Acts 10:1-8--Peter and Cornelius

Acts 10:1-8
English Standard Version
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Peter and Cornelius
10 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, 2 a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. 3 About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius.” 4 And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. 5 And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. 6 He is lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea.” 7 When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him, 8 and having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.

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Caesarea is another coastal town along the Mediterranean Sea.  As you can probably guess by its name, there was a large Roman presence there (the city is named after Caesar after all) and there is a Roman garrison and barracks there.  Because of the number of troops that would be stationed here, there would be a centurion (an officer that would oversee about 100 men underneath his command) there, and this particular centurion and the men whom he commanded seemingly came all the way to Israel from Italy, for they were part of the Italian Cohort.  This centurion, Cornelius, is described as being a devout man who feared God with all his household.  That would be a headscratcher for most of the first-century Christians, especially the ones of Jewish background, because how could any man in the service of a man who claimed to be a god and who was probably forced many times a day to say "Caesar is Lord" be a devout man of God when he almost certainly was breaking the first commandment and maybe the second commandment and, well, you get may drift.  The Jews would have bristled at this description because they thought all Gentiles were unclean and all contact with them should be avoided lest the guilt they had would rub off on the Jews and that God would pour out His wrath on the Jews that they thought was being stored up only for the Gentiles--we're going to see that come to play in this passage.

Luke gives evidence for his claim that Cornelius was a devout man of God by citing that Cornelius gave alms generously to the people (this would probably be to the Jewish people of whom he was seen as an outsider and "unclean") and he prayed to God continuously, yet we know such a man would not have been welcomed in the Temple, so he must have been praying wherever else he went.  The phrase "the ninth hour" probably means 3 p.m. as Roman time starts with sunrise at about 6 a.m. and if we add 9 hours to that we would get 15:00 hours or 3:00 p.m.  This is one of the dedicated "hours of prayer" for the Jews, and likely Cornelius is praying, as would be his normal custom, when he saw this vision of an angel of God.  The angel tells Cornelius that God has heard his prayers and accepted the sacrifice of his alms, and he was given instructions send men to Joppa to the house of Simon the Tanner, whose house was by the sea, and to find the one named Simon Peter, and he was to have his men call for Simon Peter to come to him.

Cornelius immediately obeys everything that he was told to do.  As soon as the vision is over, he calls two of his closest aides and a devout soldier (probably meaning devout to him, but it could mean that this soldier was also devout to the Lord) and tells the three of them all that he saw and heard and gives them instruction to go to Joppa, to the house of Simon the Tanner, and to bring Simon Peter back with them.  We'll see next time that God is in the process of giving Peter a vision as well so that he will be prepared and ready to go with them when they arrive, though it's going to take some work for Peter to understand what God is saying, for Peter will first interpret the vision as a test of his devotion to the Lord.