(AN: Originally part of the last chapter, but removed to make it a small yet independently important chapter of its own. You'll start to see Greek popping up here, so be ready for the change.)

(Also, there is a portion of this story that is missing from most modern translations of the Book of Acts. Can you guess which one it is?)

Isaiah

34 AD

"Someone's coming, my lord!" one of the man's servants said. Sure enough, the tall, well-built Ethiopian man looked up from the scroll in his hands and saw the form of a local approaching him down the desert road that led towards Gaza. He knew he was a local by his clothes and his hair and beard, which were unshaven and curly.

"Halt!" one of the servants of the Ethiopian man called out to the stranger in Greek. "You stand before Imam, High Treasuer of Her Royal Majesty Candice, Queen of Ethiopia."

"Really?" the Jewish man said with a smile on his face. "That's exactly the one I've come to see!" With haste, he made his way towards the chariot and addressed himself to the Treasurer.

"My lord," he said. "What brings you to Jerusalem?"

"I am on my way back to my homeland," Imam the Treasurer said. "After attending your Passover."

"What is that you're reading?" Philip asked.

"It is a scroll," Imam said. "Of the Hebrew prophet Isaias."

"You can read Hebrew?" Philip queried again.

Imam nodded. "I am a eunuch: there are precious few things in this life that have meaning to me anymore. One of which is the search for knowledge and truth."

"Much truth can be learned from reading the prophets," Philip said, nodding to the scroll of Isaiah. "Do you understand that?"

"The prophet speaks in riddles," Imam replied. "And I am not as familiar with this certain text as others. How can I divine it's meaning without a scholar's hand to guide me?"

"Do you mind if I take a look at it?" Philip asked. "I've heard the Torah read hundreds of times, it's practically second nature to me." Imam handed Philip the scroll. Unfurling it upon the arm of the chariot, Philip placed his finger at the top far left corner of the page and began to read:

"'Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the harm of HaShem revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we should see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with much grief: and we hid, as it were, our faces from Him, in that He was despised as we cared not. Surely He hath borne our griefs and...'" Philip paused for a moment, blinking back the tears that were welling up in his eyes.

"'Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitted of HaShem and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray, turning each and every one into his own way, and HaShem hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought like a sheep to the slaughter. Even as a lamb is mute before her shearers, so He opened not His mouth. He was taken by reason of prison and judgment, but who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of My people was He stricken. And because He did no violence, His grave was made with the wicked. Yea, because no deceit was in His mouth, He was buried with the rich in His death.

"'Yet it pleased HaShem to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief: when thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of HaShem shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and because He was numbered with the trangressors and bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.'"

At this Philip became suddenly enlightened, and had in his heart what he esteemed happened in the heart of Matthew every time.

"But what does it mean?" Imam asked. "Does Isaias speak of himself or someone else?"

"Friend," Philip said, in the common tongue. "This is about the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth. He, who is the Son of God, was despised and rejected by His own people and crucified. Yet He opened not His mouth, and..." He realized. "...and He told us that He would build up..." He put his hand to his chest and muttered: "This temple." Seeing that the eunuch was interested, Philip continued. "He-He told us this since the beginning: that God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son. Whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life! Ever since then, we have taught others to believe and to be baptised!"

"Look!" Imam said. "There's an oasis nearby. What else hinders me from being baptized?"

"If you believe with all your heart," Philip said. "You may indeed be baptised."

"I believe," Imam said. "That the one Isaias spoke of in this scroll, Jesus the Christ, is the Son of God."

With a smile on his face, Philip leaped off the chariot and waited for the eunuch. He walked off and summoned his attendants before him. After giving them instruction to take care of the chariot and the horses, he removed his jewelry and followed Philip, who had now waded out into the middle of the oasis. Imam walked out and joined with him.

"Brother," Philip said. "You are about to enter into the new covenant of Christ. Answer me this: do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?"

"With all my heart!" Imam said, taking Philip's hand in his own.

"Then in the name of the Father," Philip said, placing his arm around the eunuch's arm. "And of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, I now baptize you into the new covenant." Quickly he placed his hand over the eunuch's face, then with the arm that had been on his shoulder, he emersed him in the oasis.

Imam came up, hands raised and the praise of God on his lips. Casting his eyes about, this way and that, he saw that only his servants and the chariot were present. The strange Jewish man, who had turned up, explained Isaias to him and then baptized him, was gone.

(AN: Imam is probably a title, but I thought he needed a name more than just 'the eunuch'. Didn't want him to be known only by his status as a eunuch [-snip snip-]. lol, that was wrong)