Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Acts · About this commentary
Three men at the gate, and a Jew who went in
Acts 10:17-33
17 Now while Peter was very perplexed in himself what the vision which he had seen might mean, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon’s house, stood before the gate, · WEB
The vision is interpreted by the doorbell, and the hardest thing Peter does in the chapter is cross a threshold.
While Peter is still puzzling, the men arrive and stand at the gate. The Spirit's instruction is brief and removes the one thing Peter would otherwise have done, which is deliberate: arise, get down, and go with them, doubting nothing; for I have sent them. The claim of authorship is the point. Three Gentiles at a Jewish apostle's door are said to have been dispatched by God.
The messengers describe their master in terms designed to make him acceptable — a righteous man, one who fears God, well spoken of by all the nation of the Jews. They know what will weigh with a man like Peter, and they lead with it. Peter's first concession is small and is the beginning of everything: he called them in and provided a place to stay. He gives Gentiles lodging under his roof before he goes under theirs.
He also takes witnesses. Some of the brothers from Joppa accompany him, and there turn out to be six of them Acts 11:12. Peter is a man who has been in enough hearings to know that he will be asked to account for this.
Cornelius has been waiting and has assembled his relatives and near friends, which turns a private interview into a full house. His first act is to fall at Peter's feet and worship, and Peter's response is immediate and physical — he raises him up with a sentence that will be echoed by Paul at Lystra and by an angel in Revelation: Stand up! I myself am also a man. The most senior figure in the church refuses the gesture in the moment it is offered.
Then Peter says out loud what everyone in the room already knows, and it is remarkable that he says it at all: You yourselves know how it is an unlawful thing for a man who is a Jew to join himself or come to one of another nation. He does not pretend the barrier is not there, and he does not pretend that crossing it costs nothing. He names it, in the house, to the people on the other side of it.
And then the interpretation of the roof: but God has shown me that I shouldn't call any man unholy or unclean. Peter states the meaning of his own vision within a day of receiving it, and its subject is a category of persons. The sheet of animals produced a sentence about men.
His next line is the honest posture of a man out of his depth. I ask therefore, why did you send for me? He has come without complaint and does not yet know the errand. Cornelius tells the story of his own vision, and the retelling adds a detail — the angel said your prayer is heard — so that the reader now knows both halves of the arrangement and can see how carefully each was fitted to the other.
Cornelius' closing sentence is one of the finest descriptions of a congregation in Scripture, and it comes from a Roman soldier who has never heard a sermon. Now therefore we are all here present in the sight of God to hear all things that have been commanded you by God. Everyone is assembled, they know whose presence they are in, and they have come to hear — not to discuss, and not to evaluate. Peter has a room like that and has not yet said a word.
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