Acts 11:1Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

After this, “those of the circumcision contended,” not the apostles. What does “contended” mean? The writer says that they were greatly scandalized. See what they object to. They do not say, “Why did you preach to them?” but, “Why did you eat food with them?” Peter does not dwell on this cold remark, and truly it was cold. Instead, pointing to the great matter, he says: if they too received the Spirit, how could baptism not be given to them? Why did this not happen with the Samaritans, but the opposite? Not only did it not happen before baptism, but not even after baptism. And the believers from the Jews were not indignant at them. Rather, when they heard, they sent Peter and John for this very purpose (Acts 8:14-15).

The news of the event in the house of Cornelius quickly spread among the Christians and reached, among others, the Church of Jerusalem. There this news stirred up serious misunderstandings. Christians from the circumcision were perplexed, and even disturbed, above all because the Apostle Peter had allowed himself to enter the house of uncircumcised people and eat with them. Therefore, when Peter came to Jerusalem, they reproached him for what, in their opinion, was a defilement of himself through communion with Gentiles. But the Apostle Peter’s detailed account of all the extraordinary circumstances, in which God’s will concerning the Gentiles was expressed in this case, completely calmed their minds. All the Christians glorified God, saying that God had evidently granted repentance unto life to the Gentiles also.

The apostles and brethren in Judea heard, that is, Christians from the Jews who lived in various places of Judea heard, and so forth. The news of the event in Caesarea, in the house of Cornelius, quickly spread among the Christians in Judea. It reached the hearing of the apostles before Peter returned from Caesarea to Jerusalem. The way the author of Acts narrates this shows that the impression made by this report upon the apostles and the majority of Christians was favorable and joyful. It was to the glory of God that Gentiles too, not only Jews by birth and proselytes, had begun to receive the word of God. At the same time, the fact was generalized. The reception of Christianity by a few Gentiles was understood as the reception of Christianity by Gentiledom in general. Therefore it was not an exception, but a rule, and indeed a new rule, unexpected but welcome.

The reproach made against Peter by Christians from the circumcision, namely that he had communion with Gentiles and even ate with them, was only a pretext. It served to stir up a movement against equating Gentiles with Jews in their entrance into the bosom of the Church of Christ. This movement had such success that it later prompted the apostles to hold a conciliar judgment on the matter in chapter 15. Nor did it cease for a long time after this. For in this equality the abolition of almost all Old Testament rites became plainly manifest, and even more the abolition of Jewish religious customs founded on the tradition of not very ancient elders and rabbis. For many Christians from the Jews, it was very hard to part with all this ancestral inheritance.