Bible Commentaries

Cesarea was a large seaport, and the residence of the Roman governors.--Centurion; a captain, commander of about one hundred men.--Italian band; a part of the army which had been brought into the country from Italy.

Evidently; distinctly.--Ninth hour; about the middle of the afternoon.

Come up for a memorial; are remembered.

The sixth hour; noon.

Knit; that is, drawn together at the four corners.

All manner, &c.; mingled promiscuously, without regard to the distinction of clean and unclean, made by the Jewish laws. (Leviticus 11:2-27; Deuteronomy 14:3-20.)

Common or unclean; animals forbidden by the Mosaic law.

The morrow after. Cesarea was at a considerable distance from Joppa.

Fell down, &c.; as it was the custom to do, in those days, when paying homage to men of high rank and distinction.

Gainsaying; hesitating, or making objections.

I perceive, &c. Peter now fully understood what the vision was intended to teach him; viz., that the ceremonial distinctions of the Mosaic law were to be abrogated, and that Christianity was to be preached to other nations, as well as to the Jews.

Acts 10:36,37. There is an obscurity in the construction of this passage, and in its connections with the context, which cannot be satisfactorily removed.

Quick and dead; the living and the dead.

All the prophets, &c. The whole Mosaic economy of sacrifices, with all its imposing rites and ceremonies, was a prophetic representation of an atoning Savior. The expiatory sacrifice of Jesus Christ, for the sins of the world, gives a profound and affecting significance to a ritual which would otherwise be trivial and unmeaning.--Believeth in him. To believe in Christ is to believe so cordially in all that he has taught and suffered in our behalf, that our conduct shall be in accordance with our faith.

They of the circumcision; the Jews.--Were astonished. This offer of the gospel to a Roman centurion was a great event, and it constitutes a very important era in the history of Christianity. Now, for the first time, was that seemingly impassable barrier transcended, which, since the days of Abraham, had circumscribed the Jewish people, and had so effectually separated them, in regard to the truths and institutions of religion, from all the rest of mankind.

Magnify; extol.

Prayed they him; urged him.