Chapter Ten

Cornelius the centurion, the appearance of the Angel to him and his sending to Peter (1–8). Peter’s vision and his encounter with those sent by Cornelius (9–22). Peter’s journey to Cornelius, his preaching in Cornelius’s house, the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the listeners, and baptism (23–48)

Acts 10:1. In Caesarea there was a certain man named Cornelius, a centurion of the cohort called the Italian Cohort, “In Caesarea” — see Acts 8:40, note. “From the regiment called the Italian” — that is, a regiment of native Italians, in distinction from soldiers recruited for service from the indigenous population. Caesarea was the residence of the Roman procurators of Palestine, and for this reason a special regiment of native Romans or Italians was kept with them as more reliable and capable men. Cornelius, centurion of this regiment, was probably also a native Roman or Italian. In any case, he was not even a Jewish proselyte, but was simply a Gentile of good soul and a naturally pious disposition (cf. Acts 10:28 to Acts 10:11). The incorporation of such a man into the Church of Christ — moreover directly, without any mediation of Judaism, even in the form of proselytism of the gate — was an event of great importance, an epoch in the history of the apostolic Church. This special importance of the event of the first conversion to Christ of a Gentile is indicated also by the fact that it takes place through the mediation of the first Apostle of Christ — Peter, specially summoned by God from another city, although at Caesarea at this time there was the well-known evangelist and baptizer of the Ethiopian eunuch — Philip.

Acts 10:2. a devout man who feared God with all his household, who gave generously in alms to the people and always prayed to God. “Fearing God... praying to God.” These expressions show that Cornelius was a worshiper of the One true God, about whom he had probably learned from contact with the Jews and their worship of God, but whom he honored in his own way, as his devout heart prompted him — independently and without adherence to the forms of Jewish worship.

Acts 10:3. He clearly saw in a vision, at about the ninth hour of the day, an Angel of God who came in to him and said to him: Cornelius! “Clearly saw in a vision...” — εῖδεν εν οράματι φανερῶς... — “he saw in a vision plainly” — evidently in a waking state, not in sleep (Chrysostom). This was around the ninth hour of the day (3 o’clock in the afternoon), the customary hour of prayer among the Jews, when Cornelius also was praying, having fasted until that hour (Acts 10:30).

Acts 10:4. And gazing at him and seized with fear, he said: what is it, Lord? The angel answered him: your prayers and your alms have come up as a memorial before God. “In fear.” St. Chrysostom well explains this fear of Cornelius: “the vision produced fear in him, but a moderate fear, just enough to make him attentive; then the words of the Angel dispelled this fear — or rather, the praise contained in them softened the unpleasant feeling of fear...” “Have come up as a memorial before God...” — an anthropomorphic expression of God’s favor toward Cornelius for his prayers and charitable works.

Acts 10:5–6. So now send men to Joppa and summon Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging with a certain Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea; he will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved. “He will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved...” — Slavonic: “he will tell you words by which you shall be saved and all your house...” — the Greek text is quite different: οῦτος λαλήσει σοί τί σε δεῖ ποιεῖν — that is, he will tell you what you must do. This indicates the insufficiency of good works and piety in themselves: faith in Christ the Savior is also necessary, which imparts both value and foundation to a person’s good disposition.

Acts 10:7. When the angel who had spoken with Cornelius had departed, he called two of his household servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him “Two of his servants...” — δύο τῶν οικετῶν αυτοῦ... — properly, members of his household, probably those closer to the master of the house than common slaves, and distinguished by the same God-fearing quality as Cornelius himself (Acts 10:2).

Acts 10:8. and, having explained everything to them, sent them to Joppa. “Having explained everything to them...” — so that they could, of course, tell Peter and persuade him to go with them to their master (Acts 10:22). “He told them everything so as to move him (Peter) to come to him, since he considered it improper to summon him by his own authority — and that is why he explained...” (Theophylact).

Acts 10:9. On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof of the house about the sixth hour to pray. Acts 10:10. And he felt hungry and wanted to eat. While they were preparing, he fell into a trance “On the next day... around the sixth hour...” — from Caesarea to Joppa is about 40–45 versts. Those sent by Cornelius after the ninth hour (after 3 o’clock in the afternoon, Acts 10:3) and probably setting out on the same evening could have arrived in Joppa the next day by noon (around the sixth hour). “Went up on the housetop to pray...” The flat rooftops of houses in the East are a very convenient place for prayer. It was here that Peter also went up for prayer at the appointed hour. “Fell into a trance” — επέπεσεν επ αυτόν έκστασις... — more precisely in the Slavonic: “a trance fell upon him” — an ecstasy came upon him — a state in which “a person does not control his own senses, being caught up into the spiritual world” (Theophylact; cf. Chrysostom).

Acts 10:11–12. and he sees the sky opened and something descending to him like a great sheet tied at the four corners and being lowered to the earth; in it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of the sky. “In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth...” — πάντα τά τετράποδα τῆς γῆς... — more precisely in the Slavonic: “all four-footed of the earth...” As one commentator aptly observes: “This vision cannot be measured by the human mode, for the ecstasy granted Peter other eyes...”

Acts 10:13. And a voice came to him: rise, Peter, kill and eat. “Rise, Peter, slaughter and eat” — αναστάς Πέτρε, θῦσον καί φάγε — more precisely in the Slavonic: “Arise, Peter, slaughter and eat!” “Rise, Peter, slaughter and eat!” The participle here indicates a rousing to the commanded action (as above, Acts 9:11 and others), having no independent meaning on a par with the two following verbs. “Slaughter and eat!” The vision accommodates itself to the hunger Peter is experiencing and proposes the most ordinary preparation of food, only with unusual subject matter for consumption. Although in the sheet that descended Peter could have found clean animals permitted for food, he nevertheless responds to the invitation with a strong categorical refusal — μηδαμῶς Κύριε — “by no means, Lord!” — not under any circumstances, not in any case! He responds this way in view of the unusual indifference with which the voice treats the animals forbidden for consumption under the law as unclean, and he has precisely these latter in mind.

Acts 10:14. But Peter said: No, Lord, I have never eaten anything defiled or unclean. Since the voice came from the opened heaven, Peter responds to it with the customary address “Lord!” — sensing in his heart that the vision came from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The meaning and purpose of this entire vision were as follows: all the animals in the sheet symbolically represented all humanity — the clean animals signified the Jewish people, the unclean ones — the Gentiles. Through the death on the cross of Christ the Savior, offered as a sacrifice to God for the entire world, cleansing has been obtained equally for all — not only for Jews but also for Gentiles, who are likewise to enter the Church of Christ, the Kingdom of the Messiah, ideally free from all defilement or vice, as washed and continually being washed by the blood of the Lamb of God. At the same time it is also made clear that for the cleansing of the Gentiles and their entry into the Church of Christ no mediation of Jewish external rites and institutions is required — rites that had even for Judaism itself a temporary, transitory character. The right to this entry is granted exclusively by the all-encompassing significance of the Cross Sacrifice of the Son of God.

Acts 10:16. This happened three times, and the vessel was taken up again into heaven. “This” — that is, the vision with the address to Peter — “happened three times” — as a sign of the unmistakable truth of what was seen and heard, and to assure Peter of the irrevocability of the Divine determination regarding it. “And the container was taken up again into heaven” — into the pure and holy realm where even what was unclean has become clean and is kept as such by God, together with what was always clean.

Acts 10:17. While Peter was puzzling within himself what the vision he had seen could mean, behold, the men sent by Cornelius, having inquired about the house of Simon, stopped at the gate, “Peter was perplexed within himself.” Peter did not immediately understand the meaning of the vision, but it at once began to become clear through subsequent events.

Acts 10:18. and, calling out, asked: Is Simon, who is called Peter, here? “Called out, asking” — from the account it is not apparent that Peter heard this call. Further it is said that the Holy Spirit made known to him the men sent by Cornelius, through a new inward, immediate communication.

Acts 10:19–20. Meanwhile, as Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him: Behold, three men are looking for you; rise, go down, and travel with them, doubting nothing; for I have sent them. “Rise, go down and go,” Αναστάς κατάβηθι καί πορεύου, “rise, go down, go” — see above, on Acts 10:13. “Making no distinction” — μηδέν διακρινόμενος — “doubting nothing” — without any hesitation. This prudent caution is given in view of the apostle’s well-known strict views, which would have put him in a quandary whether to comply with an invitation to Gentiles, association with whom was forbidden by the Jewish Law (Acts 10:28).

Acts 10:21. Peter, going down to the men sent to him from Cornelius, said: I am the one you are looking for; for what reason have you come? “What is the reason you have come?” Again an inaccuracy in the Russian translation, while the Slavonic text is closer to the original — “what cause is it for which you have come?” — τίς η αιτία, δι ήν πάρεστε — what cause, or what matter, for which you have arrived?

Acts 10:22. They said: Cornelius the centurion, a virtuous man and one who fears God, spoken well of by the whole Jewish people, received a command from a holy angel to summon you to his house and to hear words from you. “Well spoken of by all the Jewish people,” upon whom clearly a considerable portion of the good Cornelius’s charitable acts fell — similar in this respect to the other well-known Capernaum centurion from the Gospels. “To hear what you have to say” — ακοῦσαι ρήματα παρα σοῦ — “to hear words from you” — to hear your preaching, which is to teach him what he must do for salvation.

Acts 10:23. Then Peter, having invited them in, entertained them. And the next day, rising up, he went with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa went with him. Acts 10:24. The following day they came to Caesarea. Cornelius was waiting for them, having gathered his relatives and close friends. “Some of the brethren from Joppa” — that is, from the believers of Joppa — six in number, as is evident from what follows (Acts 11:12). Peter entertains Cornelius’s messengers, who needed rest, and sets out with them only on the next day — probably not early, since they do not arrive in Caesarea until the following day, the fourth since the day of the vision that appeared to Cornelius (Acts 10:30). “Summoning his relatives and close friends,” who made up quite a considerable assembly (Acts 10:27) of people like-minded with Cornelius and fully prepared to believe in Christ at Peter’s word. This was the first community of pure Gentiles to join Christianity without any mediation of Jewish cultic institutions.

Acts 10:25–26. As Peter was entering, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet in worship. But Peter lifted him up, saying: Stand up; I too am a man. Peter repels the prostration of Cornelius before him not only out of humility, but also because he perceived in this prostration a reverence paid to Peter as some kind of embodiment of a higher power — something very characteristic of pagan conceptions of gods in human form (Acts 14:11).

Acts 10:28. And he said to them: You know that it is forbidden for a Jew to associate with or draw near to a foreigner; but God has shown me that I should consider no person defiled or unclean. Concerning the prohibition for a Jew to associate with a foreigner (Gentile), the Law of Moses itself does not actually speak; this is the petty strictness of later rabbinism, which under the influence of Pharisaism developed the idea of the holiness of the chosen people to such a point of fastidiousness. Thanks to the well-known influence of Pharisaic views on the people, this attitude toward Gentiles immediately acquired the force of a general custom and a firmly established rule — a law — which is reflected also in the conduct of the first among the apostles. “That I should not call any man common or unclean...” — in the sense of the Pharisaic views described above, and in the sense of being incapable of being cleansed and sanctified through faith in Christ, independently of Judaism and to an equal degree with it.

Acts 10:29. Therefore, when summoned, I have come without objection. So I ask: for what reason have you called for me? “I ask, then, for what reason have you sent for me?” Peter had already partly heard about the purpose of his being called. Now once more he wishes to hear from the lips of Cornelius and those present, “so that they themselves might make confession and be made upright in faith” (Theophylact; cf. Chrysostom). The apostle addresses himself here not to Cornelius alone but to all who had gathered, presuming in them the same intentions as Cornelius and understanding that his invitation by Cornelius came as if in the name of all of them.

Acts 10:30–33. Cornelius said: Four days ago I was fasting until the present hour, and at the ninth hour I was praying in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing and says: Cornelius! your prayer has been heard, and your acts of charity have been remembered before God. So send to Joppa and summon Simon who is called Peter; he is staying in the house of Simon the tanner by the sea; he will come and speak to you. Immediately I sent for you, and you have done well to come. Now we are all here before God to hear everything that has been commanded you by God. “We are all present before God...” — a reverent expression of faith in the omnipresent and omniscient God and of readiness to fulfill all His will, expected from Peter’s lips.

Acts 10:34. Peter opened his mouth and said: I truly perceive that God shows no partiality, “Peter opened his mouth and said” — ανοίζας δέ Πέτρος τό στόμα, εῖπεν — “opening his mouth, Peter said” — see note on Acts 8:35. “In truth I perceive” — επ αληθείας καταλαμβάνομαι — “in truth I understand” — an expression of the highest degree of certainty and sureness.

Acts 10:35. but in every nation the one who fears Him and acts uprightly is acceptable to Him. “Is accepted by Him” — δεκτός αυτῶ εστι — “acceptable” — that is, is received by Him, is not pushed away, is not deprived of the right to participate in the gracious Kingdom of Christ. Here, therefore, the idea is by no means that one may believe in whatever way one pleases and still be pleasing to God, or that it is sufficient merely to act according to natural righteousness. This would mean the non-necessity of Christian faith for salvation and for pleasing God, and would allow complete religious indifference — which is impossible, just as it is impossible to be blessed without Christ, outside the Church of Christ. Peter’s thought is not about religious indifference but about national indifference in the matter of leading people to Christ: one who is pleasing to God in any nation is somehow brought to Christ — being sufficiently prepared, he receives the means of salvation in Christianity and becomes righteous before God. In this spirit the passage is also interpreted by St. Chrysostom: “How? Is one who belongs to the Persians also acceptable to Him? If he is worthy, he will be acceptable, so as to be counted worthy of faith. Therefore He also did not despise the Ethiopian eunuch. But what, they will say, are we to think of God-fearing people who are nonetheless left in neglect? No, not one God-fearing person is left in neglect, for one who fears God can never, never be despised.”

Acts 10:36. He sent the word to the sons of Israel, proclaiming peace through Jesus Christ; He is Lord of all. “He sent His Word” — that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, His Son, the Son of God, who preached the Kingdom of God, the kingdom of universal peace and salvation on earth. “He is Lord of all.” Great words — both for Jews and for Gentiles — great also because here Jesus Christ is clearly and expressly named “Lord” for the hearing of the Gentiles, and great because He is named Lord of “all” — that is, of both Jews and Gentiles — in the sense that He calls all into His Kingdom and all have equal rights to enter this Kingdom of Christ.

Acts 10:37. You know what took place throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee, after the baptism that John preached: “You know what happened...” This knowledge of what took place in Judea — at least of the most important events from the life of Jesus Christ — is assumed by the apostle both because his listeners lived not far from the main sites of these events, and because they, as those inclined toward the Jewish faith, could not but have been interested in and acquainted with events whose fame had at that time spread throughout the surrounding regions of Palestine over a great distance. “What happened... beginning from Galilee” — τό γενόμενον ρήμα αρζάμενον από τῆς Γαλιλαίας — more precisely in the Slavonic: “you know the word that came about throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee” — ρήμα, word — a saying, a report, and then also what gives rise to such reports. “Beginning from Galilee,” where the Lord began His public ministry after the baptism (John 2 and following).

Acts 10:38. how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with Him. “Anointed Jesus” — this is understood as referring to His humanity, as Theophylact interprets: “since He humbled Himself and took our flesh and blood upon Himself in all sincerity (Heb 2:14), it is said of Him that as a man He receives what He has by nature as God.” This anointing took place at the baptism of Jesus. “God was with Him” — a veiled and cautious expression of the thought about the divinity of Christ. The apostle expresses himself this way so as not to give occasion for the pagan conception of Jesus’ divinity, whereby the Gentiles could easily have taken Him for an embodiment of one or another pagan deity. For the sake of the weakness of his listeners, less is said about the Person of Christ than ought to be said (cf. Chrysostom).

Acts 10:39. And we are witnesses of everything He did in the land of Judea and in Jerusalem, and that they finally killed Him, hanging Him on a tree. Acts 10:40. This One God raised on the third day, and granted that He should appear Cf. Acts 1:8; — notes.

Acts 10:41. not to all the people, but to witnesses foreordained by God — to us, who ate and drank with Him after His resurrection from the dead. Cf. John 17:6; Rom 50:1; 1 Cor 1:1; Gal 1:1; Luke 24:41-43; John 21:12.

Acts 10:43. Of Him all the prophets testify that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name. Cf. Acts 3:24; John 3:15; Rom 3:25.

Acts 10:44. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all who were listening to the word. “While Peter was still speaking” — Acts 11 — “when he began to speak,” “the Holy Spirit fell on all who were hearing the word.” This is the only example in all of apostolic history of the Holy Spirit descending on those joining the Christian community before their baptism. Without doubt, this was required by the extraordinary importance of the events — the first incorporation of Gentiles into the Church of Christ without the mediation of Judaism — after which this manner of incorporation was to receive the authority of incontestability. “Look at the economy of God,” says Chrysostom on this occasion, “Peter had not yet finished his speech, and baptism had not yet taken place,... but since they... had received the beginning of the teaching and had believed... the Spirit descended. And this God does with the intention of providing Peter with a strong justification. They not only received the Spirit, but also began to speak in tongues... Why is this matter arranged this way? For the Jews, since they looked upon it with great hostility.”

Acts 10:45. And the believers of the circumcision who had come with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles as well, “The believers from the circumcision... were astonished” — this amazement is explained by the prevailing conviction of the time that Gentiles were to be received into the Church of Christ only after they had first become proselytes of Judaism — not otherwise: an opinion with which even after this event there was no small need to reckon (Acts 11 and following; Acts 15).

Acts 10:47. who can forbid water for baptizing those who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? Peter draws a perfectly natural conclusion from the event of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Gentiles — namely, that by this descent all obstacles to their incorporation on the one hand have been removed, and all need for Jewish cultic mediations and institutions on the other. But he considers it necessary to perform the baptism of those who have received the Holy Spirit, in view of the irrevocable commandment of the Lord (Matt 28:18).

Acts 10:48. And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay with them for several days. “Commanded them to be baptized” — apparently he did not baptize them himself, but entrusted this to one of those who came with him (1 Cor 1:17). “In the name of Jesus Christ” — see Acts 2:36, note. “They asked him” — and he, of course, granted their request, having established them sufficiently in the Christian faith. The narrator of Acts gives no further information about Cornelius. According to Church tradition, he was later the bishop of Caesarea, preached Christ in various lands, and died a martyr’s death (Menaion, January 4 and September 13).