The Baptism of the Eunuch

Pieter Lastman's Baptism of the Eunuch (Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht) depicts the scene of Acts 8:36-38 in which the Ethiopian eunuch, reading Isaiah 53 in his chariot, asks Philip 'what prevents me from being baptized?' and receives baptism in roadside water - a scene that early Christian exegesis read as the fulfillment of Isaiah 56:3-5 ('do not let the eunuch complain... I will give them... a name better than sons and daughters') and the opening of God's covenant community to those previously excluded. Lastman was Rembrandt's teacher, and the painting's dramatic staging and psychological complexity directly influenced the young Rembrandt's approach to Old and New Testament narrative. The painting presents the first recorded baptism of an African convert as an act of world-historical significance.