Acts 10:29Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"Therefore, when I was sent for, I came without objection." He says this so they would not think that, although the matter was unlawful, he obeyed because Cornelius was a commander. Rather, all should ascribe it to God. For this reason he says that it is not permitted not only "to associate," but even "to draw near." "I ask, then: for what matter did you call me?" He asks not because he does not know. Peter knew everything from the vision and had heard it from the soldiers. But he wants them first to confess and dispose themselves toward faith. Therefore Peter said, "For what matter did you call me?" so that Cornelius might speak all these words.

"I ask you, then, for what reason did you send for me?" Peter had already heard everything from the soldiers, but he desires that they confess and be made upright in the faith.

While awaiting Peter, Cornelius gathered in his house his relatives and close friends, who were of course like him in piety and faith. He wished them also to hear the word of salvation.

When Peter approached his house on the day after leaving Joppa, Cornelius met him outside the house. With reverence he bowed down at his feet, as before a heavenly messenger.

But Peter raised him up, saying, “Stand up. I myself am also a man.”

Entering the house of Cornelius, Peter first explained to him and the others present why he had allowed himself to come to them.

As they also knew, according to the law of his people, as it was then understood and interpreted, he should not have entered into communion with Gentiles.

In consequence of such a revelation, Peter, having been summoned to an unclean Gentile, came to him without objection. He did not regard him as unclean, but believed in the possibility of his cleansing through faith in Christ.

“And so I ask,” and so forth. Peter had heard from Cornelius’s messengers the reason for their mission. Yet he wants to hear it from the lips of the one who sent them, or of those who sent them.

He does this “so that they themselves might confess and become upright in the faith” (Theophylact; cf. Chrysostom).

The apostle addresses not only Cornelius, but all who had gathered with him. He assumes that they are of one mind with Cornelius concerning the reason they invited him.

The Apostle Peter’s conversation with Cornelius began at their very meeting. When he entered the house, where many had gathered, he addressed his words to them all, hoping that all were of one mind with Cornelius.

His speech fully answers the urgent question of that time, both for him and for those around him. It concerns the relation of Christianity to the Gentiles.

The apostle explains that, according to Jewish customs, there should be no inward and spiritual communion with foreigners. At times there should not even be outward contact with them (cf. Jn 18:28).

Yet God had revealed to him that he must not regard anyone as unclean for admission into Christian communion. Therefore he had come here, wholly ready to serve them in the matter for which he had been called.