Around a.d. 34, violence pushed believers out of Jerusalem into the rocky hills of Samaria. Temple guards dragged men and women from houses and locked them in prisons. Philip escaped the city and traveled north to preach in Samaria. He later walked south toward the desert road leading to Gaza. Midday sun baked the limestone gravel.
An Ethiopian royal treasurer rode along this southern route. He managed the wealth for the Kandake, the dynastic queen mother of Meroë. He sat in a heavy wooden chariot and read aloud from a leather scroll of Isaiah. Philip ran alongside the moving vehicle. The official invited Philip to sit beside him and explain the text. They reached a roadside pool of water in the arid scrubland. The treasurer ordered his driver to stop the horses for baptism.
Craftsmen built royal chariots from iron, oak, and thick leather. Strong draft animals pulled these heavy machines through desert sand. The chariot functioned as a moving fortress and a visible bank vault for high officials traversing trade routes. The unsprung wooden axle transferred violent shocks directly to the passengers. Reading a scroll under these harsh conditions required intense physical endurance. The bumpy journey brought the Jewish preacher and the Gentile official shoulder to shoulder.
Money buys strong horses and heavy wooden chariots, but it cannot purchase an understanding mind or a clean conscience.
The treasurer returned to his vehicle. The horses continued south toward the Nile Valley. They left two narrow wheel ruts in the gravel of the Gaza road. Winter rains eventually washed those tracks away. The new faith traveled down the southern trade routes into the highlands of East Africa.