Acts 10:22

And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house, and to hear words of thee.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(22) Cornelius the centurion.—The description seems to imply that the name of the soldier-convert was not altogether unknown at Joppa. It could not fail to remind Peter of that other centurion whose name is not recorded, who was stationed at Capernaum, and had built the synagogue (Luke 7:5), and with that recollection there would come back to his memory the words which his Master had spoken in connection with the faith which was greater than he had found in Israel, and which proclaimed that “many should come from east and west and north and south, and sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God” (Matthew 8:11).

One that feareth God.—The word was almost a technical one as describing the Gentile converts who stood in the position of “proselytes of the gate.” (Comp. Acts 10:2; Acts 10:35; Acts 13:16.)

Of good report among all the nation of the Jews.—St. Luke’s policy of conciliation, if one may so speak, is traceable in the stress laid on this fact. As in the case of the reception of the Apostle of the Gentiles by Ananias (Acts 9:10), so in that of Cornelius, all occasion of offence was, as far as possible, guarded against by the attestation given by those who were themselves Jews to the character of those concerned.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:19-33 When we see our call clear to any service, we should not be perplexed with doubts and scruples arising from prejudices or former ideas. Cornelius had called together his friends, to partake with him of the heavenly wisdom he expected from Peter. We should not covet to eat our spiritual morsels alone. It ought to be both given and taken as kindness and respect to our kindred and friends, to invite them to join us in religious exercises. Cornelius declared the direction God gave him to send for Peter. We are right in our aims in attending a gospel ministry, when we do it with regard to the Divine appointment requiring us to make use of that ordinance. How seldom ministers are called to speak to such companies, however small, in which it may be said that they are all present in the sight of God, to hear all things that are commanded of God! But these were ready to hear what Peter was commanded of God to say.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

To hear words of thee - To be instructed by thee.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

22. they said, Cornelius … a just man, &c.—fine testimony this from his own servants.

of good report among all the nation of the Jews—specified, no doubt, to conciliate the favorable regard of the Jewish apostle.

to hear words of thee—(See on [1986]Ac 11:14).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

That they might speed in their message, they labour to prevent all prejudice Peter might have against Cornelius, who was a Gentile by title; telling him:

1. That he was a just man, as is said of Joseph, Matthew 1:19.

2. That he worshipped the true God the same with the Jews, and not the false gods of the Gentiles.

3. That he was reputed a pious and good man, and so it would be no disparagement to the apostles to go unto him.

Was warned from God: this argument St. Peter could not deny. When God’s command is evident, his people are determined and resolved.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And they said, Cornelius, the centurion,.... A certain person, by name Cornelius, a Roman or Italian, as his name shows, and by office a "centurion", that was over an hundred soldiers: a just man; before God, and in his sight, through the imputation of Christ's righteousness to him; and who was a new man, created in righteousness and true holiness; and lived soberly, righteously, and godly, and did justice between man and man; and so was just in the sight of men, which was very rare in a Gentile, and in a soldier:

and one that feareth God; the true God, the God of Israel, and worshipped him, both internally and externally; for both sorts of worship are included in the fear of God:

and of good report among all the nation of the Jews; that knew any thing of him, especially at Caesarea, where many Jews, and even many of their most celebrated doctors lived: and this is the rather observed, to induce Peter, a Jew, to go along with them to him, since his character was so very good, and he was in so much credit and esteem with the people; for he must be something extraordinary to have their good word, who had such an abhorrence of uncircumcised Gentiles in general: this man, they add,

was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house; they intimate hereby, that he did not send for him of himself, he was not led to it by any fancy of his own, or any curiosity in him; nor should he have presumed to have used such freedom with Peter, but that he had some instructions from God himself, who had sent an holy angel to him, and had ordered him to send men to Joppa, and fetch Peter from thence to his house, for the end next mentioned:

and to hear words of thee: the doctrines of the Gospel, and the ordinances of it: that being taught by the one, he and his might submit to the other.

Geneva Study Bible

And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house, and to hear words of thee.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Acts 10:22-25. Μαρτυρούμ.] as in Acts 6:3.

ἐχρηματ.] See on Matthew 2:12. The communication on the part of the angel (Acts 10:4-7) is understood as a divine answer to the constant prayer of Cornelius (Acts 10:2).

Peter and his six (Acts 11:12) companions had not traversed the thirty miles from Joppa to Caesarea in one day, and therefore arrived there only on the day after their departure. The messengers of Cornelius, too, had only arrived at Peter’s abode on the second day (Acts 10:8-9), and had passed the night with him (Acts 10:23), so that now (τῇ ἐπαύριον, Acts 10:24) it was the fourth day since their departure from Caesarea. Cornelius expected Peter on this day, for which, regarding it as a high family-festival, he had invited his (certainly like-minded) relatives and his intimate friends (τοὺς ἀναγκ. φίλους, see Wetstein; Kypke, II. p. 50).

ὡς δὲ ἐγένετο τοῦ εἰσελθεῖν τὸν Π.] but when it came to pass that Peter entered. This construction is to be regarded as a very inaccurate, improper application of the current infinitive with τιοῦ. No comparison with the Hebrew וַיְהִי לָבוֹא, Genesis 15:12 (Gesenius, Lehrgebr. p. 787), is to be allowed, because וַיְהִי does not stand absolutely, but has its subject beside it, and because the LXX. has never imitated this and similar expressions (Gesenius, l.c.) by ἐγένετο τοῦ. The want of corresponding passages, and the impossibility of rationally explaining the expression, mark it as a completely isolated[257] error of language, which Luke either himself committed or adopted from his original source,—and not (in opposition to Fritzsche, ad Matth. p. 848, and Rinck, Lucubr. crit. p. 64) as a corruption of the transcribers, seeing that the most important witnesses decide in favour of τοῦ, and its omission in the case of others is evidently a correction. Comp. now also Winer, p. 307 [E. T. 412].

ἐπὶ τ. πόδας] at the feet of Peter. Comp. Luke 8:41; Luke 17:16; Mark 5:22; John 11:32, al.

προσεκύνησε] See on Matthew 2:2. He very naturally conjectured, after the vision imparted to him, that there was something superhuman in the person of Peter (comp. on Luke 5:8); and to this, perhaps, the idea of heroes, to which the centurion had not yet become a stranger, contributed.

[257] Even at Revelation 12:7 it is otherwise, as there, if we do not accede to the conjecture of Düsterdieck, ἐγένετο must be again mentally supplied with ὁ Μιχαήλ, but in the altered meaning: there came forward, there appeared (comp. on Mark 1:4; John 1:6), so that it is to be translated: And there came (i.e. there set in, there resulted) war in heaven: Michael came, and his angels, in order to wage war. Among Greek writers also, as is well known, the verb to be repeated in thought is often to be taken in an altered meaning. Comp. e.g. Plat. Rep. p. 471 C, and Stallb. in loc. Least of all will such a supplement occasion difficulty in a prophetic representation, which is often stiff, angular, and abrupt in its delineation (as especially in Isaiah).

Expositor's Greek Testament

Acts 10:22. δίκαιος: “sensu Judaico” (Blass), cf. Luke 1:6; Luke 2:25; Luke 23:50.—μαρτ., see on Acts 6:3. τε closely joins it, as confirming the judgment. On construction with ὑπό in inscriptions, Deissmann, Neue Bibelstudien, p. 95.—ἔθνους τῶν Ἰ.: ἔθνος in the mouth of Gentiles, cf. Luke 7:5 and see above on Acts 4:25.—ἐχρηματίσθη: “was warned of God,” R.V., Matthew 2:12; Matthew 2:22, Luke 2:26, cf. Hebrews 8:5; Hebrews 11:7, and Jos., Ant., iii., 8, 8; see Westcott, Hebrews, p. 217. For use of the active in LXX, see Jeremiah 33 (26) 2, cf. also Acts 11:26.—ἁγίου: only here with ἀγγέλου, expressing the reverence of these pious men (Weiss).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

22. of good report among all the nation of the Jews] For the alms-deeds which he did, and on account of his reverence for the true God. They say not only among the people of Cæsarea was the piety of Cornelius known, but among all the Jews.

was warned from God] There is no Greek for “from God,” but the verb is one constantly used of messages from above. Thus of Joseph’s warnings (Matthew 2:12; Matthew 2:22), of Simeon’s Divine revelation (Luke 2:26), and of the admonitions sent to Moses (Hebrews 8:5), and to Noah (Hebrews 11:7).

to hear words of thee] i.e. to receive commandments from thee and learn what God would have him to do (cp. Acts 11:14). By the Jews the ten commandments are constantly called “the ten words,” “God spake these words, saying,” &c. (Exodus 20:1).

Bengel's Gnomen

Acts 10:22. Δίκαιος, just) Occupatio [The figure by which we anticipate an objection that might be started, and refute it: ἀνθυποφόρα].—μεταπέμψασθαι, to send for) Otherwise Cornelius himself would not have hesitated to come to Peter.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 22. - A centurion for the centurion, A.V.; righteous for just, A.V.; well reported of for of good report among, A.V.; of God (in italics) for from God (in roman), A.V.; a holy for an holy, A.V.; from thee for of thee, A.V. Righteous; as Matthew 1:19 (comp. the description of Cornelius in ver. 10). The mention here of his being well reported of by all the nation of the Jews is an additional trait (comp. Luke 7:2-5). For the expression, "of good report" (μαρτυρούμενος), see Acts 6:3, note. Of God. The rendering, "warned from God," however, fairly represents ἐχρηματίσθη, because χρηματίζομαι does not mean "to be warned," but "to be divinely warned." Ξρηματίζεσθαι παρὰ Θεοῦ ἀποκάλυψιν δέχεσθαι, (Theophylaet). See the frequent use of the word in the New Testament (Matthew 2:12; Luke 2:26; Hebrews 8:5; Hebrews 11:7, etc.). Josephus frequently uses the verb in the active voice in the same sense. To hear words from thee. A Hebrew turn of expression. Acts 10:22

Vincent's Word Studies

Was warned (ἐχρηματίσθη)

See on Matthew 2:12.