Philip the Evangelist

Overview

Philip, distinct from the apostle of the same name, was one of the seven men chosen by the early Jerusalem church to oversee the daily distribution of food to widows, freeing the apostles to focus on prayer and the ministry of the word. When persecution scattered believers from Jerusalem following Stephen's death, Philip went to Samaria and preached Christ there, where great crowds responded to his message and the miracles that accompanied it, and even Simon the sorcerer believed and was baptized. An angel of the Lord then directed Philip to a desert road toward Gaza, where he encountered an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Ethiopian queen, reading from Isaiah's prophecy of the suffering servant. Philip explained that the passage spoke of Jesus, and the eunuch believed and was baptized on the spot, after which the Spirit caught Philip away to continue preaching along the coast until he settled in Caesarea. Years later, Paul stayed in Philip's home, where his four daughters were noted as prophetesses.