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Context No. 37 of 4322 · Acts

Context · Reflection

Acts 10:1-6: in context

1Now there was a certain man in Caesarea, Cornelius by name, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment, 2a devout man, and one who feared God with all his house, who gave gifts for the needy generously to the people, and always prayed to God. 3At about the ninth hour of the day, he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God coming to him and saying to him, “Cornelius!” 4He, fastening his eyes on him and being frightened, said, “What is it, Lord?” He said to him, “Your prayers and your gifts to the needy have gone up for a memorial before God. 5Now send men to Joppa, and get Simon, who is also called Peter. 6He is staying with a tanner named Simon, whose house is by the seaside.

Up to this point in Acts, the church is entirely Jewish. The question underneath the whole book is whether Gentiles can come in, and if so on what terms. This passage opens the story that settles it. Cornelius is a Roman centurion in Caesarea, the coastal city that served as the seat of Roman government in Judea, and he commands a unit called the Italian Cohort. He is an officer of the occupying army.

He is also, the text says, devout, God-fearing, generous to the Jewish poor, and constantly at prayer. God-fearer was close to a technical term: a Gentile who worshipped the God of Israel and kept what he could of the law without becoming a Jew. At three in the afternoon, one of the set hours of Jewish prayer, an angel tells him his prayers and his gifts have gone up before God like a memorial offering, the language of temple sacrifice. Then he is given an address. Send to Joppa for a man named Simon Peter, staying with a tanner by the sea.

The instruction is oddly specific. It does not explain anything to Cornelius. It just sends him to fetch a particular man, in a particular house, and lets the rest happen. Tanning was unclean work, and Peter is already lodging in that kind of house. What small step have I been given, with no explanation attached, that I keep waiting to understand before I take it?

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