"So he [Phillip] arose and went. And behold,
a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority
under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had
charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem
to worship. --Acts 8:27 NKJV
"In Mt. 19 Stern's JNT translates
the same Greek phrase for "eunuch" as "do not marry";
"without desire"; "been castrated" and "renounced
marriage" to avoid this problem. He translates the
same Greek word [as found in Matt. 19:12] as "eunuch"
in Acts 8:27 just as the KJV does.
"The man in Acts 8:27 appears
to be a proselyte to Judaism since he seems to
be making the Torah-required pilgrimage to Jerusalem
(Dt. 16:16). The Torah, however, forbids a eunuch
both from becoming a proselyte Jew, and from worshiping
at the Temple (Dt. 23:1f).
"This also raises the question
of why one would become a eunuch (be castrated) for
the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. After all eunuchs
are excluded from the assembly of Israel. The word
for "eunuch" in the Aramaic manuscripts of
both of these passages is M'HAIMNA {"ܐܢܡܝܗܡ"}
which can mean "eunuch" but can also mean "believer"
or "faithful one" as it clearly means
here. In Mt. 19 it appears as a sort of word play
because it also refers to one who is faithful in marriage."
(Emphasis and comments in {} mine)
