Question:
Please provide the correct rendering of the phrase “caught away Philip” from Acts 8:39.
Answer:
Various commentators have rendered this expression: “The angel of the Lord snatched away Philip.” “The Critical and Explanatory Commentary” notes, “To deny the miraculous nature of Philip’s disappearance is vain. It stands out on the face of the words, as just a repetition of what we read of the ancient prophets, in 1 Kings 18:12; 2 Kings 2:16. And the same word (as Bengel remarks) is employed to express a similar idea in 2 Cor. 12:2, 4; 1 Thess. 4:17. . . . Philip was found at Azotus–‘found himself,’ ‘made his appearance,’ an expression confirming the miraculous manner of his transportation.” Furthermore, “The Bible Commentary” states, “The work of conversion having been completed by baptism, this miraculous withdrawal of the evangelist confirmed the Ethiopian’s assurance of the divine mission of his teacher. . . . The Alexandrian MS. subjoins, ‘And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon the eunuch, but the angel of the Lord snatched away Philip.'”
The KJV renders the phrase just fine.
