Acts 11

Acts 11:1-18 . PETER VINDICATES HIMSELF BEFORE THE CHURCH IN JERUSALEM FOR HIS PROCEDURE TOWARDS THE GENTILES.

1-11. the apostles and brethren . . . in Judea--rather, "throughout Judea."

2. they . . . of the circumcision--not the Jewish Christians generally, for here there were no other, but such as, from their jealousy for "the middle wall of partition" which circumcision raised between Jew and Gentile, were afterwards known as "they of the circumcision." They doubtless embraced apostles as well as others.

3, 4. Thou wentest in . . . But Peter rehearsed the matter, &c.--These objectors scruple not to demand from Peter, though the first among the apostles, an explanation of his conduct; nor is there any insinuation on Peter's part of disrespect towards his authority in that demand--a manifest proof that such authority was unknown both to the complainers and to himself.

12-18. we entered the man's house--No mention of Cornelius' name, much less of his high position, as if that affected the question. To the charge, "Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised," he simply speaks of the uncircumcised "man" to whom he had been divinely sent.

13. seen an angel--literally, "the angel," for the rumor took that definite shape.

14. Who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved--The historian makes the angel express this much more generally ( Acts 10:6 ). So also the subsequent report of it by the deputies and by Cornelius himself to Peter ( Acts 10:22 Acts 10:32 ). But as Peter tarried with Cornelius certain days, and they doubtless talked over the wonderful scene together, perhaps this fuller and richer form of what the angel said was given to Peter; or the apostle himself may have expressed what the angel certainly designed by directing them to send for him. Observe, "salvation" is here made to hang upon "words," that is, the Gospel message concerning Christ. But on the "salvation" of Cornelius, On that of his "house,"

16, 17. Then remembered I the word . . . John . . . baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Forasmuch then, &c.--that is, "Since God Himself has put them on a level with ourselves, by bestowing on them what the Lord Jesus pronounced the higher baptism of the Holy Ghost, would it not have been to withstand God if I had withheld from them the lower baptism of water, and kept aloof from them as still 'unclean?'"

18. held their peace and glorified God--Well had it been if, when Paul afterwards adduced equally resistless evidence in justification of the same line of procedure, this Jewish party had shown the same reverential and glad submission!
Then hath God also granted to the Gentiles, &c.--rather, "granted to the Gentiles also." (See a similar misplacement of "also" in Hebrews 12:1 ). To "grant repentance unto life"--that is, "such as issues in life" (compare 2 Corinthians 7:10 , "repentance unto salvation")--is more than to be willing to pardon upon repentance [GROTIUS]. The case of Cornelius is so manifestly one of grace reigning in every stage of his religious history, that we can hardly. doubt that this was just the feature of it which they meant here to express. And this is the grace that reigns in every conversion.

Acts 11:19-24 . THE GOSPEL BEING PREACHED TO GENTILES AT ANTIOCH ALSO BARNABAS IS SENT THITHER FROM JERUSALEM, WHO HAILS THEIR ACCESSION AND LABORS AMONG THEM.

19. they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen--and who "went everywhere preaching the word" ( Acts 8:4 ).
travelled as far as Phenice--that part of the Mediterranean coast which, commencing a little north of Cæsarea, stretches northwards for upwards of one hundred miles, halfway to Antioch. intercourse subsisted between Phenice and Cyprus.
and Antioch--near the head of the northeast coast of the Mediterranean, on the river Orontes, and containing a large colony of Jews, to whose religion there were there numerous proselytes. "It was almost an Oriental Rome, in which all the forms of the civilized life of the empire found some representative; and through the two first centuries of the Christian era it was what Constantinople became afterwards, 'the Gate of the East'" [HOWSON].