And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
[And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.] This entire verse is missing in the oldest and best manuscripts - ('Aleph ('), A B C G H, etc.; in the best manuscript of the Vulgate (the Codex Amiatinus of the first hand), in the Peshito Syriac, and in both the Egyptian versions; in Chrysostom also. It must be regarded, therefore, as an interpolation: but certainly it is a very early one; because we find it both in the Greek of Irenaeus and in the Latin version of it, in the second century. We may conclude, therefore, that as the transition from the eunuch's question to the act of baptizing him seemed too abrupt, this verse was added on the margin of the few manuscripts which contain it, and afterward introduced into the text, to express what would have been demanded of the eunuch, as a confession of his faith, at the time when this addition was made.