Gaza
Ancient city on the coastal road from Palestine to Egypt, one of the five cities of the Philistines. In Acts, Philip meets and baptises an Ethiopian official on the road that runs down to it from Jerusalem.
Gaza stood near the Mediterranean coast at the southern end of the land, on the road to Egypt. In the Old Testament it is one of the five cities of the Philistines (1 Samuel 6:17): Samson carries off its gates, and is later brought there blinded and set to grind in the prison (Judges 16:1–3, 21). In Acts an angel sends Philip the Evangelist to “the way that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza”, a desert road, where he meets the Ethiopian official (Acts 8:26). See the Gospel Reaches Samaria and an Ethiopian Official.
What happened here
- about AD 34, estimated dateThe Gospel Reaches Samaria and an Ethiopian Official
Acts tells how Philip, driven from Jerusalem by persecution, preaches in Samaria, where Peter and John follow him, and then baptises an official of the Ethiopian queen on the road to Gaza. In Acts the message here first passes beyond Judea.