New Testament in a Year

Footnotes

1. Acts 10:1 The moment in which the Christian movement entered into the Gentile world was a major event for the Church. Luke speaks of God’s initiative that captures the world through the Resurrection and the Spirit and expresses itself in the dynamism with which the Lord animates the first community. To illustrate it, he elevates an account of conversion to the rank of an historic event and an irreversible theological fact. Indeed, it is the longest account in the Acts of the Apostles.
   Cornelius, a Roman official in Caesarea—the city that is the seat of government—is, along with his entire family, a “God-fearing” man, i.e., one who has accepted the beliefs and principal practices of Judaism, though not going so far as to share the Jewish way of life and become part of the people through circumcision.
   In his inner righteousness and generosity, Cornelius is recognized by God as suitable to enter into communication with him. However, to find the truth that he desires he must hear the announcement of the facts concerning Jesus from the mouth of eyewitnesses and thus must meet Peter—who is living some 30 miles away. Only then will these Gentiles master the word of Christ and make it their own through the inspiration of the Spirit (Acts 10:40).
   Thus, Cornelius is no longer the central figure of our account. Luke wishes to stress a fact: the initiative of God to liberate the Gospel from being shut up in the Jewish world. The community of Jerusalem, still bound by its Jewish ties, opens itself to the outside world by a series of encounters, but it is blocked from doing so by a redoubtable problem. The Jewishness of the first disciples prevents them from frequenting the Gentiles’ houses of prayer and from sharing their tables without incurring a legal uncleanness and violating the Law. How then can they live in community and partake in the Eucharist, for example?
   Must not the Gentiles first be made part of Israel through circumcision? In the face of the gift given by God to the Gentiles “as . . . upon us at the beginning” (Acts 11:15), in the face of this Pentecost of the Gentile nations (Acts 10:45), the community of Jerusalem must also be converted and realize that the religious and ritual appurtenances can no longer provide superiority or priority, that these are no longer to be regarded as a wall of separation—finally, that no person can be declared unclean (Acts 10:27).
   The text is carefully constructed. Each personage has a vision that presents itself as an enigma. Then it becomes clear in the concrete action, the encounter, and the mutual hospitality. Peter’s discourse is the pivotal point of the account. Like its predecessors (Acts 2:14-41; 3:11-26), it relates the major themes of the announcement of Jesus. The Spirit authenticates the word concerning Jesus and inspires Gentiles to become witnesses of the Resurrection.
   The concrete problems of the entry of Gentiles into the Church and of contacts between Jews and Gentiles will be definitively regulated at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:10, 19-21), but Paul will struggle all his life against the Judaizing practices and theories that tempt certain communities of Israelite origin (see Gal 2; 5). The encounter of Peter and Cornelius leads to the formation of the first Christian community made up of the two most difficult milieux: the Christian and the Gentile. Henceforth, the Church will no longer be able to shut herself up within her own confines.
2. Acts 10:1 Italian cohort: an auxiliary unit of soldiers.
3. Acts 10:3 Three o’clock: literally, “about the ninth hour.” This time period was a Jewish hour of prayer (see Acts 3:1).
4. Acts 10:9 The vision that now occurs makes it possible for Peter to sit down at table and eat with Gentiles without feeling any guilt. Hence, it is clear that at first not even the apostles fully understood the Lord’s teaching about the Law. However, with the aid of this vision and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit the apostles ultimately arrive at a fuller understanding.
5. Acts 10:9 Noon: literally, “about the sixth hour.”