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Acts 11:1-18. The Judæo-Christians blame Peter. He makes his defence at Jerusalem

1. the apostles and brethren … heard] The news reached them before the return of St Peter to Jerusalem.

that the Gentiles had also received the word of God] At this news, had there been no additional information about Peter’s eating with Cornelius, the disciples would have rejoiced, and would have welcomed this further spread of the word, as they did (Acts 8:14) the conversion of the Samaritans, but to some, who were not only Christians, but strict observers of Jewish ritual, it was a cause of offence that Peter had consented to become the guest of a Gentile.

2. they that were of the circumcision] This must have been the whole Church, at the time when the event occurred, for there were no Christians as yet except Jews and proselytes, but St Luke’s narrative was compiled at a time when “they that were of the circumcision” had become a distinct party, and when their influence had begun to work division in the Christian societies. He therefore employs a name which when he wrote was full of significance, although it had its origin only in the circumstances to which he here applies it. Those who had been born Jews and knew of Jesus as conforming to the Law, and who had not heard of Peter’s vision nor seen the gift of the Holy Ghost to Cornelius and his friends, as those who had been with Peter had done, were to be pardoned, if their scruples caused them to question the conduct of the Apostle at this time; yet when they heard his story they were satisfied (see Acts 11:18), but many Jewish Christians elsewhere continued to make this subject a cause of contention. See Acts 15:1.

contended with him] The verb is a very significant one. It is the same that is used with a negative in Acts 10:20, Acts 11:12, “nothing doubting,” and Acts 15:9, “making no difference.” The thought of these men who contended was that the difference between Jew and Gentile should still be maintained, and that any close fellowship (such as was involved in living at the same board) with those who accepted Christianity otherwise than through the gate of submission to the Mosaic Law, should be avoided. As the Jews in Caesarea had (Acts 10:22) behaved towards Cornelius, before he became a Christian, so would the Judaizing feeling have prompted the Church of Christ to deal with him still. And when we think on the prejudice which, by generations of ceremonial observance, had grown up among the Jews, we cannot wonder greatly at what they did. A whole nation is not brought to a change of feeling in a day.

3. Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised] The expression shews the strength of feeling against what Peter had done. The men with whom he had mixed are not called Gentiles, but the uncircumcised, the word of greatest reproach in the mouth of a Jew.

and didst eat with them] Among men with whom there would be no regard to the character of the food, nor to the way in which it was prepared.

4. But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning, and expounded it by order unto them] Better, “But Peter began and rehearsed the matter in order unto them.”

6. I considered] Better, “I beheld.”

11. And behold, immediately there were three men already come unto the house where I was] With the oldest MSS. read, “And behold immediately three men stood before the house in which we were.”

12. nothing doubting] The oldest MSS. give “making no difference.” On this change of the verb from the middle to the active voice, and for a reason why Peter, after having been at Cæsarea and having heard the statement of Cornelius and seen the gift of the Spirit, adopted this form in his address at Jerusalem, see Acts 10:20 note.

Moreover [And] these six brethren accompanied me] Those who had been his companions to Cæsarea were brought by Peter to Jerusalem, that their testimony might support his statement, and that they might declare to the Church what they had seen. The change in the number of the verb in Acts 11:11, “we were” for “I was,” which has the support of the best MSS., makes it probable that these brethren were his companions in the journey which he was making “throughout all quarters” (Acts 9:32), and so were lodging with him at Simon’s house in Joppa.

13. and he shewed us how he had seen an angel] The Greek has “and he related to us how he had seen the angel.” Before St Peter made this defence, and long before St Luke put it down in the Acts, the story of Cornelius and his vision would be well known, and so the definite article would be used in speaking of it, i.e. “the angel” of whom all men had heard.

said unto him] The oldest MSS. omit the last two words.

Send men to Joppa] “Men” is omitted in the best MSS. This is one of the numerous insertions by which a repetition of a narrative in this book has been brought into exact verbal accord with the previous form. There have been times when devout men thought much of this verbal accord. It is therefore worth notice that the writers of the N. T. disregarded it utterly. The words in such a solemn inscription as that above the Cross differ in all the four Gospels, and St Peter, when in the Second Epistle (Acts 1:17) he speaks of the heavenly voice heard at the Transfiguration, varies verbally from each of the accounts of the Evangelists.