
; Demosth.
3
.
2
; cf. Cim.
3
.
1–3
.
. For Luke as ancient historiography, see e.g., Plümacher, Geschichte,
1–32
; Johnson, Acts,
3–7
; Eckey, Apostelgeschichte,
20–31
; Flichy, Oeuvre de Luc; for implications of this genre for the degree of factual content, see e.g., Hemer, Acts in History,
63–70
; Byrskog, Story,
179–84
; Keener, John, 17–25; Keener, Christobiography. For Luke’s typical historical reliability, see data surveyed in Hemer, Acts in History, passim; more briefly, Keener, Acts,
1
:
203–16
,
237–50
.
. Whether he was really a eunuch is harder to test historically, but if the person was of such means as to be an official of Kandake, the eunuch claim makes sense. Further, it would explain why the traveler would make such a long journey to Jerusalem, yet not be a proselyte (his gentile character being a component Luke would not invent, given the Cornelius story). While the eunuch claim implicitly fits Isa
56
, it remains plausible historically as well.
. Cf. Ramsay, Pictures,
66
; Barrett, Acts,
51
; Witherington, Acts,
169
,
280
.
. See Lüdemann, Christianity,
105
for a historical nucleus here (both because of tension with Acts
10
and because this fits the Hellenists’ activity); cf. Spencer, “Waiter”; Kollmann, “Philippus.”
. Pervo, Dating Acts,
32
(among other arguments against the narrative’s historical nucleus). Some of Pervo’s other literary observations are more accurate; I am not addressing these points in this article.
. Morkot, “Trogodytae.” Quintus Curtius
4
.
7
.
18
has the Trogodytes as Arabians south of the Ammon oracle, with Ethiopians to its east; in
4
.
7
.
19
, the Ethiopians to the west are called “snub-nosed.”
. It included other Ethiopians besides Meroë (Diodorus Siculus
3
.
8
.
1
; also Herodotus
3
.
17–24
;
4
.
183
in Snowden, Blacks in Antiquity,
105
).
. E.g., Lake and Cadbury, Commentary,
95
; Haenchen, Acts,
310
; Bruce, Acts
¹
,
190–91
; Munck, Acts,
78
; Eckey, Apostelgeschichte,
202–3
. For Meroë as Ethiopia in early imperial sources, see e.g., Losch, “Kämmerer der Königen,”
499
(citing Lucan C.W.
10
.
219–331; Seneca Nat. Q.
6
.
8
); cf. Roeder, “Geschichte Nubiens,”
72–76
.
. O’Connor, “Meroë,”
472
.
. It had endured since about
760
BCE, since at least the early third century BCE from its capital in Meroë; see esp. Leclant, “Napata and Meroe”; Hakem, “Civilization.” For the transfer of sovereignty from Napata to Meroë as late as
270
BCE, see O’Connor, “Meroë,”
472
.
. Plutarch Exile
7
, Mor.
601
DE.
. Josephus Ant.
2
.
239
; War
4
.
608
; Appian Hist. rom. pref.
9
; Juvenal Sat.
10
.
150
. Thus a plague beginning there spread to Egypt and thence to Greece (Thucydides
2
.
48
.
1
). They were thought the people to the furthest south (Pausanias
1
.
33
.
3–6
).
. Arrian Ind.
25
.
7
. The boundary came up to the Nile’s first cataract in Augustus’s day (Losch, “Kämmerer der Königen,”
479
).
. Heliodorus Eth.
9
.
16
,
20
,
24
;
10
.
3
,
5
. He depicted it as a triangular island surrounded by three navigable rivers, including the Nile, but claimed that it was so big it looked like a mainland (
10
.
5
); others claimed that a river surrounded Meroë (Vitruvius Arch.
8
.
2
.
6
). The island did in fact lay “between the White Nile, the Blue Nile, and the Atbara River” (Yamauchi, Africa, 165
). Nero’s expedition claimed that the town Meroë lay a full
70
miles from the entrance to the island (Pliny Nat.
6
.
35
.
185
).
. Pervo, Dating Acts,
32
.
. Vitruvius Arch.
8
.
2
.
7
, opined that Africa had few rivers, because it was hot and moisture comes from the north.
. Pliny Nat.
12
.
8
.
17
notes that Herodotus
3
.
97
attributes ebony to Ethiopia, but with Virgil Georg.
2
.
116–17
he attributes it to India.
. Some stories told to Herodotus fit this description (see Herodotus
3
.
17–24
;
4
.
183
in Snowden, Blacks in Antiquity,
105
); certainly novelistic works (e.g., Ps.-Callisthenes Alex.
3
.
21
; Heliodorus Eth. 10
.
4–5
) and rabbinic speculations (e.g., b. Pesah.
94
a; Taan.
10
a; y. Ber.
1
:
1
, §
12
; Song Rab.
6
:
9
, §
3
; cf. similarly fanciful dimensions in Heliodorus Eth.
10
.
5
) do.
. Somewhat more plausibly, their companion Nubians wore no armor, but linen, including on the head, and they tipped their javelins with poison (Silius Italicus
3
.
269–73
).
. Pliny Nat.
8
.
30
.
75
(attributing this “information” to Ctesias).
. Pliny Nat.
8
.
30
.
72
(LCL
2
:
53
).
. Pliny Nat.
5
.
8
.
43
(LCL
2
:
249
,
251
); the river is the Niger (among African tribes called Tarraelii and Oechalicae,
5
.
8
.
44
), though not necessarily the modern river by this name. “Niger” was a common river name, perhaps partly because in the Libyan language gher (or ghir) applied to “any flowing waters” (Huss, “Niger”).
. Unfortunately following Herodotus
4
.
183
. Pliny deals further with the Trogodytice, the cave-dwellers, at Pliny Nat.
6
.
34
.
169
; beyond Meroë, all were cave-dwellers (
6
.
35
.
189
). In Pliny Nat.
5
.
5
.
34
, cave-dwellers lived seven days to the southwest of Libyan desert-dwellers who built houses of salt; Rome’s only contact with the cave-dwellers was carbuncle imported through Ethiopia. Reports of “cave-dwellers” might confuse the “Ethiopian” Trogodytae with northern Troglodytae, or cave-dwellers (Morkot, “Trogodytae”).
. Beyond Meroë, Philostratus Vit. Apoll.
6
.
25
lists nomadic Ethiopians (living in wagons!), elephant-hunters, cannibals, and pygmies; plus people who were “shadow-footed”; nevertheless, the travelers found hospitality in a village there (
6
.
27
).
. Some ideas, like a ruling dog, may have grown from outsiders’ views of sacred totems, but plainly Pliny’s sources are not accurate at these points.
. Pliny Nat.
24
.
102
.
163
; cf.
27
.
1
.
2
; detailed in
27
.
3
.
11–12
.
. E.g., Silius Italicus
3
.
332–34
; Seneca Troj.
10
. For fragments of the Aethiopis, including dealing with Memnon, see Greek Epic Fragments (ed. West, LCL
108–17
). On Memnon, see also Scherf, “Memnon.”
. See Rose and March, “Memnon” (citing Pausanias
1
.
42
.
3
).
. In less detail, also Ovid Pont.
1
.
4
.
57
; Am.
1
.
8
.
3–4
; Philostratus the Elder Imag.
1
.
7
.
. Further, Ovid Am.
1
.
8
; Pont.
3
.
3
.
96–97
. But his mother Aurora (Latin for Eos, Dawn), as a goddess, had golden hair (Ovid Am.
1
.
13
.
2
)! In Philostratus the Elder Imag.
1
.
7
, his skin has a trace of ruddiness limiting the black. Greek vase-paintings portray him according to Greek heroic conventions, but often his attendants as black Africans (Rose and March, “Memnon”).
. Also Pindar Nem.
3
.
62–63
;
6
.
49–53; Isthm.
8
.
55
; Pliny Nat.
6
.
35
.
182; Dio Chrysostom Or.
11
.
114
,
117
; for his war exploits, e.g., Philostratus the Elder Imag.
2
.
7
.
. Excerpted, hence preserved, in Proclus Chr.
2
(in Hesiod LCL
506–7
; also Greek Epic Fragments, ed. West, LCL
113
). A revisionist version claims that the Memnon slain at Troy was a Trojan (Philostratus Her.
26
.
16–17
), though Memnon of Ethiopia ruled during the Trojan War, and is worshiped in Ethiopia and Egypt (Her.
26
.
16
; cf. similarly Vit. Apoll.
6
.
4
).
. On this myth, see further Scherf, “Memnonides.” Memnon’s statue in Ethiopia could speak, and was so realistic it helped Eos to stop mourning her son (Callist. Descr.
9
).
. Lucian Astr.
3
, suggesting also (
5
) that they passed it to Egyptians; but Lucian is being satirical in this essay.
. Pliny Nat.
2
.
80
.
189
.
. Klauck, Magic,
25–26
(following Plümacher, Lukas, 12–13
).
. Cf. e.g., Epigoni frg.
5
(so Herodotus
4
.
32
) and in Hesiod frg.
150
.
21 M.-W. (so Greek Epic Fragments, ed. West, LCL
59
).
. Pliny Nat.
4
.
12
.
89
, though himself unsure if the reports were correct.
. Dio Chrysostom Or.
35
.
18
(noting that all flow one month of the year only for the king, as his tribute).
. Dio Chrysostom Or.
35
.
19
. The trees brought their fruit down to whomever wished to eat (
35
.
21
).
. Dio Chrysostom Or.
35
.
22
.
. Herodotus
3
.
102–5 (claiming that he learned this from the Persians); Dio Chrysostom Or.
35
.
23–24
.
. For some modern research, see e.g., Minns, Scythians.
. On their remoteness, see e.g., Aeschylus Seven
728
,
817
; Cicero Nat. d.
2
.
34
.
88
(mentioned alongside Britain); in Josephus Ant.
1
.
123
, they are Magog.
. Pliny Nat.
2
.
51
.
135
. They are contrasted with Egyptians also in Philo Mos.
2
.
19
; Maximus of Tyre Or.
23
.
4
.
. Pliny Nat.
25
.
43
.
82
.
. Aristophanes Birds
941
.
. Philo Drunkenness
174
.
. More fully, see Diodorus Siculus
2
.
44
.
2–46
.
6
.
. E.g., Lefkowitz, Women in Myth,
22–23
; in Greek historians, see Sobol, Amazons,
81–90
; in literature and art,
91–112
. For the question of their actual existence, see Sobol, Amazons,
113–47
, doubting that historicity can be proved either way (
147
).
. E.g., Herodotus
4
.
111–17
.
. Xenophon Anab.
4
.
4
.
16
(the weapons are not all that distinctive).
. Appian Hist. rom.
12
.
15
.
103
. Since local language was presumably translated into Greek and Latin, the “Amazons” may be the translators’ idea.
. Strabo
11
.
5
.
1
,
4
.
. Arrian Alex.
4
.
15
.
4
. Some claim that the Amazon queen came to meet Alexander (Diodorus Siculus
17
.
77
.
1
; uncertainly, Plutarch Alex.
46
.
1–2
), or sent tribute (Ps.-Callisth. Alex.
3
.
26
, an unreliable source). In Pesiq. Rab Kah.
9
:
1
, a place inhabited only by women, possibly in Africa, dissuades Alexander from warring with them.
. Arrian Alex.
7
.
13
.
4–6
.
. Pausanias
1
.
2
.
1
.
. E.g., Crates Ep.
28
. The artistic portrayal of Pericles fighting Amazons in the historical period (Plutarch Per.
31
.
4
) is an artistic recollection of Theseus’s and the Athenians’ battle with them.
. Tatian
32
.
. Lefkowitz, Women in Myth,
22
.
. See also Snowden, Blacks in Antiquity,
105
. Pliny Nat.
2
.
112
.
245
estimates
705
miles from the Ethiopian coast to Meroë, and
1,250
from Meroë to Alexandria; in
6
.
35
.
184
, he notes that Nero’s scouting expedition reported
945
miles from Syene to Meroë. Note the fanciful proportions of Ethiopia in b. Pesah.
94
a; Taan.
10
a; y. Ber.
1
:
1
, §
12
; Song Rab.
6
:
9
, §
3
.
. With also Smith, “Understand,”
64
. On Kush’s economy (including in the Meroitic period), see especially Welsby, Kingdom of Kush,
153–76
. Among legendary portraits, Ethiopians valued gold less than Mediterranean peoples valued lead (Herodotus
3
.
23
; Dio Chrysostom Or.
79
.
3
).
. See also Taylor, Egypt and Nubia,
46–47
; Crocker, “Meroe and Eunuch.”
. Cf. also Heliodorus Eth.
10
.
5
for its marvelous fertility, including
300
-fold harvests.
. O’Connor, “Meroë,”
472. This archaeological evidence may conflict with, and should then be preferred to, Pliny Nat.
6
.
35
.
185
.
. O’Connor, “Meroë,”
473
.
. See Adam with Vercoutter, “Importance of Nubia.” Pliny Nat.
6
.
35
.
185
claims that another island joined with its own to form a harbor; Philostratus Vit. Apoll.
6
.
2
claims that Ethiopia-Egypt trade was more equitable than Greek trade.
. See Hansberry, Africa, 37–39. For the history of Greek contact with Africa, see the survey in Huss, “Africa: Discovery”; for Greek sources in translation, see Burstein, African Civilizations,
23–52
.
. See Taylor, Egypt and Nubia,
48
; Burstein, African Civilizations,
53–75
; cf. Yamauchi, Africa,
165–66
; Seidlmayer, “Nubia,”
869
.
. It had access to elephants (Seneca Ep. Lucil.
85
.
41
; Pliny Nat.
8
.
13
.
35
; Juvenal Sat.
10
.
150
; Heliodorus Eth.
10
.
5
) and ivory (Polybius
34
.
16
.
1
; Pliny Nat.
8
.
47
). One could also secure these from India (e.g., Catullus
64
.
48
; Pliny Nat.
8
.
11
.
32
; Dio Chrysostom Or.
79
.
4
), and ivory was more available in Egypt (at least by the period of Philostratus Vit. soph.
2
.
21
.
603
).
. Cf. Weeber, “Environment,”
1007
; Simpson, “Bone,”
346
; Schneider, “Ivory.”
. Kraybill, Cult and Commerce,
104
; cf. Reynolds, “Africa”; for details on the first-century mariners’ guidebook for this voyage, including the merchandise acquired there (such as spices, ivory, and tortoise shell), see Casson, Mariners,
203–4
.
. Yamauchi, Africa,
172
.
. E.g., Lake and Cadbury, Commentary,
96
; Haenchen, Acts,
310
; Bruce, Commentary,
186
; Munck, Acts,
78
; Conzelmann, Acts,
68
. Much earlier, see also Bede Comm. Acts
8
.
27
b (trans. L. Martin,
82
).
. Cf. e.g., Pausanias
1
.
8
.
6
, commenting on the line of Ptolemies (with distinct individual surnames).
. LCL
2
:
477
. Often noted, e.g., Abbott, Acts,
102
; Bruce, Commentary,
186
n
43
(citing also Strabo
17
.
1
.
54
; Cicero
54
.
5
.
4
).
. Lohwasser, “Kandake.”
. Yamauchi, Africa,
171
.
. Lake and Cadbury, Commentary,
96
; Bruce, Commentary,
186
n
43
.
. Bruce, Acts
¹
,
191
. Examining also novels, De Weever, “Candace,”
530
, notes that in Ps.-Callisthenes Alex., “Candace, rather than her adult son, rules the country.”
. Pliny Nat.
6
.
35
.
186
, regnare feminam Candacen; undoubtedly true in the generation of their visit.
. Johnson, Acts,
155
.
. Cf. the Nubian inscription noting the reigning queen in
13
BCE (Deissmann, Light,
352
; Bruce, Acts
¹
,
191
).
. Adams, Nubia, 260. He notes cases of patrilineal and possibly some matrilineal succession, but points out that brother-sister marriages may have been common (Adams, Nubia,
260
). These were also common in Egypt, see e.g., Diodorus Siculus
1
.
27
.
1
; Sextus Empiricus Pyr.
1
.
152; Ptolemy Tetr.
4
.
10
.
203
; in the Ptolemaic royal house, e.g., Pausanias
1
.
7
.
1
; Lucian Icar.
15
.
. Adams, Nubia,
260
.
. Adams, Nubia,
260
.
. E.g., even a general could have his own treasurer (Aeschines Tim.
56
).
. See Hakem, “Civilization,”
302–4; Oliver and Fage, History,
32
. Cf. the high status of queens in some traditional African societies, including the Amhara in East Africa (Mbiti, Religions,
234
,
243
).
. Yamauchi, Africa,
172
.
. Snowden, Blacks in Antiquity,
133
.
. See Seneca Nat. Q.
6
.
8
.
3
; further Losch, “Kämmerer der Königen,”
495
. On Nero’s expedition, see e.g., Pliny Nat.
6
.
35
.
178–185
.
. See Snowden, Blacks in Antiquity,
133–36
.
. Ps.-Callisth. Alex.
3
.
19–21
; cf. Josephus Ant.
2
.
252–53
(less helpfully to the other Ethiopians). This approach does not stem from favor toward women in general; both Achilles and Theseus supposedly slaughtered Amazons freely (e.g., Plutarch Thes.
26–28
), and, horribly, their slaughter in the Amazonomachy was a favorite theme in Greek art.
. Also emphasized by Du Bois, World,
140
.
. See De Weever, “Candace,”
533
.
. See De Weever, “Candace,”
537
,
540–44
.
. Hawass, “Nubia,”
171
; cf. the use of Egyptian hieroglyphs and its own alphabet in Seidlmayer, “Nubia,”
869
. From no later than the mid-second millennium BCE, Meroitic, apparently a north-Sudanese language like Nubian, used “
18
single-sound characters (
15
consonants and
3
vowel signs) and
4
syllabic signs in a hieroglyphic form and the usually employed cursive form” (Lohwasser, “Meroitic”).
. Fitzmyer, Acts,
412–13
, thinks the scroll “in Hebrew, or less likely Greek.” But while Hebrew Torah scrolls may have been preferred, MSS of the LXX show that Greek versions also existed, and if anyone needed a Greek scroll this official may have been among them.
. Deissmann, Light,
352
.
. Heldman, “Axum,”
239
.
. Welsby, Kingdom of Kush, 194–95
, noting Diodorus Siculus
3
.
6
.
3
and an alphabet inscribed perhaps for educational purposes.
. Welsby, Kingdom of Kush,
67
.