Acts 11:2

2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers ^[a] took issue with him

Acts 11:2 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 11:2

And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem
From Caesarea, after he had stayed some certain days in Cornelius's house; so a journey from Caesarea to Jerusalem is called an ascending from the one to the other, ( Acts 25:1 ) because Jerusalem stood on higher ground, as well as was the metropolis of the country; and this was a journey of six hundred furlongs, or seventy five miles, for so far, according to Josephus ^F20, was Caesarea distant from Jerusalem:

they that were of the circumcision,
which phrase designs not only the circumcised Jews that believed in Christ, for such were all they of the church at Jerusalem, or at least proselytes that had been circumcised, for as yet there were no uncircumcised Gentiles among them; but those of them, who were most strenuous for circumcision, and made it not only a bar of church communion, but even of civil conversation:

these contended with him;
litigated the point, disputed the matter with him, complained against him, and quarrelled with him. Epiphanius says ^F21, that Cerinthus, that arch-heretic, was at the head of this contention.

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 De Bello Jud. l. 1. c. 3. sect. 5.
F21 Contr. Haeres. l. 1. Haeres. 28.

Acts 11:2 In-Context

1 The apostles and brothers throughout Judea soon heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.

2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers took issue with him

3 and said, “You visited uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

4 But Peter began and explained to them the whole sequence of events:

5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision of something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came right down to me.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally those of the circumcision