Actschapter 10
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Speaks with:Acts 10×11Acts 2×8Acts 8×4Acts 11×5John 4×3Daniel 9×3
Summary
Chapter summary
Cornelius's vision at Caesarea. Peter's rooftop vision: 'what God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.' Preaching at Cornelius's house; the Spirit falls on the Gentiles. 'Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.'
Context
History · Luke — Acts overview
- A. 1–8 Cornelius Sees an Angel at the Ninth Hour
- B. 9–23 Peter's Rooftop Vision: Call Not Thou Common
- C. 24–33 Peter Steps Into a Gentile House
- D. 34–43 God Is No Respecter of Persons
- E. 44–48 The Spirit Falls on the Gentiles While Peter Speaks
The outline
A.Cornelius Sees an Angel at the Ninth Hourvv. 1 to 8
Read vv. 1 to 8 →B.Peter's Rooftop Vision: Call Not Thou Commonvv. 9 to 23
Read vv. 9 to 23 →C.Peter Steps Into a Gentile Housevv. 24 to 33
Read vv. 24 to 33 →D.God Is No Respecter of Personsvv. 34 to 43
Read vv. 34 to 43 →E.The Spirit Falls on the Gentiles While Peter Speaksvv. 44 to 48
Read vv. 44 to 48 →
The world behind this chapter
Acts 10The history
Caesarea was Rome's administrative seat in Judea, built by Herod the Great with an artificial deep-water harbour, a theatre, and an aqueduct. The governor lived there, and a garrison with it. Cornelius commanded a century — nominally a hundred men — in a unit Luke calls the Italian Cohort.
He is described as a God-fearer: a Gentile who worshiped Israel's God, prayed, and gave alms, but had not become a Jew by circumcision. Such people were common on the edges of synagogues all over the empire, and they became the most receptive audience the early mission had.
Peter is lodging with a tanner, a trade that worked with dead animals and stank so badly that tanneries were kept at the edge of town, downwind. It was legal but low-status work, and a strict Jew would find the household uncomfortable — a quiet hint that Peter was already loosening.
The vision strikes at food laws, but food laws were never only about food. Keeping kosher was the daily wall that made shared meals with Gentiles impossible, and a meal was the basic act of friendship. Peter's line "you know it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with a foreigner" is about that wall, not about diet.
What it meant to them
To Gentile readers, this chapter was their charter. God moved first — the vision to Cornelius, the vision to Peter, the Spirit falling on the household before anyone could impose a condition. No one could claim the Gentiles were let in by human decision.
For Jewish believers it was the harder word: God shows no partiality. The house of a Roman officer, the very kind of man who kept Judea under occupation, is where the Spirit lands.
Sources cited
- F. F. Bruce, The Book of the Acts (NICNT)
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Acts 10. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.