Acts 11:15Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Therefore, when the Spirit was sending, and God was commanding, there by calling through an angel and here by urging and resolving the ambiguity of the matter, what had to be done? Yet Peter says none of this. Instead, he points to the subsequent event, which by itself was an undoubted testimony. Why, you will say, was that not the only testimony? Because of the overflowing power from God, so that it would be clear that the beginning of this matter was not from the apostle. If he had gone of himself and nothing of this kind had happened, they would have been exceedingly indignant. Therefore he prepares their minds from afar and says to them: "They received the Holy Spirit, just as we did." And again: "The Holy Spirit fell on them, just as on us at the beginning."

The news of the event in Cornelius's house quickly spread among the Christians and reached, among others, the Church of Jerusalem. There it stirred up serious misunderstandings. Christians from among the circumcised were perplexed and even indignant, above all because the Apostle Peter had allowed himself to go into the house of uncircumcised men and eat with them. Therefore, when Peter came to Jerusalem, they reproached him for what they regarded as defiling himself through fellowship with Gentiles. But the Apostle Peter's detailed account of all the extraordinary circumstances, in which God's will concerning the Gentiles was expressed, completely calmed their minds. All the Christians glorified God, saying that it was evident God had also granted the Gentiles repentance unto life.

"And as I began to speak." From this it is clear that Peter intended to say more than he did. But the sudden descent of the Holy Spirit upon those who listened made a fuller catechesis of the newly believing unnecessary for the time being. "As on us at the beginning," that is, on the day of Pentecost. Peter points to this with special insistence, repeating it further in verse 17: "the same gift as He gave to us when we believed." By this, of course, he chiefly means the gift of speaking in new and different tongues.

At the conclusion of his defensive account, the Apostle Peter says that, when the Holy Spirit descended upon Cornelius and those with him, he remembered the Lord's words about their baptism with the Holy Spirit (see Acts 1:5). By this, then, he explained the descent of the Holy Spirit before their visible baptism. Twice he likened it to the descent of the Holy Spirit upon themselves at the beginning, that is, on the day of Pentecost. It came with the same distinctive gift, namely tongues. Finally, he characteristically says: who was I, that I could withstand God, Who had done all this? According to blessed Theophylact, "in defending himself against his accusers, Peter strongly and severely puts them to shame. I could not, he says, forbid this.