Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 9:32

And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all [quarters,] he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda.

32 35. Peter heals a paralytic at Lydda

32. as Peter passed throughout all quarters ] The history now turns from Saul to Peter, to shew us that when the former had been prepared for his special work the latter was taught by revelation that the time had arrived for the next and complete extension of the Church among all nations. Peter had been labouring, as no doubt all the rest of the twelve also (for we have seen that only two were at Jerusalem when Saul came thither), in building up the Churches in Juda and Samaria, and the narrative of two miracles which follow in the history makes intelligible to us the position of Peter when Cornelius is warned to send for him.

he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda ] On saints, see above on Act 9:13.

Lydda ] The Hebrew Lod, 1Ch 8:12. It was afterwards called Diospolis. It was near to Joppa, and a day’s journey from Jerusalem. Josephus ( Antiq. xx. 6. 2) calls it “a village not less than a city in largeness.”

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

To the saints – To the Christians.

Which dwelt at Lydda – This town was situated on the road from Jerusalem to Caesarea Philippi. It was about 10 or 12 miles southeast from Joppa, and belonged to the tribe of Ephraim. It was called by the Greeks Diospolis, or city of Jupiter, probably because a temple was at some period erected to Jupiter in that city. It is now so entirely ruined as to be a miserable village. Since the Crusades, it has been called by the Christians George, on account of its having been the scene of the martyrdom of a saint of that name. Tradition says that in this city the Emperor Justinian erected a church.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Act 9:32-43

And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda.

Lydda

The Lud of the Old Testament (1Ch 8:12; Ezr 2:33; Neh 7:37; Neh 11:35), was a town in the rich plain of Sharon, one days journey from Jerusalem, founded originally by settlers from the tribe of Benjamin, and retaining to the present day its old name as Ludd. It is mentioned by Josephus (Wars, 3:3, sec. 5) as transferred by Demetrius Soter, at the request of Judas Maccabeus, to the estate of the temple at Jerusalem (1Ma 10:30; 1Ma 01:38; 1Ma 11:34). Under the grasping rule of Cassius, the inhabitants were sold as slaves (Jos., Ant. 14:11, sec. 2). It had, however, recovered its former prosperity, and appears at this time to have been the seat of a flourishing Christian community. In the wars that preceded the destruction of Jerusalem it was partially burned by Cestius Gallus, A.D. 66 (Jos., Wars, 2:19, sec. 1), all but fifty of the inhabitants having gone up to the Feast of Tabernacles at Jerusalem, and was again occupied by Vespasian, A.D. 68 (Jos., Wars, 2:8, sec. 1). When it was rebuilt, probably under Hadrian, when Jerusalem received the new name of AElla Capitolina, it also was renamed as Diospolis (= city of Zeus), and as such was the seat of one of the chief bishoprics of the Syrian Church. It was, at the time when Peter came to it, the seat of a Rabbinic school. Gamaliel, son of the great rabbi who was St. Pauls master, and himself honoured with the title of Rabban, presided over it, and was succeeded by the great Tarphon. The question which we naturally ask, who had planted the faith of Christ there, carries us once more on the track of Philip the Evangelist. Lying as it did on the road from Azotus to Caesarea, it would lie in his way on the journey recorded in Act 8:40, as he passed through all the cities; and we may believe, without much risk, that he was Lukes informant as to what passed in the Church with which he was so closely connected. (Dean Plumptre.)

Summarised service

I. How did there happen to be any saints at Lydda? That place does not appear before. There are saints in unexpected places. Yet not unexpected to the attentive reader. Lydda lay between Azotus and Caesarea (Act 8:40), and Philip no doubt had founded a Church there. How summarily our work is occasionally mentioned: In many a hurried phrase there are service and suffering, trial and triumph, which only God can recognise. We hear it said of the minister, that he called and offered prayer. By the clock it was but a few minutes, but into those minutes he condensed the experience of a lifetime, and spared not the blood of his very heart. Suspect any epitome which counts but as small dust the details which make up the service and suffering of the Christian toiler.

II. Peter found his way to the saints. How? Do we not all find out our otherselves in every city to which we go? When the surveyor would find out metallic strata, he takes the, magnet, and sees how it dips, and says, Here you will find what you are in quest of. We pine for our own, and fall with second naturalness into the ways of the company of which we form a part. It would do some of us good if we could be shut up with savages for a few days. How we should then yearn for the most defective Christian we ever knew!

III. The saints are nameless. There is something better than a name. There is character. There you find no personal renown, but you find a solid quantity of spiritual being. It is towards that estate we should constantly be moving, to the great republic of common holiness.

IV. Peter found the man who is to be found in every city. Locally called AEneas, but everywhere called the sick man. The genus remains unhealed–a continual appeal to the Petrine spirit. We are not all in the front rank of the ministry; because we cannot do the first and supreme class of work, it does not follow that we are to sit idle. You can bring to AEneas the Christian friend, and there is no grief but one that cannot be mitigated by Christian love. We hear nothing of Peters doings here except this miracle; but as Philip had done much at Lydda without any record, so Peter may have done much beside this miracle. The miracle itself was a sermon. For all that dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him, and turned to the Lord.

V. Now we come to Joppa, where there dwelt a woman who was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did.

1. She died! How is that? There are some people whom we almost wish would die, and die they will not; and others whom we want to live always wither and die. There seems to be such a waste of nobility and service in this mysterious Providence. But we may be wrong in that outlook as we are in others. Why should not the good ship land? Why should we shed tears when the noble life vessel touches the shore? It is so that God trains us, prunes us, and prepares us for the wider revelation and the higher service.

2. Peter was sent for. He came the nine miles to see what could be done. How natural was this. There are times when the strong man is sent for, and these are times of darkness, trouble, personal and social despair. But there is always a strong man to send for. In that sense we must have all things common, and none must say that ought that he has belongs to himself alone. It is in this spirit of Christian communism that we must keep society from putrefaction and souls from despair. There is a hint of the One who sticketh closer than a brother. When your house is very dark, send for Jesus. But you are not to wait for such crises. Send for Him today, when the table is laden with flowers and every corner of the dwelling is ablaze with His own sunlight. Beautiful was the scene in that house at Joppa (verse. 39).

3. How did these widows come to be thus associated? Who took any interest in their welfare? If you read again chap. 6. you will find arrangements made for needy widows, and to the name of Philip. So this man lives in his works. At Lydda he founded a Christian society; at Joppa he organised help for widows. Philip does not appear before us in name; but he leaves behind him memorials of his wisdom and beneficence.

4. How is it that we like the garments better when the seamstress is dead than when she was making them? That is a fact everywhere. The little childs toy becomes infinitely precious when the tiny player can no longer handle it. And the two little shoes are the most precious property in the house when the little feet that wore them are set away in Gods acre. Let us love one another whilst we live! Not a word do I say against the sentiment which enlarges the actions of the dead, but I would speak a word for those who are sitting next you and making your own house glad by their deft fingers and loving hearts.

5. Now we come to the first miracle of the kind to which apostolic strength was summoned. Up to this time the apostles had been healing divers diseases; but now the apostles grapple without the visible Christ with actual death. We may well pause here in the excitement of a great anxiety. Peter put them all forth. That was what Christ did! Some battles may be fought in public, others have to be fought in solitude; so Peter put them all forth. Thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, etc. Have you ever prayed in the death chamber with none there but the dead friend? How eloquent has been your dumbness! When you were weak, then were you strong. And–oh, conjunctive that makes one tremble!–turning to the body, now is the critical moment, said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. Let your miracles come through your prayers. Let your prayers always end in the amen of a miracle. What is the use of your solitude and your prayer, if when you turn round you cannot work some miracle of love? (J. Parker, D. D.)

Peter at Lydda

Look at this miracle–

I. As expressing the genius of Christianity. AEneas, a wretched sufferer for eight long years, Peter restored to health, thus expressing the benign spirit of the new religion. Christianity is–

1. The offspring of mercy. It is a stream from the eternal fountain of love.

2. The revealer of mercy. Herein is love, etc.

3. The organ of mercy. Through it humanity is to be redeemed from all evil.

II. As symbolising the mission of Christianity. It was a restorative miracle. The mission of Christianity is restorative. Christ came to seek and to save. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. It does not create new faculties; but it restores the soul–

1. To Gods knowledge.

2. To Gods fellowship.

3. To Gods image.

III. As indicating the power of Christianity. Jesus Christ maketh thee whole, etc.

1. The restorative power is derived from Christ.

2. It is derived from Christ by faith.

IV. As representing the influence of Christianity. Men turned to the Lord. This is to turn–

1. From the creature to the Creator.

2. From the destroyer to the Restorer.

3. From the wrong and miserable to the holy and happy. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

AEneas

I. Was truly sick.

1. Had he not been really sick, the incident would have been a piece of imposture; but he was hopelessly infirm. Now, as there is no room for a great cure unless there is a great sickness, so there is no room for Gods great grace unless there is great sin. Jesus Christ did not come into the world to save sham, but real sinners.

2. The man had been paralysed eight years. The length of its endurance is a terrible element in a disease. Perhaps yours is no eight years malady, but twenty-eight, or forty-eight, or, perhaps, eighty-eight years have you been in bondage under it. Well, the number of years cannot prevent the mercy of God from making us whole. You have a very long bill to discharge, while another friend has but a short one; but it is just as easy for the creditor to write paid at the bottom of the large bill as the smaller one.

3. His disease was incurable, AEneas could not restore himself, and no human physician could do anything for him. Your souls wound is incurable. There is no soul physician except at Calvary; no balm but in the Saviours wounds.

II. Knew something about Jesus; because, otherwise, when Peter said, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole, AEneas would have inquired what he meant. Now, lest there should be one here who does not know Jesus Christ, and how it is that He is able to heal sin-sick souls, let us briefly tell the old, old story over again.

III. Believed on the Lord Jesus.

1. He did not believe in Peter as the healer. Peter does not say, As the head of the Church, I, by power delegated to me, make thee whole. Peter preached too clear a gospel for that. That is the purest gospel which has the least of man in it, and the most of Christ.

2. Much less had he any faith in himself. He did not say to Peter, But I do not feel strength enough to get well; nor I think I do feel power enough to shake off this palsy. Peters message took him off from himself. Jesus Christ maketh thee whole. That was what the man had to believe; and it is what you also must believe.

3. With his faith AEneas had the desires which showed that it was not mere speculation, but solid practical believing; he anxiously wished to be made whole. Oh, that sinners anxiously wished to be saved! I never heard of men reckoning a cancer to be a jewel; but there are many who look upon their sins as if they were gems, so that they will sooner lose heaven than part with their lustful pleasures.

4. And what did AEneas believe?

(1) That Jesus could heal him, AEneas. John Brown, do you believe that Jesus Christ can cure you? I do not care what your faith is about your wifes ease. Can you grip that, and reply, Yes, He is able to save me?

(2) That Jesus Christ was able to save him there and then, just as he was. He had not taken a course of physic, nor been under galvanism to strengthen his nerves and sinews, and prepare him to be cured, but he believed that Jesus Christ could save him without any preparation. When you think what Christ is, and what He has done, it ought not to be difficult to believe this.

IV. Was made whole. Just fancy, for a minute, what would have been the result if he had not been made whole.

1. What dishonour it would have been to Peter! Peter said, AEneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole; but there lies AEneas as palsied as before. Everybody would say, Peter is a false witness.

2. What dishonour would have been brought upon the name of Jesus! Suppose you were to believe in Jesus, and yet were not saved. Then He has broken His word, or lost His power to save, either of which we are unwilling to tolerate for a minute. If thou believest in Jesus Christ, as surely as thou livest Jesus Christ has saved thee.

3. Then the gospel would not be true. Shut up those churches, banish those ministers, burn those Bibles; there is no truth in any of them if a soul can believe in Jesus and yet not be saved.

V. After he was healed, acted conformably. Peter said unto him Arise, and make thy bed; and he did so directly, Now, if any of you say tonight, I have believed in Jesus, remember you are bound to prove it. You are to go home and show people how whole you are. This man had been lying there eight years, and could never make his bed; but he proved he was healed by making his bed for himself. You will have to prove this by–

1. A consistent, holy life.

2. An unselfish life. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Peter working miracles

I. At lydda.

1. Peter came to the saints at Lydda–an early and favourite title for the disciples of Christ. It has no official application, but belongs equally to all believers, and no disciple should shrink from it. Its primary and principal sense is one set apart as sacred. Believers are called saints, not because they are of eminent sanctity, but because they are set apart as sacred to God. This primary meaning, however, implies the secondary, subjective sense of moral holiness. It is to be regretted that the abuse of this inspired name should have led the Reformed Church into neglect of its apostolic use.

2. In the Church at Lydda, Peter found a case of incurable paralysis. Christianity, by removing causes and supplying antidotes, reduces the area and violence of physical diseases. But the gospel is designed chiefly for the more terrible moral diseases of mankind. Would it impugn the fair name of AEneas if we regard him as the type of a paralysed believer or Church?

3. The profit of faithful pastoral visitation is seen in the discovery of paralysing conditions. This palsy may be any evil quality of character or life sufficient to prevent spiritual activity and growth. There is but one relief–in a miracle of grace, a revival stirring all the depths of the soul.

4. AEneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole; arise, upright, make use of the power Jesus gives thee; prove thyself sound by the activities of a healthy life; show to all the saving power of Jesus Christ by acting as one whom He has saved. Peter does not mention himself, but acts in the meekness of a true servant. He thus presents an admirable example of that combination of modesty and power so characteristic of real greatness.

5. The faith of Peter in the power of Jesus is manifest, not only in the positive declaration of what Jesus was doing for AEneas, but also in the imperative arise given to one hitherto paralytic. The faith which works miracles on the bodies of men no longer remains with the ministry; but that is of small account to the faith that works miracles on the souls of men.

6. Though no mention is made of the faith of AEneas, it appears in its fruit. The human source of that faith was the faith of Peter. Did all who undertake to speak in the name of Jesus Christ do it with firm conviction in the presence and power of Jesus to save, their faith would never fail to be fruitful in the faith and conversion of others.

7. There was no concealment on the part of AEneas of the Christian work effected in him. The fame of his healing spread through all the region. The multitude thronged to see the paralytic, now whole; and when they learned the Divine name in which it was effected, they were converted, and openly took their stand with the Church of Christ. This result, so natural and logical, is a reason why a converted man should make known Christs work within him.

II. At Joppa.

1. The apostolic visitation of Peter was an upward as well as onward progress, a rising from one great work to a greater, until its sublime culmination in the house of Cornelius. In the Church at Joppa was a prominent disciple. Among her Syrian friends she was known as Tabitha, her Greek acquaintances called her Dorcas, while we would have spoken of her as the Gazelle. The graceful form and pliant movement, and large, gentle, loving eyes of the gazelle, after all, do not express such attractive beauty as the portrait of Dorcas: a woman full of good works and almsdeeds; nor does the rarest physical beauty ever gain such a hold on human affection as is portrayed in the pathetic grief of this Church of Joppa over her untimely death.

2. New Testament biography is brief, but comprehensive. Two pen strokes describe the supernatural workmanship in Dorcas–she was a disciple and a saint. She was Mary and Martha in one–as a disciple, she sat at Jesus feet; as a saint, she served Jesus in ministrations of charity. A disciple, she confessed Jesus; a saint, she consecrated herself, in all her possessions and capabilities, to Christ. She did not aspire to the place of teacher or ruler, but took a natural sphere in the abundant and varied womanly work of the Church. Dorcas presents a model worthy the study of every Christian woman.

3. She was sick and died. This chamber of death is to witness what has been often witnessed since–a natural side, the gloom and grief and agony of bereaved affection; and the supernatural side–the wrestling prayer and submissive comfort of faith in the assured rest and resurrection of the dead.

4. And then the stricken Church sent for Peter. They were expecting no miracle. It was too late for the exertion of the power of a healing like that of AEneas. They were in sore need of light and comfort, and they turned to one on whom Jesus had bestowed other and greater gifts than physical healing. The apostle left a happy and rejoicing Church at Lydda; it was a sad and tearful congregation that greeted him at Joppa. It was said her loss was irreparable. But we know better: Providence is not limited to one Dorcas, or two. The fruit of the Spirit is ever ripening. We do daily meet sisters of charity–not, indeed, flaunting a pharisaic zeal in the garb of a religious order, but dressed as women ought to be–who consecrate their means and time in sacrifices of beneficence.

4. Peter desired to be alone with the dead. Was it the instinct of Christian meekness, or recalling the example of Jesus in the house of Jairus? The crowded presence of this weeping company was not in harmony with the great emotion now surging in the apostles heart. Alone, he would be more free in prayer for the guidance of Jesus in this crisis. The thoughtful minister, when preparing for Christian work–all the more if it be unusual or critical–prays in the closet, and not before men. Nor does Peter appeal to Jesus in vain.

5. How natural is the story of this resurrection! The eyes of the Gazelle once more open. He presented her to the Church alive, her old life of love, sympathy, and beneficence. She would not be less a Christian for having been in Paradise. A few hours of heaven, as was the case with Paul, and John, and Tennent, gives new motives and fresh impulses to Christian consecration.

6. The news thrilled the Church with joy, and all Joppa with wonder. This is not recorded to meet the demands of scepticism, but because of the effect of the miracle on the activity of the Church, and on the many who believed and were added to the saints; to conduct and confirm which work Peter tarried many days in Joppa.

7. If the life of Dorcas was a blessing to the Church and world, even more fruitful of good was her death. It roused the Church through grief and surprise to tears of repentance, gratitude, and love. It led them to confession and prayer in seeking heavenly sympathy and comfort. The awakening of her body was the awakening of many sleeping souls to life in Jesus Christ. Let the Church hear the cry, Arise! awake at the word to the work of Jesus. (G. C. Heckman, D. D.)

Peter working miracles

We are told that faith in miracles is passing away. No doubt in some quarters it is; and unhappily the same is to be said of much else that is good and true. It does not follow, however, that such faith is opposed to human reason, nor that it is likely ever to lose its hold on the human heart. It is certain that, if there be a personal God, He can reveal His presence by signs and wonders; and equally certain that, if occasion requires, He will.

I. The time was a season of rest. Saul of Tarsus had been converted; the storm of persecution had subsided; and Peter, with unresting activity, was on a round of Church inspection, imparting courage, and working miracles of convincing and persuasive power.

II. The scene was northwest from Jerusalem. Lydda was from Jerusalem about a days journey. Joppa, nine miles beyond. At both these places there were Churches. So rapid had been the progress of the faith in Jesus!

III. The subjects were both alike and unlike. The one was a paralytic; the other, a dead disciple greatly beloved for her good works. Both were well known, and known to be beyond human help. Again, while one was a beloved disciple, there is no evidence that the other was a disciple at all. For aught that appears, AEneas was a common sinner, who had heard of Jesus, but had never attached himself to the company of His followers. Thus the miracle was not only an unmistakable work of Divine power, but also the outgoing of Christian love.

IV. The manner. These wonders were wrought by Peter indeed, but in the name and power of another. Never did the apostles claim to work by any other power than that of Jesus.

V. The purpose was two fold. In part it was the simple relief of suffering and cure of sorrow. But Peter had a deeper purpose. If miracles were immediately beneficial, they were also and specially signs. And, with the apostles, they were signs not only of Gods approval of their teachings and work, but also of the continued presence and power of Jesus.

VI. The result. Their two-fold purpose was accomplished. Not only was suffering relieved and sorrow turned to joy, but far and near it was seen and owned that Jesus was still at hand and mighty to save.

VII. Practical considerations.

1. Jesus is still a living and acting Presence with His people. The continued nearness of Christ is the hope and strength of the individual believer, the warrant of the Church in its aggressive work, and the pledge of its final victory.

2. The breadth of our Christian work. Our Saviour had it as a part of His mission to relieve physical distress. He commissioned His disciples to do the same. More than this, by precept and example He planted the spirit of human kindness in the hearts of His followers. Straightway it began to show itself in them. It did not more truly appear in the miracles of Peter than it did in the good works and almsdeeds of Dorcas. Already this has wrought great changes in the face of society; but by no means has all been accomplished which needs to be done. This, then, is a part of the service which the Master expects of His present followers. The redemption He proposes is for the whole man–body, soul, and spirit.

3. One important way to promote religious conversions and revivals. It was the love, as well as the Divine power, which shone in the miracles of Peter, which won the hearts of so many at Lydda and Joppa. Often does the missionary first win his way to Pagan hearts by ministries of bodily healing.

4. The crowning aim in all Christian service. With the Saviour, this was never the mere relief of physical suffering or trouble. He would have them know that He had power to forgive sins, and raise the spiritually dead to life eternal. So it was Peters supreme purpose to multiply and confirm Christian converts. (Sermons by the Monday Club.)

Working like Christ

These two miracles are both evidently moulded upon Christs miracles; are distinct imitations of what Peter had seen Him do. And their likenesses to and differences from our Lords manner of working are equally noteworthy.

I. First, notice the similarities and the lesson they teach. The two cases before us are alike in that both of them find parallels in our Lords miracles. The one is the cure of a paralytic. The raising of Dorcas corresponds with the three resurrections of the dead people which are recorded in the Gospels. And now, note the likenesses. Jesus Christ said to the paralysed man, Arise, take up thy bed. Peter said to AEneas, Arise, and make thy bed. The one command was appropriate to the circumstances of a man who was not in his own house; the other a man bed-ridden in his own house. And then, if we turn to the other narrative, the intentional moulding of the manner of the miracle, consecrated in the eyes of the loving disciple, because it was Christs manner, is still more obvious. Well now, although we are no miracle workers, the very same principle which underlay these two works of supernatural power is to be applied to all our work, and to our lives as Christian people. I do not know whether Peter meant to do like Jesus Christ or not; I rather think that he was unconsciously dropping into the fashion that to him was so sacred. Love always delights in imitation; and the disciples of a great teacher will unconsciously catch the trick of his intonation, the peculiarities of his way of looking at things–only, unfortunately, outsides are a good deal more easily imitated than insides. Get near Jesus Christ, and you will catch His manner. Love Him, and love will do to you what it does to many a wedded pair, and to many kindred hearts, it will transfuse into you something of the characteristics of the object of your love. It is impossible to trust Christ, to obey Christ, to hold communion with Him, and to live beside Him, without becoming like Him. And if such be our inward experience, so will be our outward appearance. Jesus Christ, when He went through the wards of the hospital of the world, was overflowing with quick sympathy for every sorrow that met His eye. If you or I are living near Him we shall never steel our hearts nor lock up our sensibilities against any suffering that it is within our power to stanch or to alleviate. Jesus Christ never grudged trouble, never thought of Himself, newer was impatient of interruption, never repelled importunity, never sent away empty any outstretched hand.

II. Further, note the differences and the lessons from them. Take the first of the two miracles. AEneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole: arise, and make thy bed. That first clause points to the great difference. Take the second of the two, Jesus Christ put them all forth, and stretched out His hand, and said, Damsel, arise! Peter put them all forth,and said, Damsel (Tabitha), arise! But between the putting forth and the miracle he did something which Christ did not do, and he did not do something which Christ did do. He kneeled down and prayed. And Jesus Christ did not do that. And Peter put forth his hand after the miracle was wrought; not to communicate life, but to help the living woman. Christ works miracles by His inherent power; His servants do their works only as His instruments and organs. The lesson, then, of the difference is that Christian men, in all their work for the Master, and for the world, are ever to keep clear before themselves, and to make very obvious to other people, that they are nothing more than channels and instruments. The less the preacher, the teacher, the Christian benefactor of any sort puts himself in the foreground, or in evidence at all, the more likely are his words and works to be successful. And then, further, another lesson is, be very sure of the power that will work in you. What a piece of audacity it was for Peter to go and stand by the paralytic mans couch and say, AEneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole! Yes, audacity; unless he had been in such constant and close touch with his Master that he was sure that the Master was working through him. And is it not beautiful to see how absolutely confident he is that Jesus Christs work was not done when He went up into heaven; but that there, in that little stuffy room, where the man had laid motionless for eight long years, Jesus Christ is present, and working? But do we believe that He is verily putting forth His power, in no metaphor, but in simple reality, at present and here, and, if we will, through us? We are here for the very purpose for which Peter was in Lydda and Joppa–to carry on and copy the healing and the quickening work of Christ by His present power, and after His blessed example. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 32. As Peter passed throughout all quarters] , Bp. Pearce thinks, should be translated, not through all quarters, but through all the saints. The Churches having rest, the apostles made use of this interval of quiet to visit the different congregations, in order to build them up on their most holy faith. Of Saul we hear no more till Ac 11:30, which is supposed to be about five years after this time; eight in all from his conversion. Peter, it seems, had continued in Jerusalem all the time that the Churches were in a state of persecution throughout the whole land. Great as he was, he never evidenced that steady determinate courage by which St. Paul was so eminently distinguished; nor did he ever suffer half so much for God and his truth.

To the saints] The Jews, who had been converted to Christianity.

Which dwelt at Lydda.] A town in the tribe of Ephraim, almost on the border of Judea, and nigh unto Joppa: it was about ten leagues from Jerusalem, and was afterwards known by the name of Diospolis, or the city of Jupiter.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Throughout all quarters, where the disciples that were dispersed had planted churches.

Saints: see Act 9:13.

Lydda; a little town about the west bank of the Jordan, not far from the Mediterranean Sea.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

32-35. as Peter passed throughoutall quartersnot now fleeing from persecution, but peacefullyvisiting the churches.

to the saints which dwelt atLyddaabout five miles east of Joppa.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And it came to pass, as Peter passed through all quarters,…. The Arabic version reads, “all the foresaid places”, as Judea, Galilee, and Samaria; through which he took a tour, in order to visit the new churches here planted, fix pastors over them, and confirm the Gospel by miracles, which they had received:

he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda: a city which lay on the west of Jerusalem, and is said u to be a day’s Journey from it; and a day’s journey were ten parsas, or forty miles w: it was but thirty two miles from Jerusalem, and was a place famous for Jewish doctors; for which reason it is frequently mentioned in the Talmudic writings, under the name of Lod or Lud. Mention is made of R. Simlai, who was of Lydda x, and of the chambers of Beth Nithzah, and of Arum in Lydda y where the doctors disputed; there was a school here, of which R. Akiba was president z here also the sanhedrim sometimes sat, since we are told that Ben Sutda was tried and stoned at Lud or Lydda a; and here likewise they intercalated the year b, it being in Judea: this place was situated in a plain; so says Jerom c,

“they that dwell in Sephela, that is, in the plain, Lydda and Emmaus, which design Diospolls and Nicopolis, shall possess the Philistines.”

And with this agrees the account the Talmudists d give of it,

“the country of Judea was divided into three parts, the hill country, the plain, and the valley; from Bethhoron to Emmaus was the hill country; from Emmaus to Lydda was the plain or champaign country; and from Lydda to the sea, the valley.”

Hence also we read e of , “the plain of Lydda”: and now Peter coming from Jerusalem, and the hill country of Judea, into this plain and champaign country, is properly said to come down to the saints there. So Quadratus in Josephus f is said to come up from Lydda to Jerusalem. This place was near the Mediterranean sea; and was in Jerom’s time called Diospolis g, and in the time of R. Benjamin h Seguras; it is the same with Lod in Ezr 2:33 The builder of it was Shamed the son of Elpaal, 1Ch 8:12. It was in the times of Josephus i a village, yet not inferior to a city for greatness. It is now called S. Georgia. And here it seems some saints or Christians dwelt, whom Peter, among the rest, visited; and which is mentioned for the sake of the miracle he there wrought, next related. And these saints at Lydda very likely were converted under Philip’s ministry, as he passed from Azotus to Caesarea, Ac 8:40 and, it may be, were in a church state, or, however, were afterwards. Zenas the lawyer, the Apostle Paul speaks of in Tit 3:13 is said to be bishop of Diospolis, or Lydda; in the beginning of the fourth century Aetius was bishop of this place, who assisted in the council of Nice; and in the same century, anno 331, Dionysius, another bishop of this place, was present at a council at Constantinople; and in the fifth century Photinus wrote himself bishop of Lydda, in the Chalcedon council, anno 451 k.

u Misn. Maasersheni, c. 5. sect. 2. T. Bab. Betza, fol. 5. 1. & Roshhashana, fol. 31. 2. & Juchasin, fol. 37. 1. w T. Bab. Pesachim, fol. 93. 2. & Gloss. in ib. x Juchasin, fol. 105. 1. y T. Bab. Kiddushin, fol. 40. 2. T. Hieros. Pesachim, fol. 30. 2. z Misn. Roshhashana, c. 1. sect. 6. a T. Hieros. Sanhedrin, fol. 25. 4. b Ib. fol. 18. 3. c In Obad. 1. 19. d T. Hicros. Sheviith, fol. 38. 4. e Misn. Sheviith, c. 9. sect. 2. f De Bello Jud. l. 2. c. 12. sect. 8. g Epitaph. Paulae, fol. 59. A. h ltinerar. p. 52. i Antiqu. l. 20. c. 5. sect. 2. k Reland. Palestina Illustrata, 1. 3. p. 878, 879. Vid. Magdeburg. Hist. Eccles. cent. 4. c. 2. p. 2. cent. 5. c. 2. p. 2.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The Cure of neas.

      32 And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda.   33 And there he found a certain man named neas, which had kept his bed eight years, and was sick of the palsy.   34 And Peter said unto him, neas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole: arise, and make thy bed. And he arose immediately.   35 And all that dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him, and turned to the Lord.

      Here we have, I. The visit Peter made to the churches that were newly planted by the dispersed preachers, v. 32. 1. He passed through all quarters. As an apostle, he was not to be the resident pastor of any one church, but the itinerant visitor of many churches, to confirm the doctrine of inferior preachers, to confer the Holy Ghost on those that believed, and to ordain ministers. He passed dia panton—among them all, who pertained to the churches of Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, mentioned in the foregoing chapter. He was, like his Master, always upon the remove, and went about doing good; but still his head-quarters were at Jerusalem, for there we shall find him imprisoned, ch. xii. 2. He came to the saints at Lydda. This seems to be the same with Lod, a city in the tribe of Benjamin, mentioned 1Ch 8:12; Ezr 2:33. The Christians are called saints, not only some particular eminent ones, as saint Peter and saint Paul, but every sincere professor of the faith of Christ. These are the saints on the earth, Ps. xvi. 3.

      II. The cure Peter wrought on Eneas, a man that had been bedridden eight years, v. 33. 1. His case was very deplorable: He was sick of the palsy, a dumb palsy, perhaps a dead palsy. The disease was extreme, for he kept his bed; it was inveterate, for he kept his bed eight years; and we may suppose that both he himself and all about him despaired of relief for him, and concluded upon no other than that he must still keep his bed till he removed to his grave. Christ chose such patients as this, whose disease was incurable in a course of nature, to show how desperate the case of fallen mankind was when he undertook their cure. When we were without strength, as this poor man, he sent his word to heal us. 2. His cure was very admirable, v. 34. (1.) Peter interested Christ in his case, and engaged him for his relief: Eneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole. Peter does not pretend to do it himself by any power of his own, but declares it to be Christ’s act and deed, directs him to look up to Christ for help, and assures him of an immediate cure–not, “He will make thee,” but, “He does make thee, whole;” and a perfect cure–not, “He makes thee easy,” but “He makes thee whole.” He does not express himself by way of prayer to Christ that he would make him whole, but as one having authority from Christ, and that knew his mind, he declares him made whole. (2.) He ordered him to bestir himself, to exert himself: “Arise and make thy bed, that all may see thou art thoroughly cured.” Let none say that because it is Christ that by the power of his grace works all our works in us therefore we have no work, no duty, to do; for, though Jesus Christ makes thee whole, yet thou must arise and make use of the power he gives thee: “Arise, and make thy bed, to be to thee no longer a bed of sickness, but a bed of rest.” (3.) Power went along with this word: he arose immediately, and no doubt very willingly made his own bed.

      III. The good influence this had upon many (v. 35): All that dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him, and turned to the Lord. We can scarcely think that every individual person in those countries took cognizance of the miracle, and was wrought upon by it; but many, the generality of the people in the town of Lydda and in the country of Saron, or Sharon, a fruitful plain or valley, of which it was foretold, Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, Isa. lxv. 10. 1. They all made enquiry into the truth of the miracle, did not overlook it, but saw him that was healed, and saw that it was a miraculous cure that was wrought upon him by the power of Christ, in his name, and with a design to confirm and ratify that doctrine of Christ which was now preached to the world. 2. They all submitted to the convincing proof and evidence there was in this of the divine origin of the Christian doctrine, and turned to the Lord, to the Lord Jesus. They turned from Judaism to Christianity; they embraced the doctrine of Christ, and submitted to his ordinances, and turned themselves over to him to be ruled and taught and saved by him.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

Lydda (). In O.T. Lod (1Ch 8:12) and near Joppa. Later Diospolis.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Lydda. The Lod of the Old Testament (Ezr 2:33); about a day’s journey from Jerusalem.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

Peter Healed Aeneas in Lydda, V. 32-35

1) “And it came to pass,” (egeneto de) “Then it came to be,” it occurred that,

2) “As Peter passed throughout all quarters,” (Petron dierchomenon dia panton) “That as Peter was passing through all quarters or parts,” of Judaea, Samaria, and Galilee, visiting the various congregations, local assemblies, or churches, Act 9:31; Act 8:14; Act 8:25; Act 8:40.

3) “He came down also to the saints,” (katelthein kai pros tous hagious) “He also came to the saints,” members of the church or holy ones of the church. The term “the saints” referred not to unbaptized or unfellowshipping believers in New Testament times, but to baptized church fellowshipping believers in various localities as church bodies covenanted to carry on a program of worship and service of Christ, Jud 1:3; Eph 4:12-16; Never to the sum total of all believers.

4) “Which dwelt at Lydda,” (tous katoikountas Ludda) “To those who resided in Lydda,” who held a program of worship and service regularly in Lydda, Act 9:35; Act 9:38. All saints are believers, but all believers are not saints; just as all fathers are men, but all men are not fathers; all sheep are animals, but all animals are not sheep; see? One becomes a child of God by faith in Jesus Christ, Gal 3:26, but not a saint or church member, by faith in Christ alone, Eph 2:8-10. The term “saint,” while derived from the (Gk. hagios) “holy” does not imply that when one is born again, receives an holy nature, or he by that alone becomes a saint, a member of the church, or the body of Christ, in any sense.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

32. Luke setteth down how the Church was increased by miracles. And he reciteth two miracles: That a man who had been bedrid eight years, having the palsy, was suddenly healed; and that a certain woman was raised from death. First, he saith, that as Peter walked throughout all, he came to Lydda. And by all understand not Churches, but the faithful, because it is in Greek of the masculine gender, though that skilleth not much for the sense. And it was meet that the apostles, who had no certain place of abode, should wander hither and thither as occasion was offered. Wherefore, whilst they are all occupied in divers parts, Peter took upon him this charge, whereby the foolishness of the Papists is refuted, who gather Peter’s primacy by the authority which he had to visit; as if the rest of the apostles did live idly at Jerusalem like private men, when Peter did visit the Churches. Again, admit we grant that Peter was the chief apostle, which thing the Scripture showeth oftentimes, doth it thereupon follow that he was the head of the world? But would to God the bishop of Rome, who will be counted Peter’s successor, would travel as he did to animate the brethren, and would every where prove indeed that he is the apostle of Christ. Now, he which out of his throne doth with more than tyrannous lordship oppress all the Churches, pretendeth that Peter did visit the Churches with great pains.

Which dwelt at Lydda. Lydda, which was afterward called Diospolis, was situated not far from the Mediterranean Sea, being a renowned city as well for antiquity as also for many gifts. Joppa was nigh to this city, which had a famous haven, though very full of rocks. The city itself stood upon a high cliff, whence they might see to Jerusalem. At this day there is nothing to be seen there but the ruinous walls of the old city, save only that the haven remaineth, which they call most commonly Japhet. It should seem that Luke nameth Assaron as some town or city. Jerome mentioneth Saron, and thinketh that thereby is meant the whole plain lying between Cesarea and Joppa. But because Jerome showeth no reason why he should change the reading which is commonly used, I admit that willingly which Luke’s text showeth me, to wit, that it was a city hard by. But I do not contend about this matter; as I do not ambitiously gather those things which may serve for a vain brag, because it shall be sufficient for the godly readers to know those things which make to Luke’s meaning.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

PETER, THE MIRACLE WORKER

Act 9:32

HEREIN is an indication of the rapid spread of the Gospel. The Church at this place is easily accounted for when it is remembered that Philip passed from Azotus to Caesarea, preaching in all the cities between (Act 8:40). The saints at this place were doubtless the fruits of his ministry. Modernists have tried to make it out that Scriptures which have not an evident spiritual intent can have no spiritual profit, and famous writers have even affirmed, There are whole pages of the Old Testament that can in and of themselves by no legitimate method be made to minister to the souls welfare and evidently were not written for that purpose, and yet one of the most recent writers, and one who is not unacceptable to critics themselves, has called attention to a number of instances by which men have been converted by the very passages intended in that remark.

It might not seem a matter of special interest that Philip moved from Azotus to Caesarea, and preached as he passed through the cities, but in it is a historic base for this report concerning Peters find at Lydda, and had to do with the creation there of an atmosphere in which Peter could do such marvelous works, and marvelous they are. The remaining part of the 9th chapter and the 10th of Acts recites miracles not exceeded, and gives occasion to a discussion under three heads: The Miracles of Peter, The Mission of Peter and The Message of Peter.

THE MIRACLES OF PETER

The text makes it perfectly evident that neas was a member of the Church at Lydda, a special saint among the members of that little city. For eight long years he had been bedridden; his malady was most malignant. Palsy had paralyzed him, and while it had not despoiled his spirit, produced in him skepticism or made him the easy victim of morose sorrows, it had rendered him utterly impotent in body. To him Peter came and the record of his healing here is clear and specific.

Peters address presented Christ as the cure for incurables. neas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole: arise, and make thy bed. And he arose immediately (Act 9:34), One thing about Christ which could neither be denied nor discredited was His wonder working. Enemies and friends alike were compelled to affirm, We never saw it on this wise. The healing was a perfect healing of one for whom men had no hope. That is like Jesus Christ.

It is true that God has made a promise, My grace is sufficient for thee, which the sick often appropriate, and prove the same in the sweetness of their lives when they truly trust the Word. It is also true that He has promised the sick to make their bed in their affliction, and He does temper the pillow to the fevered brow of the believer. It is also true that our God, in Christ, is capable of the yet better and bigger thing, namely, the perfect restorationJesus Christ maketh thee whole, and Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever.

His purpose toward the saint is no less gracious now than in the day of neas. His proclamation for the saint is no less effective. He is not only the One that forgiveth all our iniquities, but He also hath power to heal all our diseases. Jesus is none other than Jehovah-Rophi, I am the Lord that healeth thee.

Joseph Parker truly says, But you are not the people to wait for such crises in which to invite the Lords anointed to your house. Send for Him that day when every table is laden with flowers and every corner of the dwelling is ablaze with His own sunshine.

Doubtless one reason why we have such difficult times to secure the Christ in our houses when sickness smites and sorrow is on and death draws nigh, is in the circumstance that He has not been a welcome guest when all was well.

Peter believed Christ to be life for the dead. Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good works and alms deeds which she did (Act 9:36). Gods answer to prayer begets further faith. The healing of neas had doubtless spread to Joppa and led the friends of Dorcas to feel that burial was not justified, and to hope that if Peter came, a resuscitation of this dear friend might be expected. That was the effect of healing upon their faith. That a kindred result was accomplished in Peter was made perfectly evident when, in response to their invitation, he went at once and, coming into the home of death, pushed the weeping friends aside, and in secret made his appeal to God, and then, turning to the body, said, Tabitha, arise! and apparently experienced no surprise when she opened her eyes, but rather gave her his hand and lifted her up, and when he had called the saints and witnesses, presented her alive.

Every answer to prayer effects an increase of faith. There is a strange psychological effect concerning ones study of his own image as reflected by a mirror. The moment he turns from the mirror, he forgets what manner of man he is, but that mental aberration is not so strange as the speedy forgetting of some work of grace. In that work we have seen Christ, but when tomorrows crisis is come, if we could but remember what manner of man He was, we would put our case into His hands with confidence, knowing that with Him it is one, whether He say, to the sick of the palsy, Arise and make thy bed, or to the buried dead, Come forth! Christs promise to His Apostles when He commissioned them to the lost sheep of the house of Israel was, As ye go, preach, saying, The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead. Peter belonged to that company and is simply exercising here his proper prerogative.

Later, when the seventy were sent out, the commission was extended, but the miraculous powers were limited. Whatsoever city was their field, healing the sick was their privilege, but not so with raising the dead. People sometimes say, If the miracle is continued, and the sick are to be healed, why then do you not raise the dead? We answer, The apostolic privilege was one thing, and the privilege of the disciple another. See Mar 16:17-18. Peter was an Apostle, and when he said to the dead woman, Arise, he had back of him a Divine commission, and in his risen Christ, the resurrection power.

Welcome, thou victor in the strife,Almighty now to save!Today we triumph in thy life,Around thine empty grave.

Our greatest foe is put to shame,His short-lived triumph oer,Our God is with us, we exclaim,We fear our foe no more.

Peters ministry demonstrated the effectiveness of the miracle as a message. When neas was made whole, all that dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him and turned to the Lord. It is likely that the word all here is used in an accommodating sense, just as we say, The whole town attended church, when the congregation is exceedingly great.

When Dorcas was raised from the dead, it was known throughout all Joppa and many believed on the Lord (Act 10:42).

The one reason why the message is non-effective in many churches is that there is no miracle in the midst.

I have in the city of Memphis, Tenn. a friend, Dr. Ben Cox. He once published in the Memphis News Scimitar what he terms a Confession, and in that he says, For a number of years I have been more or less interested in the passages of Scripture in the last chapters of Mark and James, and other places, but have either lacked courage or conviction enabling me to step out on the promises of God. I am frank to confess, I rebelled, as many others do, against the idea of putting a few drops of oil on a persons forehead when having prayer for the sick. I could see nothing in it. * * * * * * I was led to invite Brother Collins here because the news had come to me of the marvelous manner in which the Lord was blessing him and his associates in New Orleans. I simply expected that he would be here one or two weeks, conducting the noon prayer meeting and perhaps have a short sermon at night. Nobody in Memphis is more thoroughly surprised and dazed than I am at the marvelous happenings we have witnessed the last three weeks. Very many people are coming to me saying, Dr. Cox, this makes me think of the days when Christ was upon the earth.

At the beginning of this wonderful revival meeting, I saw scarcely anything in the matter except the blessings brought to the people by the Lord healing the sick in answer to prayer. The tremendous evangelistic feature did not appeal to me; I had not thought of it. I am now thoroughly convinced that Jesus intended these two streams should flow on side by side, as that great Baptist preacher of Boston, Dr. A. J. Gordon, used to contend. Traditionalists and materialists have dammed up one of these streams, claiming the days of miracles are past, but they do not seem to be able to show the chapter and verse which teaches that the days of miracles are past. Jesus plainly says, Greater works than these shall ye do because I go to My Father, and as dear Gordon used to put it, The force of the stream is stronger because the source of the stream has been raised.

People are constantly making evangelistic plans. The average pastors study is flooded with evangelistic programs. Year succeeds year and the evangelistic tide ebbs! Why? Because these plans and programs do not anticipate the reappearance of Christ, the Miracle Worker. Men want the salvation of their fellows as the fruits of their own endeavor and it will not come that way. The rejected Christ will be recalled in all His plenitude of power, or the church perish.

Evangelism without the miracle is unknown. The miracle without the evangelistic results is equally unknown. The Divine miracle has forever been the entering wedge for evangelism. It is the sign of God in the midst. That true, converts come easily and often!

THE MISSION OF PETER

The last sentence of the 9th chapter leads naturally to the story of the 10thAnd it came to pass that he tarried many days in Joppa with one Simon a tanner. Possibly due to the ceremonial laws of the Jews, the business of tanning was despised. An eminent rabbi is quoted as having said, It is impossible that the world can do without tanners, but woe to that man who is a tanner. He was not permitted either residence or shop inside the city limits; hence the significant statement of Simon, the tanner, that his house was by the seaside. Peter was beginning to break with Jewish customs when he consented to be entertained by this practical outcast. To lodge with a Jew who was under condemnation is a step toward fellowship with a Gentile who is regarded by the Jews as a dog.

But in order to take that step, two visions were essential. The first was granted to Cornelius and the second to Peter himself. And in the study of these two visions, we have Peters Response to the First Vision, Peters Experience of a Second Vision, and Peters Interpretation of the Same.

Peters response to the first vision. The subject of this vision was Cornelius, a Centurion of the band called the Italian Band, hence a Roman citizen, a Gentile, and yet a devout man, one who feared God and his whole house. So far, he had yielded to Jewish teaching, and instead of worshiping many gods, had feared the Name of Jehovah and worshiped Him alone. Faith is always fruiting in righteousness and the result in this instance was much alms to the people and constant prayer.

At three oclock in the afternoon, an hour often devoted to prayer, the angel of the Lord came to Cornelius and bore testimony that his prayers and alms had come before God for a memorial, and gave direction to send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter. He lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the seaside. He shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do (Act 10:5-6).

Men have long debated the question, Will the heathen be saved? Some one who relies upon his reason is constantly affirming that it must be so or God will be unjust. Since the heathen have not had the Gospel, how can they be held responsible for rejecting Christ? If that argument were sound, missions would be a sin, enlightenment an iniquity. If ignorance is redemption, then woe to the man who lifts its darkened veil and lets in the light! On the other hand, this text makes it fairly clear that a man may be accepted of God without knowing the Name of Christ, but it is when he, himself, has sought to find the true Way and stands ready to receive light from whatever source, and lives up to the light after it comes.

There has long been a story current to the effect that Brainerd found in the Northwest an Indian whose custom was to retire daily into the forest and pray to the Great Spirit to pardon his personal sins and save him and his people. We can readily believe that such an Indian was accepted of God, and can even imagine that God may have sent Brainerd to make known to that Indian the more perfect way. It is a truthChrist is our authority for itif any man is willing to do the will of God, he shall know of the teaching, and it is very doubtful if there has ever been a heart on the earth who truly cried to God for light and life, but some way God got to him both.

It may have been the cry of a man like Cornelius that compelled Carey to leave cobbling and sail for India. It may have been the cry of a man like Cornelius in the heart of Africa that drew Livingstone to the Dark Continent. It may have been the cry of a man like Cornelius that brought Morrison across the seas to benighted China; that sent Verbeck to Japan, and Williams to the South Sea Islands.

No one will ever measure the might of a sincere petition. If faith as a grain of mustard seed can remove mountains, surely such a faith as that exercised by Cornelius in the mighty God would move Him to create, equip and commission a missionary.

A few years since we sent out from the Northwestern Bible School eight or nine young people. Three of them went to India, two to Africa, and two to South America. I do not know; the principle on which the minds of each of these was made up. It is doubtful if they could defend their choice at all, but each of them felt a tug. How do we know but that there was some marvelous medium of spirit through which the cry of men in South America reached the ears of Mr. Lange, or the yearning of some men and women in Africa was committed to Mr. and Mrs. Rosenau, or the pathetic longing of certain seeking souls in India was brought by the blessed Spirit to the heart and mind of Miss Olson and Miss Johnson and Miss Levang? I do not believe God would let such a man as Cornelius go to his grave in darkness. Peter had to go. An Apostle had to come. Such prayers cannot go unanswered simply because God is God.

But in order to respond,

Peter himself must experience a vision. Drawn aside from his journey, he went to the top of his hosts house to pray at about the sixth hour. Hunger smote him; a trance came upon him; a sheet descended from Heaven, filled with four-footed beasts and creeping things and fowls of the air. A voice came, Rise, Peter; kill and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that was common or unclean. That is a suggestive phrase. It is bad enough to be in Simon the tanners house; Jews declare uncleanness is here. But now to eat wild beasts, creeping things and fowls of the airthat is unthinkable to the Jew.

But thrice over the command came, and Gods statement, What God hath cleansed call not thou common, and the sheet was received up again into Heaven. There is no indication that Peter killed anything or that he ate anything. That was not the purpose of the vision. The purpose was to show him that what God had cleansed was clean indeed, and open the way for a Gentile work. The purpose was to impress him with the fact that if God justify the Gentile and send His Spirit upon the Gentile, he became as surely a saint as was any saved Jew.

All of this conspired to prepare Peter to respond to the man that waited without to conduct him to Cornelius house. The preacher needs a preparation to preach as surely as the inquirer needs a preparation to hear and to receive. The vision of Cornelius fitted him to hear and to understand, and the vision of Peter fitted him to go and to speak. They came alike from God. In each record an angel appeared, but in no instance did the angel tell the message. Gods ministers are privileged above angels. The Divine program is preached by ones fellowmen.

The Spirits voice is not always an audible one, but none the less clear on that account, and the man who obeys it will find properly prepared people to whom to preach.

When Philip went down the South way, the Ethiopian treasurer was waiting for his coming. The same Spirit that convicted the treasurer commissioned Philip.

Some years ago in Temple, Texas, I rode up and down on an elevator run by a young colored man. One day when there was no one else on the elevator, instead of getting off at my floor, I took a few minutes for conversation with him on the subject of giving his heart to Christ. I did not at the time know exactly why, although I felt prompted to do so. I have ridden with hundreds of other elevator men and had no such impulse. But that day the prompting was clear. Years went by. I heard nothing from it until I visited Fort Worth, Texas. The meeting in that city was over and I had been at home perhaps a month when I had a letter from a man in far Western Texas, who said, I have seen by the papers that you were preaching in Fort Worth. I hoped against hope to get away from duties and get down for a day at least to hear you again. You may not remember me, but I am the colored boy who used to run the elevator in the hotel at Temple when you held the meeting there, and to whom you talked one day. As a result of that conversation, I have lived a Christian life for eight years, and you can imagine how much I wanted to see you and tell you what the conversation had meant to me. If only Christian people yielded to the promptings of the Spirit to bear their testimony, the march of the Church of God would be a continuous victory.

But let us further consider

Peters interpretation of the vision. This call to direct a Roman citizen and a Roman officer into the way of life was at once a commission to the Gentile world and a declaration of the Divine principle, namely, God is no respecter of persons. To be sure the Jews are the people of promise and God can never make a promise to any people without keeping His Word; but they were never intended to be the solitary subjects of grace. From the beginning God so loved the world, and always in Gods thought of grace there was neither Jew nor Gentile.

The great Joseph Parker says, He will not allow the Jew; to come in by one way and the Gentile to come in by another way. He does not say to the Jew, You shall come up the front avenue; you shall drive to the portals of your fathers house in chariots drawn by steeds of fire, wearing harness of gold, and you Gentiles must come in at midnight by some unfrequented path that will be pointed out to you by some condescending person. He says, There is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. How is it to be then? By ransom, by sacrifice, by propitiation, through faith in His Blood. Are there those who would have it explained? They must be denied. Are there those who think of blood in some narrow, common, vulgar, debasing sense? Then they do not take Gods view of the meaning of the term blood. This is not a murder; it is a sacrifice. This is not a measurable quantity of hot fluid rushing from the fountains of life; this is an offeringnever to be explained in cold words, yet to be felt when the heart is most tender, penitent, broken, self-helpless. When the heart is in that receptive mood, it will know the meaning of the words, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Where is boasting then? Gone! Who can find it? None! By what law is it excluded? The law of works? No, but by the law of faith, the new law, diviner, higher, larger law.

THE MESSAGE OF PETER

The 10th chapter concludes with Peters message. This begins with the 34th verse and eventuates in the 48th, and involves some fundamental facts. First,

The salvation of all is through the risen and ascended Lord. The Word which God sent unto the Children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ; He is Lord of all (Act 10:36-43), etc. read for all the world like a declaration of Christian fundamentals. The inspiration of the Bible is in the 36th verse, The Word which God sent; the declaration of the Deity is in the same verse, He is Lord of all. The matchless ministry of the Lord is in the 37th verse, Was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached. His anointing is in the 38th verse, Anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power. His miraculous workings are in the same verse, Healing all that were oppressed of the devil. His crucifixion is in the 39th verse, Whom they slew and hanged on a tree. His resurrection is in the 40th verse, Him God raised up the third day, and shewed Him openly. His commission is in the 42nd verse, He commanded us to preach unto the people. His office of judge is in the same verse, And to testify that it is He which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead. His Saviourship is in the 43rd verse, To Him gave all the Prophets witness that through His Name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.

Henry Van Dyke in speaking of Redemption makes statements that sound like an interpretation of this Scripture.

The inspiration of the service that we render to this world, to our homes, our country, our fellowmen, springs from the recognition that a price has been paid for us; the vital power of noble conduct rises from the deep fountain of gratitude, which flows not with water, but with warm hearts blood.

How, then, shall a like power come into our religion? How shall it be as real, as living, as intimate as our dearest human tie, unless we know and feel that God has paid a price for us, that He has bought us with His own precious life?

And this is the truth which the Gospel reveals to us. This is the price of which the text speaks. It is the incarnation, life, sufferings and death of the Son of God. This is the great ransom which has been given for all. He gave Himself to poverty, to toil, to humiliation, to agony, to the Cross. He gave Himself for us, not only for our benefit, but in our place. He bore the trials and temptations which belong to us. He carried our sins. He endured our punishment. Through torture and anguish He went down to our death. Through loneliness and sorrow He descended into our grave. If it were merely a human being who had done this for us, it would be much. But since it was a Divine being, it is infinitely more precious. Think of the Almighty One becoming weak, the glorious One suffering shame, the holy One dwelling amongst sinners, the very Son of God pouring out His Blood for us upon the accursed tree! It is this Divinity in the sacrifice that gives it power to reconcile and bind our hearts to God. It is God Himself proving how much He loves us by the price which He is willing to pay for us. It is God Himself manifest in the flesh to redeem us from sin and death, in order that we may belong to Him entirely and forever.

Words fail me to express the splendor and might of this great truth as it is revealed in the Holy Scriptures. It is the wisdom of God and the power of God unto salvation. It is the supreme revelation of the Divine nature which is like the human nature, and yet so far outshines it as the sun outshines a taper. It tells us what God will do for us, for He that spared not his own Son, but freely delivered Him up for us, how shall He not also, with Him, freely give us all things? It tells us what we owe to God, for He died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again. It is the source and center of a true theology. It is the spring and motive of a high morality. It is the secret of a new life, redeemed, consecrated, sanctified by the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us.

This redemption is to Jew and Gentile alike by Jesus Christ.

While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on them which heard the Word and they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.

And they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God (Act 10:44-46).

This was in fulfilment of the Psalmists statement, Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive; Thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them (Psa 68:18).

I am increasingly persuaded that the true interpretation of the Scriptures, To the Jew first and also to the Gentile, has had its literal fulfilment. It was necessary, according to Paul and Barnabas,

that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you (Jews): but seeing ye put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles,

For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have sent thee to he a light to the Gentiles that thou shouldst be for salvation unto the ends of the earth (Act 13:46).

The Jews rejected Christ in His first appearance. With few exceptions they will walk in darkness now until Christ come again. What they refuse to accept by faith, they will be compelled to acknowledge by vision, and so deep will be their grief over the blunder of having put away their own Messiah, that their penitence shall be accepted, and a nation shall be born in a day!

The conclusion of Peters message was the command of baptism.

Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptised, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?

And he commanded them to be baptised in the Name of the Lord (Act 10:47-48).

There is a strange argument, made by my Quaker forefathers, that the baptism of the Spirit renders needless the baptism in water. Peter did not so consider. On the contrary, he felt that the inner experience should be immediately symbolized by this outer ceremony. That is what water baptism is. It is the only ceremony that typifies death to sin, burial with Jesus Christ and resurrection to walk in newness of life; and unless it become a symbol of these essential truths, it is indeed a meaningless ceremony.

Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection;

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin (Rom 6:4-6).

Types and symbols are sometimes louder than speech itself. Certainly that is a truth concerning the ordinance of baptism when properly administered. In the language of the great Moravian writer,

Witness ye men and angels, now Before the Lord we speak,To Him we make our solemn vow A vow we dare not break;

That, long as life itself shall last Ourselves to Christ we yield;Nor from His cause will we depart,Or ever quit the field.

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

(32) As Peter passed throughout all quarters.The plan of the writer, arranging his materials, leads him from this point of Act. 12:18 to dwell entirely on the personal work of Peter. So far this section of the book may be described as the Acts of Peter. On the other hand, it is obvious that he only gives those acts as part of his general plan, not caring to follow the Apostles course, as in a biography, but confining himself to tracing the steps by which he had been led to the part he played in the great work of the conversion of the Gentiles. The all quarters may well have included Galilee.

He came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda.On the term saints see Note on Act. 9:13. Lydda, the Lud of the Old Testament (1Ch. 8:12; Ezr. 2:33; Neh. 7:37; Neh. 11:35), was a town in the rich plain of Sharon, one days journey from Jerusalem, founded originally by settlers from the tribe of Benjamin, and retaining to the present day its old name as Ludd. It is mentioned by Josephus (Wars, iii. 3, 5) as transferred by Demetrius Sotr, at the request of Judas Maccabeus, to the estate of the Temple at Jerusalem (1Ma. 10:30; 1Ma. 10:38; 1Ma. 11:34). Under the grasping rule of Cassius, the inhabitants were sold as slaves (Jos. Ant. xiv. 11, 2). It had, however, recovered its former prosperity, and appears at this time to have been the seat of a flourishing Christian community. In the wars that preceded the destruction of Jerusalem, it was partially burned by Cestius Gallus A.D. 66 (Jos. Wars, ii. 19, 1), all but fifty of the inhabitants having gone up to the Feast of Tabernacles at Jerusalem, and was again occupied by Vespasian A.D. 68 (Jos. Wars, ii. 8, 1). When it was rebuilt, probably under Hadrian, when Jerusalem received the new name of lia Capitolina, it also was renamed as Diospolis (= city of Zeus), and as such was the seat of one of the chief bishoprics of the Syrian Church. It was, at the time when Peter came to it, the seat of a Rabbinic school, scarcely inferior to that of Jabneh, and retained its fame after the scribes of the latter city had migrated to Tiberias. Gamaliel, son of the great Rabbi who was St. Pauls master, and himself honoured with the title of Rabban, presided over it, and was succeeded by the great Tarphon (Lightfoot, Cent. Chorogr. c. xvi.). The question which we naturally ask, who had planted the faith of Christ there, carries us once more on the track of Philip the Evangelist. Lying as it did on the road from Azotus to Csarea, it would lie in his way on the journey recorded in Act. 8:40, as he passed through all the cities; and we may believe, without much risk of error, that here also he was St. Lukes informant as to what had passed in the Church with which he was so closely connected.

A certain man named neas.The Greek name (we note the shortened vowel nas of the later form of the word), perhaps, implies that he belonged to the Hellenistic section of the Church. Had the fame of Virgils poem made the name of the Trojan hero known even in the plains of Palestine? In the care with which St. Luke records the circumstances of the case, the eight years of bedridden paralysis, we note a trace of professional exactness, as in Act. 3:7; Act. 9:18; Act. 28:8. The word of bed, used commonly of the couches of the lower class (see Note on Mat. 2:4), suggests the thought that poverty also was added to his sufferings.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

4. Fourth Repose, Miracle and Progress, Peter at Lydda and Joppa, Act 9:32-43 .

One of the intervals from commotion to holy calm, like Act 2:41-47, Act 5:12-16. But the period of commotion has now been long, namely, from Act 6:9, to the present verse; while the repose, in proportion to the diffusion of the Church, is more broadly spread. It covers not Jerusalem alone, but the three great divisions of Palestine.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

32. Peter The present rural narrative opens the entire final section of Peter’s history in the Acts, ending at Act 12:17.

Peter passed When Saul’s persecution dispersed the Church, the twelve stood firm in Jerusalem. (See note on Act 8:1.) Yet they still held central communication with all quarters, and occasionally visited special points. (See note on Act 8:14.) Peace opens, and Peter makes a general circuit.

Throughout all quarters Rather, through all the saints, or Churches.

Lydda An ancient town nine miles east of Joppa. It was once the seat of a rabbinical school celebrated for its learning. In the sixth century it was the seat of a bishopric. St. George, a martyr in the persecution by Diocletian, was born here, and after the triumph of Christianity his remains were brought hither and a church built over them, it is said, by the Emperor Justinian. In the time of the Crusades great honours were paid to this St. George, and England even adopted him as her patron saint. A considerable town still exists, retaining its ancient name of Ludd, with the immense remains of the Church of St. George, part of which is transformed into a large mosque.

LUDD, (ANCIENT LYDDA.) RUINS OF THE CHURCH OF ST. GEORGE.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘And it came about that, as Peter went throughout all parts, he came down also to the saints who dwelt at Lydda.’

‘As Peter went through all.’ This is a continuation phrase linking with the previous verse, stressing his oversight of ‘the church — throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria’. Events may have been happening elsewhere but the work of God in Palestine goes on apace. And during this process he arrives at Lydda, where the church may well have been founded by Philip, or some other Hellenistic believers scattered by the persecution, or it may have been by believers returning after Pentecost.

Lydda was twenty five mile north west of Jerusalem at the intersection of the road from Jerusalem to Joppa, and the road from Syria to Egypt. It was thus a buzzing commercial centre. Josephus tell us that it was not as large as a city, but it would later for a while become a rabbinical centre, and played a prominent part in Christian activity.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Peter Heals a Paralysed Man and Ministers in Lydda (9:32-35).

In Acts 2-3 the coming of the life of God and of the Risen Jesus to His people is followed by the ministry to ‘the lame’. Here that sequence is reversed. First a paralysed man is healed, which will be followed by a raising from the dead, and the giving of life. A problem that many of us have here is that we are so used to the power of Jesus and of His Apostles that we have ceased to wonder and easily pass over the instances. But these were not just of passing interest, they were remarkable events. And they emphasise that the work of God goes on as it had at the beginning, and continues to bring healing and life, something which will be expanded as a result of Peter’s climactic meeting with Cornelius and his followers.

It is no accident that causes Luke to describe the work in this area at this point. It was mixed Jewish and Gentile territory, and he is preparing for the great leap forwards. With Judaea, Galilee, and Samaria evangelised, the next stage must be to the Gentiles, and this was a beginning. It is to Peter’s credit that he was found labouring here for it was only half Jewish, but we can compare how in Jesus ministry, He also had eventually moved out into such areas, which Peter had no doubt not forgotten. How else could the world be reached?

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Continuing Ministry of Peter (9:32-11:18).

In preparing for the Gentile ministry of Paul, a preparation which has included what we have just considered concerning his conversion and ministry to Jews, Luke goes back to considering Peter’s ministry. Along with the other Apostles he is continuing the oversight of the church and here, at least to some extent, following in the steps of Philip along the Judaean coast. In Act 3:1 onwards he had brought the Good News to the ‘lame’ and now he does a similar thing again to the paralytic (Act 9:32-35). Luke does not want us to think that Peter has faded out of the picture, nor that the work of God does not go on apace. This is then followed by a raising from the dead of a believer (Act 9:36-43). Does this raising of the dead to some extent parallel the life-giving coming of the ‘breath’ of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 coming on all believers? Jesus had paralleled the resurrection with the raising of the dead in the story of Lazarus. And Luke then finalises this series of Peter’s activity with the description of the opening of the Good News to Gentiles, which will result in the spread of the word to ‘the uttermost parts of the earth’ (Act 10:1 to Act 11:18 – paralleling Act 1:8?). Note also the build up of ideas. A paralysed man healed, the dead brought to life, the Good News goes to the Gentiles. The advancement in idea is clear.

This sequence also to some extent parallels that in Luke’s Gospel where the healing of the paralytic (Luk 5:18-26), is followed by the raising of the widow of Nain’s son (Luk 7:11-17) and of Jairus’ daughter (Luk 8:41-46), between which is the healing of the centurion’s son and Jesus’ express admiration for the centurion’s faith (Luk 7:1-10), although here in Acts the story of the centurion’s faith necessarily follows the raising of the dead in order to stress its importance and lead in to what follows.

While at the same time we might see this as Peter’s taking an interest in and following up Philip’s ministry to the cities along the coastline (Act 8:40), we should note that that is not Luke’s specific intent for he stresses that Peter is going ‘throughout all parts’.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Activity of Peter Results in Gentiles Being Welcomed And Welcoming The Lord, But The Rejection Of The Messiah Is Confirmed By Jerusalem Who Commence a Process of Elimination of His Chief Representatives (9:32-12:24).

The first part of this section is all positive as God’s work moves forwards with signs and wonders and the raising of the dead through Peter, God revealing that it is His desire that the Good News goes to the Gentiles through Peter, that desire being vindicated when carried out by Peter, and the forming of a new church in Syrian Antioch minister to by Barnabas and Saul.

But the second part of the section is negative and deals with the final rejection of the Messiah by the king and people of Jerusalem. This comes about as the result of the rise of a new ‘king of Israel’ who is totally sympathetic to the people and enjoys their confidence. This results in an open attack on the Apostles, the martyrdom of James the Apostle, the imprisonment and enchaining of Peter with the same end in view, his release by an Angel of the Lord and forsaking of Jerusalem, and the judgment on the king of Israel for blasphemy.

It can be analysed as follows:

a Peter comes to Lydda and Joppa, in the area of Caesarea, and heals the paralysed man but Tabitha sickens and dies. God raises her from the dead (Act 9:32-43).

b The angel of the Lord comes to Cornelius resulting in the salvation of his house (Act 10:1-48).

c Peter is challenged concerning his activity and is vindicated (Act 11:1-18).

d The Good news is welcome by the Gentiles in Antioch which is to become the new centre for evangelisation (Act 11:19-30).

d The Good news is rejected by the king and people in Jerusalem which will cease to be the centre of evanglisation (Act 12:1-2)

c Peter is seized and put in prison and left in chains (Act 12:3-6).

b The angel of the Lord comes to Peter resulting in the death of his guards, the rejection of Jerusalem and the humiliation of Herod (Act 12:7-19).

a Herod comes to Caesarea and he sickens and dies. The angel of the Lord causes him to be eaten by worms (Act 12:20-23).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Witness of Peter in Lydda In Act 9:32-35 we have the account of Peter healing Aeneas in Lydda.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Witness of Peter’s Ministry Beyond Jerusalem In Act 9:32 to Act 10:48 we have the testimony of Peter’s ministry beyond Jerusalem. In these passages he heals Aeneas (Act 9:32-35), he raises Dorcas from the dead (Act 9:36-43) and he preaches to the household of Cornelius (Act 10:1-48).

Outline Here is a proposed outline:

1. Witness of Peter in Lydda Act 9:32-35

2. Witness of Peter in Joppa Act 9:36-43

3. Witness of Peter in Caesarea Act 10:1-48

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Two Miracles Performed by Peter.

Peter at Lydda:

v. 32. And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda.

v. 33. And there he found a certain man named Aeneas, which had kept his bed eight years, and was sick of the palsy.

v. 34. And Peter said unto him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole; arise and make thy bed. And he arose immediately.

v. 35. And all that dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him, and turned to the Lord.

It seems to have been the custom of the apostles to visit new sections of the field that were opened, new congregations that were established. Peter and John had done so in Samaria, Paul followed the same custom in his mission-work, and here we find Peter traveling throughout all quarters, throughout the sections of the provinces where congregations had lately been established. The purpose was evidently to establish and keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. In this way, Peter also came down to the saints, to the members of the congregation, in and about Lydda, the ancient Lod, Neh 7:37, about two-thirds of the distance between Jerusalem and Joppa, in the beautiful valley of Sharon, some three hours from the seacoast. Here at Lydda Peter found a certain man, apparently not a member of the congregation, but one that undoubtedly had heard of its work, a Greek, or Hellenistic Jew, by the name of Aeneas. He was a paralytic and had suffered for eight years, being bedridden and unable to help himself. Note how carefully and exactly Luke, as a physician, describes the sickness. Peter spoke only a few words to this man, telling him that Jesus Christ healed him. At the same time he therefore commanded him to arise and to arrange his own pillows, to make his own bed, something which his paralyzed limbs had not permitted him to do for years. The miracle of healing was performed at once. Jesus, the exalted Christ, who now sits at the right hand of God, is everywhere near His congregation, also in all bodily needs. The miracle was so obvious that its effect was marked. Not only the people in and about Lydda, but also the inhabitants of the great valley or plain of Sharon, which extended its fertile fields northward to Mount Carmel, saw the man that had been healed, and there followed a general conversion to the Christian faith as professed by Peter and by the congregation at Lydda. The people were convinced that the claims of Jesus as the Messiah must be well established if even His servants could perform such mighty deeds.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Act 9:32. And it came to pass, &c. And as Peter was making a general visitation; Heylin. Now it came to pass that Peter making a progress, &c. As St. Peter had gone formerly through the metropolis and other towns of Samaria to plant or water Christianity, so during this peaceful interval he revisited theseveral churches in Judea and Galilee, to rectify their disorders, to instruct them further, and to impart the Holy Spirit to the new converts. Among other places he went down to Lod or Lydda, a town of Phoenicia, situated in the tribe of Ephraim, lying between Azotus and Caesarea. It was afterwards called Diospolis, and was about one day’s journey distant from Jerusalem. There were several celebrated Jewish schools there, and the great Sanhedrim sometimes met near it. Saron or Sharon, which is connected with it, Act 9:35 was not a town, but a large, fruitful, and well inhabited valley, which lay near Lydda, and is said to have extended from mount Tabor to the lake of Tiberius, and from Caesarea to Joppa. Compare 1Ch 27:29. Isa 33:9; Isa 35:2; Isa 65:10.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Act 9:32-35 . This journey of visitation and the incidents related of Peter to the end of chap. 10. occur, according to the order of the text, in the period of Paul’s abode in Cilicia after his departure from Jerusalem (Act 9:30 ). Olshausen (comp. also Wieseler, p. 146); in an entirely arbitrary manner, transfers them to the time of the Arabian sojourn, and considers the communication of the return to Jerusalem, at Act 9:26 ff., as anticipated.

] namely, , as necessarily results from what follows. Comp. Rom 15:28 .

, in the O. T. Lod (1Ch 9:12 ; Ezr 2:33 ), a village resembling a town (Joseph. Antt. xx. 6. 2; Bell. ii. 12. 6, iii. 3. 5), not far from the Mediterranean, near Joppa (Act 9:38 ), at a later period the important city of Diospolis, now the village of Ludd . See Lightfoot, ad Matth. p. 35 ff.; Robinson, III. 363 ff.; von Raumer, p. 190 f.

was, according to his Greek name [249] , perhaps a Hellenist; whether he was a Christian (as Kuinoel thinks, because his conversion is not afterwards related) or not (in favour of which is the anything but characteristic designation ), remains undetermined.

] actually, at this moment.

] Jesus the Messiah .

] Erroneously Heumann, Kuinoel: “Lectum, quern tibi hactenus alii straverunt, in posterum tute tibi ipse sterne.” The imperative aorist denotes the immediate fulfilment (Elmsl. ad Soph. Aj. 1180; Khner, II. p. 80); hence: make thy bed (on the spot) for thyself ; perform immediately, in token of thy cure, the same work which hitherto others have had to do for thee in token of thine infirmity.

, used also in classical writers absolutely (without or the like), Hom. Od. xix. 598; Plut. Artax. 22.

Saron , [250] ] a very fruitful (Jerome, ad Jes. 33:19) plain along the Mediterranean at Joppa, extending to Caesarea. See Lightfoot, ad Matth. p. 38 f.; Arnold in Herzog’s Encykl. XI. p. 10.

. . .] The aorist does not stand for the pluperfect, so that the sense would be: all Christians (Kuinoel); but: and there saw him (after his cure) all the inhabitants of Lydda and Saron, they who (quippe qui) , in consequence of this practical proof of the Messiahship of Jesus, turned to the Lord . The numerous conversions, which occurred in consequence of the miraculous cure, are in a popular hyperbolical manner represented by . . . as a conversion of the population as a whole .

Since Peter did not first inquire as to the faith of the sick man, he must have known the man’s confidence in the miraculous power communicated to him as the ambassador and announcer of the Messiah (Act 9:34 ), or have read it from his looks, as in Act 3:4 . Chrysostom and Oecumenius adduce other reasons.

[249] The name (not to be identified with that of the Trojan ) is also found in Thuc. iv. 119. 1; Xen. Anab. iv. 7. 13, Hell. vii. 3. 1; Pind. Ol. vi. 149. Yet instead of is found in a fragment of Sophocles (342 D) for the sake of the verse.

[250] Not to be accented , with Lachmann, but . See Bornemann in loc. Comp. Lobeck, Paralip. p. 555.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda. (33) And there he found a certain man named Aeneas, which had kept his bed eight years, and was sick of the palsy. (34) And Peter said unto him, Aeneas Jesus Christ maketh thee whole: arise, and make thy bed. And he arose immediately. (35) And all that dwelt at Lydda and Sharon saw him, and turned to the Lord.

What a most interesting record is here! It is impossible to read it but with delight. To behold the sovereignty of the very name of Jesus! This poor bed-ridden man, had been palsied eight years. And yet, as one might be led to hope from the familiarity with which Peter accosted him, in calling him by his name, that he knew the Lord (See Act 14:9 ). And how many of the Lord’s hidden ones are palsied, crippled, diseased, or under some bodily infirmity or other, for years together. The bed of sickness is blessed, upon which Jesus puts his people. They are sure of the frequent visits of their Almighty Physician. I hope the Reader will not fail to observe, by what name and power, Peter bid Eneas arise. See Act 4:8-12Act 4:8-12 . And I hope the Reader will no fail to recollect also, how fully these acts of the Apostles, confirmed their Lord’s promise to them before his departure; that even greater works than He himself had done, should be done by them, when He was returned to his Father. See Joh 14:12 ; Mar 16:17-18 . And yet more particularly than all, I hope the Reader will not forget to connect with those views of the Apostles’ miracles, in the name, and by the authority of Christ, on the bodies of his people, the still greater works which God the Holy Ghost, by their instrumentality, wrought on their souls. Here were works indeed, and miracles of grace, when the palsied in soul, yea, the dead in trespasses and sins, were raised from death to life, and converted from the power of Satan to the living God.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 27

Prayer

Almighty God, we have come through rugged places that we might enter into thy house. The week has been as a wilderness, and all its days have been stony places, yet all the while we have been set in the direction of God’s house, and today we feel its holy peace. Give us rest in thy house, thou God of saints. Here may we know the mystery of completeness, which is the mystery of peace. Make us whole in Christ; complete in him; wanting in nothing, so that we may stand before thee perfect men in Christ Jesus. Thou knowest us altogether; where we are strong, and where we are weak, the door which the devil cannot open, and the gate through which he comes with infinite familiarity. Our prayer is that we may put on the whole armour of God. The helmet and the shield, the sword and the girdle, the breast-plate and the sandals, so that we may be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Thy purpose concerning us is our salvation, complete and everlasting. May we be co-workers with thee, labourers together with God. In our souls may thou find sweet consent to thy purposes and a ready obedience to all thy will. We would that we might in Christ Jesus receive our sight. We are blind and cannot see afar off by reason of our sin. Our desire is that as it were scales might fall from our eyes that we may see the beauty of holiness and the glory of thy kingdom. Charmed and fascinated by this beauty we shall be blind to all other attractions, and our life shall be absorbed in the worship of thy Cross and Crown, O Christ of God! We walk before thee because of thy grace. It is of thy mercy that we are not consumed. We live in thy compassion. Without thy mercy we cannot live. Thy tender mercies are over all thy works. Behold, are they not the light and the beauty of everything; yea, in thy compassion the whole creation glistens as with the dew of the morning. Reveal thyself to us every day; in some new vision of glory, or with some new hint of beauty. And thus draw us every one towards thyself in an upward line, in the ascent of which our strength shall grow. Beautiful is the life baptized of heaven. Sweet the service inspired by thy love and comforted by thy grace. Lead us into the mystery of more faithful homage, and in the rendering of our worship may we see heaven opened.

Thou knowest what we would say if we could. Thou understandest well that it is not in speech to tell the secret of the heart. We bless thee for words, yet are we chafed by them. For through them we cannot tell what we want to say, and we are shocked by their rudeness when they shape themselves in articulate prayers. Read the heart, search the spirit. Hold thy candle over the deepest abysses of our nature, and hear each when he says, “Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.” Regard us as pastor and people, heads of houses and families, men engaged in merchandize and women in all the silent heroisms of the house, and the Lord send his blessing upon the whole company like an impartial rain. May every soul be blessed, may morn arise upon every life, may the saddest see the returning angel of joy, and may the weakest know that the Deliverer is near at hand. Be the physician of every family, the visitor from heaven of every household, the comforter of all disconsolateness, and speak a word in season to him that is weary. Regard the land in which we live, and the lands from which we come. Remember the whole earth, we beseech thee, in tender compassion and love. Son of God, come forth! Prince of all princes, and Saviour of all men, delay not, but come to the world for which thou didst die, Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Amen.

Act 9:32-43

32. And it came to pass, as Peter [from this point to chapter Act 12:18 the narrative is occupied exclusively with the personal work of Peter] passed throughout all quarters [may have included Galilee], he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda [now Ludd].

33. And there he found a certain man named neas, which had kept his bed eight years, and was sick of the palsy.

34. And Peter said unto him, neas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole: arise, and make thy bed. [Do for thyself what others have so long done for thee.] And he arose immediately.

35. And all that dwelt at Lydda and Saron [a district rather than a town] saw him, and turned to the Lord.

36. Now there was at Joppa [famous in Greek legends as the spot where Andromeda had been bound when she was delivered by Perseus] a certain disciple [no distinction between male and female] named Tabitha [the two names suggesting points of connection with both the Hebrew and the Hellenistic section of the Church], which by interpretation is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good works [a favorite formula of Luke, meaning “given up to”] and alms deeds which she did.

37. And it came to pass in those days, that she was sick, and died: whom when they had washed they laid her in an upper chamber.

38. And forasmuch as Lydda was nigh to Joppa [nine miles off], and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent unto him two men, desiring him that he would not delay to come to them.

39. Then [and] Peter arose and went with them. When he was come, they brought him into the upper chamber: and all the widows stood by him weeping, and shewing the coats and garments [“the coats were the close-fitting tunics, worn next to the body, the garments the looser outer cloaks that were worn over them”] which Dorcas made, while she was with them.

40. But Peter put them all forth [ Mat 9:23-24 ], and kneeled down, and prayed; and turning him to the body said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up.

41. And he gave her his hand, and lifted her up, and when he had called the saints and widows, presented her alive.

42. And it was known throughout all Joppa; and many believed in the Lord.

43. And it came to pass, that he tarried many days in Joppa with one Simon a tanner.

Summarized Service

HOW did there happen to be any saints at Lydda? That place has not come under our attention in our perusal of these apostolic annals. There are saints in unexpected places. Yet, perhaps, not so unexpected if we had read attentively the portions which have already engaged our interest. In the last verse of the preceding chapter we read, “But Philip was found at Azotus; and passing through he preached in all the cities till he came to Csarea.” Lydda lay between Azotus and Csarea, and Philip no doubt had called there and preached the word and founded a Christian Society. How summarily our work is occasionally mentioned. We put a whole history into a single verse. In one broken sentence we sum up a lifetime! There is a cruel condensation which often does not give justice to those who are its subjects. How easily and fluently we read, “But Philip was found at Azotus; and passing through he preached in all the cities till he came to Csarea.” These are epitomes which God himself must break up into detail. And thus in many a hurried phrase we shall find service and suffering, trial and triumph, which only God can recognise. We hear it said of the minister that he “called at the house and offered prayer.” And probably the announcement is accompanied by the annotation that he was there but a few minutes. By the clock it was but a handful of minutes the man was there, but into those minutes he condensed the experience and the pathos of a lifetime, and in that one brief prayer he spared not the blood of his very heart. Beware of a ruthless condensation. Suspect any epitome which counts but as small dust the details which makes up the energetic service and the patient suffering of the Christian toiler.

Peter found his way to the saints. By what magnetism? Do we not all find out our other selves in every city to which we go? When the surveyor would find out whether there are metallic strata in the district which he surveys, he takes in his right hand the enclosed magnet, and watching that magnet he sees as he carries it over the surface of the ground how it dips, and says in the dipping, “Here you will find what you are in quest of.” He does not need to rip up the sod, and to dig far down. The magnet knows where the metal is, and instantly points to the secret place. It is so in going through the city. One sentence will tell you what company you are in. A look will warn you from that locality, as from a plague-swept district. A tone will open up communication with the soul, and a sigh may reveal the masonry of the heart. Living constantly in Christian society we may become unhappily too familiar with its advantages. Could we live for a time with those who do not know Christ, who therefore do not worship Christ, or honour him as the standard of morals and the ultimate appeal, how we should love even the most imperfect Christian we have ever known! “He that is least in the kingdom of God” is greater than the greatest outside that sacred circle. We pine for our own, we like to hear our own language; there is music in the familiar tongue. We fall with easy grace and second naturalness into the ways of the company of which we form a part. Christian brotherhood is the salvation of society. Inside your social constitutions you find the saving factor, the souls that believe, the hearts that pray, the lives that live in sacrifice. It would do some of us good in the very soul if we could be shut up with Bedouins and savages for a few days. How we should then yearn for the Old Church, the customary society, the most defective Christian we ever knew! We have become dainty in our appetites because we have lived upon luxuries up to the point of satiety.

No names are given in Act 9:32 . There is something better than a name. There is character. There you find no personal renown, no individuality running up into a flashing pinnacle and throwing its superior glory over the commonplace in the midst of which it stands, but you find a high level of character, a solid quantity of moral and spiritual being, and supreme and effective reality. It is towards that estate we should constantly be moving, to the great republic of common holiness.

When Peter was in Lydda he found the man who is to be found in every city. Locally called neas, but everywhere called the sick man. Peter “found a certain man named neas, which had kept his bed eight years, and was sick of the palsy. That man is in every city and is never healed, except in the individual instance. The genus remains unhealed a continual appeal to the Petrine spirit, the apostolic love, the redeemed compassion of the Church. Whom we cannot heal we may at least carry to the gate of the temple. We have read of the lame man who was carried daily. These are the secondary services of life. We are not all in the front rank of the ministry, it is not given to every one of us to speak miracles, but to every one is given the sweet grace of helpfulness in this matter of carrying those we cannot heal. Because we cannot do the first and supreme class of work, it does not follow that we are to sit idle all the day. You can bring to neas the Christian friend, the Christian suppliant, the Christian sympathizer. Aye, there is no grief but one that cannot be mitigated by Christian love. And even that surely may be in the distance touched with somewhat of redemptiveness, of solicitude and pity, even insanity itself may have its bed made in its affliction. We hear nothing of Peter’s doings at Lydda except this miracle; but as Philip had done much at Lydda without any record having been made of it, so Peter may have done much beside this miracle. The miracle itself was a sermon. For “all that dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him, and turned to the Lord.”

Now we come to another city. In Joppa there dwelt a woman who “was full of good works and alms deeds which she did,” and she died! How was that? There are some people whom we almost wish would die, and die they will not; nights of frost cannot freeze them, rivers cannot drown them, they have a kind of earthly immortality in their evil doing and in their pestilent mischief, and others whom we want to live always wither and die. They die in the act of giving bread to the hungry. Dorcas may have died with her industrious needle in her fingers the garment for the poor child half done! There seems to be such a waste of nobility and service in this mysterious Providence. We may be wrong in that outlook as we are in others. Why should not the good ship land? Why should we shed tears when the noble life-vessel touches the shore? Why not throw up our arms and exclaim, “Hallelujah, glory be to God!” So foolish are we and ignorant. Yet not unnaturally so. Who cannot recall people whom we wish to have with us every day? Without whom the house is no home, apart from whom life is only a daily tarrying for death. It is so that God trains us, prunes us, and prepares us for the wider revelation and the higher service. Peter was sent for. He came the nine miles to see what could be done. How natural was this. Who does not send for the strong brother? To hear that a strong man is not far away is to hear a kind of angel singing in the skies again, saying, “Peace on earth and good will toward men.” There are times when the strong man is sent for, and these are times of darkness, trouble, personal, and social despair. But there is always a strong man to send for. Always some other man is stronger than you are, and in Christ his strength belongs to you. In that sense we must have “all things common,” and none must say that aught that he has belongs to himself alone. It is in this spirit of Christian communism that we must keep Society from putrefaction and souls from sudden despair. There is a hint of the One who “sticketh closer than a brother.” When your house is very dark, send for Jesus. He can walk upon the darkness as upon solid rocks. When your life gives way in sudden weakness, or in painful fear, send in double prayer for Jesus. He can make “a dying bed feel soft as downy pillows are.” But you are not the people to wait for such crises in which to invite the Lord’s anointed to your house. Send for him today, when the table is laden with flowers and every corner of the dwelling is ablaze with His own sunlight. Beautiful was the scene in that house at Joppa. “When he was come they brought him into the upper chamber: and all the widows stood by him weeping, and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas made, while she was with them.” How did these widows come to be thus associated? Who took any interest in their welfare? If you read again the sixth chapter of this book you will find that special arrangements were made for the ministration of the common stock for the needy widows of the Hebrews and the Grecians, and you will find amongst the seven men appointed to administer that fund the name of Philip. So this man lives in his works. At Lydda he founded a Christian Society, at Joppa he organized the widows into a society that should receive help from those who were able to give it. Philip does not appear before us in name, but he leaves behind him memorials of his wisdom and his beneficence.

How is it that we like the coats and the garments even better when the seamstress is dead than we did when she was actually making them? That is a tender mystery in life. It is a fact everywhere. The little child’s little toy becomes infinitely precious when the tiny player can no longer handle it. And the two little shoes are the most precious property in the house when the little feet that wore them are set away in God’s acre. Let us love one another whilst we live! Not a word do I say against the sentiment, which enlarges the actions of the dead, but I would speak for a kind word on behalf of those who are sitting next you and making your own house glad by their deft fingers and their loving hearts.

Now we come to the first miracle of the kind to which apostolic strength was summoned. Up to this time the Apostles had been healing ankle-bones, healing the palsy and divers diseases, and casting out unclean spirits, but now a mightier tyrant looks them in the face. For the first time must the Apostles grapple without the visible Christ with actual DEATH. We may well pause here in the excitement of a great anxiety. Memory rushes upon the heart like a gracious flood as we read these words, “but Peter put them all forth.” That was what Christ did! There is the true imitation of the Lord. Some battles may be fought in public, others have to be fought in solitude, so “Peter put them all forth.” “Thou when thou prayest enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which is in secret, shall reward thee openly.” So “Peter put them all forth,” and kneeled down and prayed. Have you ever prayed in the death chamber with none there but the dead friend? How eloquent has been your dumbness, how mighty a rhetoric slumber in your blinding tears! When you were weak then were you strong. “And,” oh, conjunctive that makes one tremble “turning to the body,” now is the critical moment, “said, Tabitha, arise.” “And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up.” Let your miracles come through your prayers. Let your prayers always end in the amen of a miracle. What is the use of your solitude and your prayer, your long, intense, mighty communion with God, if when you turn round you cannot work some miracle of love?

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

32 And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters , he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda.

Ver. 32. As Peter passed through all quarters ] Being notably active for Christ, according as it was charged upon him, Luk 22:32 ; “When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” The most that the saints can do for Christ is not the one half of that which they could beteem him.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

32 35 .] HEALING OF NEAS AT LYDDA BY PETER. This and the following miracle form the introduction to the very important portion of Peter’s history which follows in ch. 10, by bringing him and his work before us again.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

32. . . . ] These words are aptly introduced by the notice in Act 9:31 , which shews that Peter’s journey was not an escape from persecution, but undertaken at a time of peace, and for the purpose of visiting the churches.

may be neuter, ‘all parts:’ but it is probably masc. and understood. Wieseler (p. 145, note) doubts whether we can say . , but see reff. The makes the masc. more likely, as it presupposes some in the mind of the writer before.

As I have implied on Act 9:31 , this journey of Peter’s is not necessarily consecutive on the events of Act 9:1-30 . But an alternative presents itself here; either it took place before the arrival of Saul in Jerusalem, or after his departure : for Peter was there during his visit ( Gal 1:18 ). It seems most likely that it was before his arrival . For (1) it is Luke’s manner in this first part of the Acts, where he is carrying on several histories together, to follow the one in hand as far as some resting-point, and then go back and take up another: see ch. Act 8:2 thus taken up from , Act 8:1 ; Act 8:4 going back to the : ch. Act 9:1 taken up from Act 8:3 to Act 11:19 , from Act 8:4 again: and (2) the journey of Peter to visit the churches which were now resting after the persecution would hardly be delayed so long as three whole years. So that it is most natural to place this section, viz. ch. Act 9:32 to Act 11:18 (for all this is continuous), before the visit of Saul to Jerusalem , and during his stay at Damascus or in Arabia. See further on Act 11:19 .

] Lod, Neh 7:37 . A large village near Joppa ( Act 9:38 ), on the Mediterranean (Jos. Antt. xx. 6. 2, ., ), just one day’s journey from Jerusalem (Lightf., Cent. Chor. Matth. prm. cxvi.). It afterwards became the important town of Diospolis.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Act 9:32-35 . Healing of Aeneas .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Act 9:32 . . .: on the formula and its frequency in Luke see Friedrich, p. 13, and above on p. 124. We have here a note of what may fairly be taken as a specimen of many similar missionary journeys, or rather journeys of progress and inspection, mentioned here perhaps more in detail because of the development which followed upon it, cf. with chap. 10. New congregations had been formed, and just as Peter and John had gone down to Samaria to the Christians converted by Philip, so it became necessary that the congregations which had grown up in many towns (Act 8:14 ; Act 8:25 ; Act 8:40 ) should be visited and kept in touch with the centre at Jerusalem (see Ramsay, St. Paul , pp. 41, 42; Felten and Plumptre, in loco ). . , see note on Act 13:6 , and for the construction Luk 9:6 ; Luk 11:24 . , i.e. , probably from Jerusalem, cf. Act 8:5 , Luk 4:31 devenire, cf. Plummer’s note on Luk 4:31 . On the frequent use of and in Luke, see Friedrich, p. 7. , sc. , , so Meyer-Wendt, Weiss, Bengel, Alford, Hackett, De Wette, Holtzmann; cf. for similar construction 2Co 1:16 , and cf. Act 20:25 , Rom 15:28 , or it may mean “through all parts,” R.V., so Belser, Beitrge , p. 58 (see critical notes). Hort seems to take it of the whole land ( Ecclesia , p. 56). , see on Act 9:13 . , Hebrew , Lod, perpetuated in the modern Ludd; on the word see critical notes, cf. 1Ch 8:2 , Ezr 2:23 , Neh 7:37 ; Neh 11:35 , 1Ma 11:34 ; “a village not less than a city” Jos., Ant. , xx., 6, 2; three hours from Joppa in the plain of Sharon: its frontier position often involved it in battle, and rendered it a subject of treaty between Jews and Syrians, and Jews and Romans. At this period not only Jerusalem but Joppa and Lydda were centres of Jewish national feeling, and were singled out by Cestius Gallus as the centres of the national revolt. On its importance as a place of refuge and a seat of learning after the destruction of Jerusalem, see Hamburger, Real-Encyclopdie des Judentums , i., 5, p. 721; Edersheim, History of the Jewish People , pp. 155, 215, 479, 512, and also Jewish Social Life , pp. 75 78; G. A. Smith, Hist. Geog. of the Holy Land , pp. 141, 160 (and his interesting remarks on the connection of St. George of England with Lydda); Schrer, Jewish People , div. ii., vol. i., p. 159, E.T. As the place lay on the route from Azotus to Csarea the planting or at any rate the strengthening of its Christianity may be referred to Philip the Evangelist, Act 8:40 . But on the other hand the close proximity to Jerusalem, within an easy day’s journey, may induce us to believe that Lydda had its congregation of “saints” almost from the first, Edersheim, Jewish Social Life , p. 75. On the curious Talmudical notices with reference to our Lord and the Virgin Mother, e.g. , that He was condemned at Lydda, see Edersheim, u. s. , p. 76. Such passages perhaps indicate a close connection between Lydda and the founding of Christianity.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Act 9:32-35

32Now as Peter was traveling through all those regions, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda. 33There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years, for he was paralyzed. 34Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; get up and make your bed.” Immediately he got up. 35And all who lived at Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.

Act 9:32 “Peter was traveling” Apparently the Apostles were preaching throughout Palestine and in neighboring countries.

“the saints” This term is used in the book of Acts to describe the church. See SPECIAL TOPIC: SAINTS at Act 9:13. The term “disciples” is gradually replaced by the term “saints.” The term is related to the OT word “holy” and means, “set apart” for God’s service. It is never used in the singular except one time in Php 4:21, which is a corporate context. This shows that to be a saint means to be “in community.” See Special Topic at Act 9:13. All believers are called “saints” in the NT! It is our position in Christ that is being emphasized.

SPECIAL TOPIC: NEW TESTAMENT HOLINESS/SANCTIFICATION

“Lydda” The town of Lydda was located on the trade route from Babylon to Egypt. In the OT it was known as “Lod” (cf. 1Ch 8:12). It was about eleven miles inland from the Mediterranean Sea. This is the same area visited by Philip in Act 8:40.

Act 9:33 “a man named Aeneas” His Greek name means “praise.” Whether he is a believer or unbeliever is uncertain, but apparently Peter is revisiting the established churches started by Philip.

“who had been bedridden eight years, for he was paralyzed” This translation is the most common interpretation of this Greek phrase (NASB, NKJV, NRSV, TEV, NJB). However, the Greek phrase can mean “since eight years old” (cf. Newman and Nida, A Translator’s Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles, p. 199).

Act 9:34 “Jesus Christ heals you” There is no article here, which implies that these two terms had become a common designation. This is a literary form known as an aoristic present, which means “this instant the Messiah is healing you.”

“get up and make your bed” These are two aorist active imperatives showing intensity and urgency!

“Immediately he got up” This shows the man’s faith in response to Peter’s message about Jesus.

Act 9:35 “all who lived at Lydda” This is a good example of a hyperbolic use of the term “all” in the Bible (cf. Gen 41:37; Deu 2:25; Luk 2:1; Rom 11:26).

“Sharon” This refers to the northern coastal plain in Palestine. It is about thirty miles in length running from Joppa to Caesarea.

“and they turned to the Lord” The word “turn to” may reflect the OT word for repentance (shub). It implies turning from sin and self (repentance) and turning to (faith) the Lord (cf. Act 11:21).

This little summary statement is included several times in this section, showing the great movement of the Spirit of God through Peter and later through Paul. This miraculous event opened the door for the proclamation of the gospel.

SPECIAL TOPIC: REPENTANCE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

throughout = through. Greek. dia. App-104. Act 9:1.

also to the saints = to the saints also.

Lydda. Ludd, in the plain of Sharon, about a day’s journey w. of Jerusalem. See 1Ch 8:12.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

32-35.] HEALING OF NEAS AT LYDDA BY PETER. This and the following miracle form the introduction to the very important portion of Peters history which follows in ch. 10,-by bringing him and his work before us again.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Act 9:32. ) The masculine [not as Engl. Vers. throughout all quarters]. Comp. with this , ch. Act 20:25.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Act 9:32-35

PETER CURES AENEAS

Act 9:32-35

32 And it came to pass, as Peter went throughout all parts,-Luke in arranging his materials gave an account of Peter and John going from Jerusalem down to Samaria, and there bestowing spiritual gifts upon the Samaritans and then mentioning the incidents connected with Simon the sorcerer; here we left Peter in Samaria. Next Luke gave an account of Philip and the eunuch, and then an account of the conversion of Saul and the incidents that followed. He now returns to Peter. So far this section of the book of Acts may be described as the acts of Peter; however, it is evident that only a part of the general outline of work that Peter did is given. Luke does not follow Peters course, as in a biography, but confines himself to tracing the steps by which he had been led to the part he played in the great work of the conversion of the Gentiles. In leaving Samaria Peter went throughout all parts, and finally came down also to the saints that dwelt at Lydda. Here again we have the saints mentioned. Lydda is the same as Lod in the Old Testament. (1Ch 8:12; Ezr 2:33; Neh 7:37 Neh 11:35.) Lydda was about ten miles from Joppa, and was on the highway between Jerusalem and Joppa; it was a days journey from Jerusalem.

33 And there he found a certain man named Aeneas,-This name implies that he belonged to the Hellenistic section of disciples. As Peter went about doing good he was led to this man. He had been sick for eight years; he had kept his bed eight years; Luke being a physician tells us the specific disease with which he was afflicted; he was palsied; palsy is a contraction of the word paralysis. The term is used by the ancient physicians in a much wider sense than by our modern men of science; it included not only what we call paralysis, but also catalepsy and tetanus; that is, cramps and lockjaw. Since he was bedfast for eight years, the miracle of his cure would be more famous.

34 And Peter said unto him, Aeneas,-As in the cure of the cripple at the temple (Act 3:6), Peter makes known that he is but the messenger of Christ, and that the power to heal comes through Christ. We do not know whether Aeneas was a disciple, but it seems reasonable to infer that he was among the saints, and that Peter was brought to him. He is commanded to arise, and make thy bed. Literally, he was commanded to spread his bed for himself; he was commanded to do that which others for years had done for him. This was proof that he could take care of himself, and immediately he obeyed Peter. This shows that the cure was miraculous. No doubt Peter remembered the time when four men brought a man with the same disease to Christ at Capernaum and that Jesus had commanded the man to arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thy house. (Mar 2:1-11.)

35 And all that dwelt at Lydda-This miracle had a wonderful effect on the people in Lydda; Sharon was not a city or town, but was a section of country about thirty miles long from Joppa to Caesarea. Those who saw Aeneas healed were now ready to accept the preaching of Peter; they turned to the Lord, which means that they heard the gospel, repented of their sins, were baptized into Christ, and were thus numbered among the saints, or added to the church.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Strength and Life through Christ

Act 9:32-43

Peter was now free for a visit of apostolic inspection, of which the two incidents here preserved are the only record. Lydda was a village on the great plain, abutting on the seaboard. The effect of the miracle of healing wrought upon neas was profound. A general conversion of the agricultural population was the immediate result. They all turned to the Lord. The villagers had probably been prepared by the tidings of what had taken place, and a single spark sufficed to set the whole country in a blaze.

The little church at Joppa had sustained a serious loss in the death of one of its chief workers, a woman named Dorcas, Act 9:36-37. She is described as a certain disciple. She had learned of Jesus Christ the great lesson that the love of God implies ministry to others, and she gave herself to practice it by quiet, feminine handiwork, which she distributed among the desolate and friendless women of the town. Peters prayer in the chamber of death was answered, and Dorcas was given back to her friends. Our Lord put His seal upon her work, and she has been crowned as the patron saint of women workers.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

27. A MAN NAMED AENAS AND A WOMAN NAMED DORCAS

Act 9:32-43

Peter was on a preaching mission visiting the churches of Judea, Galilee, and Samaria which had been recently established as a result of the persecution at Jerusalem. He travelled from church to church preaching the gospel of Christ, establishing them in the faith of Christ and in the truth of God.

“THE SAINTS WHICH DWELT AT LYDDA” (Act 9:32) – Lydda was a town about 35 miles from Jerusalem in which God had been pleased to raise up a gospel church. It should be noticed that Luke and all the writers of the New Testament referred to all believers as saints. This title, “saints”, is not a title of distinction reserved for a few very eminent believers. It is a title for all believers. Every person who is born of God is a saint. The word means “sanctified ones”! We were sanctified by God the Father in electing grace before the world began (Jud 1:1). He set us apart from the rest of mankind unto himself, for his own holy purposes and uses. We were sanctified by God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in redemption. By his substitutionary sacrifice at Calvary the Son of God made all of God’s elect holy; and God the Father, looking on us through the blood of Christ declared us to be holy (Heb 10:10-14). This is our justification. Then God the Holy Spirit sanctified us in regeneration, giving us the holy nature of Christ (2Th 2:13; 2Pe 1:4; 1Jn 3:5-9). All believers are saints because all have been sanctified. Their sanctification is the gift and work of God’s free grace in Christ.

“A CERTAIN MAN NAMED AENEAS” (Act 9:33-35) – AEneas’ healing by Peter is given as a picture of God’s saving grace in Christ. This man really was healed of his physical infirmity by the power of God; but his healing was intended by God both to confirm and to illustrate his saving grace. Everything about this man and his healing corresponds to and reflects the saving grace of God experienced by every child of God.

1. AENEAS WAS A CHOSEN OBJECT OF MERCY. Luke tells us that he was “a certain man”. In those days it was common to find impotent beggars laid in conspicuous places, hoping for alms or other acts of mercy from those who passed by. Where one was found, many were likely to be found (Joh 5:1-9). No doubt there were many like AEneas in Lydda, but AEneas was chosen of God. Grace always comes to certain men and women, to certain ones chosen of God unto salvation (Eph 1:3-6; 2Th 2:13-14).

2. AENEAS WAS A HELPLESSLY SICK MAN. His disease was real. Peter was not a fake healer, but a real Apostle. He healed a man who really was in an utterly helpless condition. But AEneas had not always been in such bad shape. So it is with us. God created man upright, in his own image (Gen 1:26-28). But when Adam sinned against God we sinned in him and we died spiritually (Rom 5:12). All men and women since the fall of Adam are in a helpless condition of sin and death. We were all born in sin (Psa 51:5).

3. THIS MAN KNEW SOMETHING ABOUT THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. By some means or other, he had heard about Christ. Otherwise, when Peter said, “Jesus Christ of Nazareth maketh thee whole,” he would not and could not have believed on him (Rom 10:13-17). It is not necessary for a sinner to become a theologian to be saved, but it is necessary for him to know who Christ is and what he has done. It is not possible to trust an unrevealed, unknown Savior!

4. PETER’S WORD (GOD’S WORD BY PETER) CAME TO AENEAS’ HEART WITH DIVINE POWER AND PERSONAL APPLICATION. Peter’s word was the very word of God. God spoke to this man personally by the voice of another man, a gospel preacher. This is the way God calls sinners to Christ (Joh 10:1-5). “AEneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole!” The effectual call of the Spirit (Psa 65:4) comes to chosen sinners through the voice of gospel preachers. Sinners are saved, born again and called, by the Word of God (1Pe 1:23-25).

5. AENEAS BELIEVED ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. He did not believe on Peter. He did not believe in the “power of his freewill”. But he did believe that Jesus Christ had made him whole. He proved his faith by acting upon it. “He arose immediately!”

6. HE WAS MADE WHOLE IMMEDIATELY. But suppose he had not been. Suppose he had believed and yet was not healed. Peter would have been proved an impostor. Christ would have been shamefully dishonored. And the gospel Peter preached would have been proved a lie. The point I am making is this – It is impossible for a sinner to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and not be saved by him (Joh 6:37; Heb 7:25).

7. ONCE HE WAS HEALED, AENEAS ACTED LIKE A MAN WHO WAS MADE WHOLE. “He arose immediately!” He no longer laid upon his bed among his former companions. He had been made new (2Co 5:17). He went all over town telling people what Christ had done for him. It was obvious to everyone! Therefore, many “turned to the Lord.”

DORCAS: A WOMAN FULL OF GOOD WORKS (Act 9:36-43). Dorcas is set before us as an example of faith and godliness. She was truly a woman who lived by faith and evidenced her faith by her works (Eph 2:8-10; Jas 2:14-26). She made it her business in life to “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior” (Tit 2:10). Luke tells us three things about Dorcas.

1. SHE EXEMPLIFIED THE GOSPEL BY HER DEEDS OF LOVE (Act 9:36; Act 9:39). Dorcas was not a preacher or a teacher. She held no public office in the church (1Ti 2:12). But she was gifted of God as a seamstress. And she used her gift in Christ like love and self-denial to make coats for God’s poor saints. If I had to choose between the two, I would much rather live like Dorcas than preach like Peter (Php 2:1-8; 1Co 13:1-13).

2. SHE DIED IN FAITH (Act 9:37). We are not told what caused her death, or where she was when she died, only that she was sick and her sickness lead to her death. But she died in faith. Nothing else really matters! “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”

3. SHE WAS RAISED FROM THE DEAD FOR THE GLORY OF GOD (Act 9:38-43). Dorcas was raised from the dead to die again. We who believe on the Lord Jesus shall be raised to die no more (1Co 15:51-58). When Dorcas was raised from the dead God was glorified in Joppa. And when God’s elect are raised from the dead in the last day, our God shall be glorified universally, forever (Rev 5:9-13).

Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible

Cir am 4041, ad 37

as: Act 1:8, Act 8:14, Act 8:25, Gal 2:7-9

the saints: Act 9:13, Act 9:41, Act 26:10, Psa 16:3, Pro 2:8, Mat 27:52, Rom 1:7, Eph 1:1, Phi 1:1

Lydda: Act 9:38

Reciprocal: Act 1:13 – Peter

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

2

Act 9:32. The condition of “rest” which the churches were enjoying opened up opportunities for the further spread of the Gospel. Peter used this situation to travel among the churches of Palestine and made Lydda one of his stopping places.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Certain Acts of St. Peter, Act 9:32 to Act 11:18.

Act 9:32. And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters. In the early chapters of the Acts, the writer has given us the details of many circumstances of the life and work of the first chief of the apostles. After the appointment of Stephen, we hear for a long time little or nothing of Peter; but this silence must not lead us to suppose that in the period which succeeded the death of Stephen, some three or more years, Peter in any way occupied a less prominent position than heretofore in the growing Church of Jesus. The plan of the writer of the Acts did not after the first years require a detailed account of Peters work and preaching; but now the time had come when a new starting-point in the life of the Church of Jesus was to be made. The society, which now numbered in its ranks many thousand converts from Judaism, in the Holy Land, Syria, and perhaps even in more distant countries, was to be freed for ever from the trammels with which the Mosaic laws, and the traditionary customs and rites which had grown up in the course of ages round it, had hitherto shackled it. The command, Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Mat 10:6; see, too, Act 13:46), had been literally complied with, and the new era of the missions of the followers of Jesus to the Gentile world was immediately to commence.

The human instrument of this startling change of policy in the society was Peter, hitherto the acknowledged head of the Church of Jerusalem. The writer of the Acts takes up the history of Peter at this juncture, and tells us how, in the course of an official circuit of visiting the various Palestinian churches during this interval of freedom from persecution alluded to (Act 9:30 and note), he came to the Roman city of Csarea, where the events which led to the permanent enlargement of the borders of the Church took place. The circumstances which happened at Lydda and Joppa,places which he visited in the course of this circuit,may be looked upon as examples of many similar unrelated instances in the great apostles early career. They are here recounted in detail, as taking place in the course of the journey which ended in the remarkable and momentous visit to Csarea.

It is most probable that this official circuit of Peter took place during St. Pauls residence in Tarsus (see note on Act 9:30), after his departure from Jerusalem, and his intercourse with Peter.

Chrysostom observes on this journey of the great apostle: As the commander of an army, he went about inspecting the ranks (to see) which part was compact, which in good order, which required his presence.

Came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda. Lydda was a city of considerable size, about a days journey from Jerusalem. It was, previous to the fall of Jerusalem, A.D. 70, the seat of a very famous Jewish school. St. George, the patron saint of England, was a native of Lydda. In the Mohammedan tradition, the gate of this city will be the scene of the final combat between Christ and antichrist. It was ruined in the Jewish war, but was subsequently rebuilt by the Romans, when it received the name of Diospolis, City of Zeus (Jupiter).

In the fourth century it became the seat of a well-known bishopric; it occupied a prominent place in the wars of the Crusaders, who rebuilt the city and strongly fortified it. The new name under which it was known by the Romans, and in early Christian story, has, as is so often the case in Palestine, disappeared; and the modern town, or rather large village, which with its tall minaret is seen by the traveller passing over the plain from Joppa to Ramleh on the old road between Jerusalem and Csarea, is known by its ancient name Lidd or Ludd. It was the Lod of the Old Testament (Ezr 2:33).

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

The Holy Ghost now leaves the relation of St. Paul’s life and actions for the present, and returns to give a farther account of St. Peter, what he said, what he did, and what he suffered, particularly at Lydda, at Joppa, and Cesarea: At Lydda he healed Eneas, at Joppa he raised Dorcas, and at Cesarea he preached the gospel to the Gentiles.

Observe, 1. What this great apostle St. Peter did at Lydda: He there, in the name, that is, by the power of Christ, healeth Eneas, who lay sick of the palsy, and had kept his bed eight years.

Where note, The difficulty of the cure; the disease was a dead-palsy, which had taken away the use of his limbs, and made him bed-rid for eight years: All this is recorded, to shew the difficulty of the cure, and the greatness of the miracle: Omnipotenti medico nullas insanabilis occurit morbus; “To such an Almighty Physician, as the great God is, no disease is found incurable.”

Note, 2. The manner of the cure: St. Peter acts in Christ’s name, not his own: and lets the lame man know whom he should own for his benefactor, Christ himself: The apostle was but the instrument in Christ’s hand; and that the cure was perfectly miraculous appears by this: The cripple was cured immediately, and cured perfectly; it was a present cure, And he arose immediately Act 9:34.

The instantaneous manner of the cure shews it to be miraculous, and by divine power; for nature and art act in time and by degrees, bringing nothing to perfection on a sudden: Whereas this cure was wrought in a moment, his strength is restored in an instant.

It was also a perfect cure, and as an evidence of it, he takes up his bed. This was to shew that he was fully recovered.

Note, 3. The effects of this cure: It had such an influence upon the spectators of this miracle, that all that dwelt at Lydda and Sharon, when they saw it, turned to the Lord, Act 9:35. That is, they embraced the faith, seeing this cripple so strangely, so suddenly, and so perfectly cured.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Act 9:32-35. And as Peter passed through all quarters Where the disciples that were dispersed had planted churches; he came to the saints that were at Lydda A town of Phnicia, situated in the tribe of Ephraim, one days journey from Jerusalem. It stood in the plain or valley of Sharon, which extended from Cesarea to Joppa, and was noted for its fruitfulness; and there The providence of God so ordering it, for the greater confirmation of the gospel; he found a certain man named Eneas His name is mentioned for the greater assurance of the fact here recorded; which had kept his bed eight years In so deplorable a state as to be quite incapable of rising from it, or any way helpful to himself, because of the palsy wherewith he was afflicted; and Peter Being moved with compassion for him, and concerned to relieve his misery, as well as to confirm the gospel which he preached, said, Eneas, Jesus Christ In whose name I preach and act, maketh thee whole Operates while I now speak to strengthen and restore thy weakened frame. The great difference there is between the manner in which this miracle is wrought by Peter, and that in which Christ performed his works of divine power and goodness, is very observable; and the different characters of the servant and the Son, the creature and the God, are strikingly apparent. Arise, and make thy bed Depending entirely upon his almighty agency. And he arose immediately The palsy instantly leaving him, and the disabled man being all at once strengthened. It deserves notice here, also, that no faith on the part of the person to be healed was required; and the like is observable in many other cases, where persons, perhaps ignorant of Christ, were surprised with an unexpected cure. But where persons petitioned themselves for a cure, a declaration of their faith was often required, that none might be encouraged to try experiments out of curiosity, in a manner which would have been very indecent, and have tended to many bad consequences. And all that dwelt in Lydda and Saron That is, many of the inhabitants of those places; turned to the Lord That is, did so as soon as they saw him restored to health and strength, whom they before knew to be weak and helpless, and when they had had an opportunity of being informed in the particulars of so unparalleled a fact.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

32-35. We have just seen Saul sent “far hence to the Gentiles;” but as yet we have no account of the admission of uncircumcised Gentiles into the Church; it is time that this account should be before us, and Luke proceeds to give it. He approaches the subject by relating the circumstances which led Peter, who was the chosen instrument for opening the gates of the kingdom to the Gentiles, into the city of Joppa, where the messengers of Cornelius found him. We parted company with this apostle on his return with John from the visit to Samaria. We meet him again, engaged in active labor through the rural districts of his native country. (32) “Now it came to pass that Peter, passing through all quarters, came down also to the saints who dwelt at Lydda. (33) And he found there a certain man named neas, who had kept his bed eight years, and was paralyzed. (34) And Peter said to him, neas, Jesus the Christ heals you. Arise, and make your bed. And he arose immediately. (35) And all who dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him and turned to the Lord.” The long continuance of painful disease makes the afflicted individual well known to a large circle of neighbors, and fixes their attention upon the disease itself as one difficult to cure. Hence, the effect upon this community of the cure of neas, like that of the lame man at the Beautiful gate of the temple, was decisive and almost universal. It was a demonstration of divine power in Jesus the Christ, whom Peter had declared the agent of the cure, which the honest people of Lydda and Saron could not gainsay, and therefore they had no honest alternative but to yield to his claims.

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

Act 9:32-35. neas.His name shows him to have been probably a Hellenist. This story is modelled on that of the paralytic in Mar 2:1-12. Many of the words are the same; the case is similar, and only the command to the patient is different. He is told that Jesus is curing him, and that he is to rise and manage his bed himself, which others had hitherto done for him. The use of the Name (Act 3:6*) is effective; and the result is seen by all the inhabitants of Lydda and in the plain of Sharon; a general conversion to the Lord follows.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

Verse 32

Lydda; a large village, between Jerusalem and Cesarea.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

9:32 {10} And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all [quarters], he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda.

(10) Peter’s apostleship is confirmed by the healing of the man who suffered from paralysis.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

1. Peter’s ministry in Lydda and Joppa 9:32-43

Luke now returned to Peter’s continuing ministry in Judea. Luke apparently recorded the healing of Aeneas and the raising of Tabitha to show that the gospel was being preached effectively in a region of Palestine that both Jews and Gentiles occupied. Peter, the apostle to the Jews, was responsible for its advancing farther into Gentile territory. Luke thereby helped his readers see the equality of Gentiles and Jews in the church as it continued to expand (cf. Eph 2:11 to Eph 3:12).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

The healing of Aeneas at Lydda 9:32-35

Peter continued his itinerant ministry around Palestine (cf. Act 8:25).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Lydda (modern Lod, the site of Israel’s international airport) lay on the Mediterranean coastal plain about 10 miles from the sea. It was about 25 miles northwest of Jerusalem. It stood at the junction of the roads from Joppa to Jerusalem and the highway from Egypt to Syria. [Note: See the map near my comments on 8:4-8 above.] There were already "saints" there (cf. Act 9:13; Act 9:41).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

III. THE WITNESS TO THE UTTERMOST PART OF THE EARTH 9:32-28:31

Luke next recorded the church’s expansion beyond Palestine to the uttermost parts of the earth (Act 1:8). The Ethiopian eunuch took the gospel to Africa, but he became a Christian in Judea. Now we begin to read of people becoming Christians in places farther from Jerusalem and Judea.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

A. The extension of the church to Syrian Antioch 9:32-12:24

As Jerusalem had been the Palestinian center for the evangelization of Jews, Antioch of Syria became the Hellenistic center for Gentile evangelization in Asia Minor and Europe. The gospel spread increasingly to Gentiles, which Luke emphasized in this section of Acts. He recorded three episodes: Peter’s ministry in the maritime plain of Palestine (Act 9:32-43), the conversion of Cornelius and his friends in Caesarea (Act 10:1 to Act 11:18), and the founding of the Antioch church (Act 11:19-30). Luke then looked back to Jerusalem again to update us on what was happening there (Act 12:1-23). He concluded this section with another summary statement of the church’s growth (Act 12:24).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

-28

Chapter 20

EVANGELISTIC WORK IN THE PHILISTINES LAND.

Act 8:26-28; Act 9:32

I HAVE; united these two incidents, the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch and the mission of St. Peter to the people of Lydda, Sharon, and Joppa, because they relate to the same district of country and they happened at the same period, the pause which ensued between the martyrdom of St. Stephen and the conversion of St. Paul. The writer of the Acts does not seem to have exactly followed chronological order in this part of his story. He had access to different authorities or to different diaries. He selected as best he could the details which he heard or read, and strove to weave them into a connected narrative. St. Luke, when gathering up the story of these earliest days of the Churchs warfare, must have laboured under great difficulties which we now can scarcely realise. It was doubtless from St. Philip himself that our author learned the details of the eunuchs conversion and of St. Peters labours. St. Luke and St. Paul tarried many days with St. Philip at Caesarea. Most probably St. Luke had then formed no intention of writing either his Gospel or his apostolic history at that period. He was urged on simply by that unconscious force which shapes our lives and leads us in a vague way to act in some special direction. A man born to be a poet will unconsciously display his tendency. A man born to be a historian will be found, even when he has formed no definite project, note-book in hand, jotting down the impressions of the passing hour or of his current studies. So probably was it with St. Luke. He could not help taking notes of conversations he heard, or making extracts from the documents he chanced to meet; and then when he came to write he had a mass of materials which it was at times hard to weave into one continuous story within the limits he had prescribed to himself. One great idea, indeed, to which we have often referred, seems to have guided the composition of the first portion of the apostolic history. St. Luke selected, under Divine guidance, certain representative facts and incidents embodying great principles, typical of future developments. This is the golden thread which runs through the whole of this book, and specially through the chapters concerning which we speak in this volume, binding together and uniting in one organic whole a series of independent narratives.

I. The two incidents which we now consider have several representative aspects. They may be taken as typical of evangelistic efforts and the qualifications for success in them. Philip the deacon is aggressive, manysided, flexible, and capable of adapting himself to diverse temperaments, whether those of the Grecian Jews at Jerusalem, the Samaritans in central Palestine, or the Jewish proselytes from distant Africa. Peter is older, narrower, cannot so easily accommodate himself to new circumstances. He confines himself, therefore, to quiet work amongst the Jews of Palestine who have been converted to Christ as the result of the four years growth of the Church. “As Peter went throughout all parts, he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda.” This incident represents to us the power and strength gained for the cause of Christ by intellectual training and by wider culture. It is a lesson needed much in the great mission field. It has hitherto been too much the fashion to think that while the highest culture and training are required for the ministry at home, any half-educated teacher, provided he be in earnest, will suffice for the work of preaching to the heathen. This is a terrible mistake, and one which has seriously injured the progress of religion. It is at all times a dangerous thing to despise ones adversary, and we have fallen into the snare when we have despised systems like Buddhism and Hindooism, endeavouring to meet them with inferior weapons. The ancient religions of the East are founded on a subtle philosophy, and should be met by men whose minds have received a wide and generous culture, which can distinguish between the chaff and the wheat, rejecting what is bad in them while sympathising with and accepting what is good. The notices of Philip and Stephen and their work, as contrasted with that of St. Peter, proclaimed the value of education, travel, and thought in this the earlier section of the Acts, as the labours of St. Paul declare it in the days of Gentile conversion. The work of the Lord, whether among Jews or Gentiles, is done most effectually by those whose natural abilities and intellectual sympathies have been quickened and developed. A keen race like the Greeks of old or the Hindoos of the present, are only alienated from the very consideration of the faith when it is presented in a hard, narrow, intolerant, unsympathetic spirit. The angel chose wisely when he selected the Grecian Philip to bear the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch, and left Peter to minister to Aeneas, to Tabitha, and to Simon the tanner of Joppa; simple souls, for whom life glided smoothly along, troubled by no intellectual problems and haunted by no fearful doubts.

II. Again, we may remark that these incidents and the whole course of Church history at this precise moment show the importance of clear conceptions as to character, teaching, and objects. The Church at this time was vaguely conscious of a great mission, but it had not made up its mind as to the nature of that mission, because it had not realised its own true character, as glad tidings of great joy unto all nations. And the result was very natural: it formed no plans for the future, and was as yet hesitating and undecided in action. It was with the Church then as in our everyday experience of individuals. A man who does not know himself, who has no conception of his own talents or powers, and has formed no idea as to his object or work in life, that man cannot be decided in action, he cannot bring all his powers into play, because he neither knows of their existence, nor where and how to use them. This is my explanation of the great difference manifest on the face of our history as between the Church and its life before and after the conversion of Cornelius. It is plain that there was a great difference in Church life and activity between these two periods. Whence did it arise? The admission of the Gentiles satisfied the unconscious cravings of the Church. She felt that at last her true mission and her real object were found, and, like a man of vigorous mind who at last discovers the work for which nature has destined him, she flung herself into it, and we read no longer of mere desultory efforts, but of unceasing, indefatigable, skilfully-directed labour; because the Church had at last been taught by God that her great task was to make all men know the riches hidden in Christ Jesus. We have in this fact a representative lesson very necessary for our time. Men are now very apt to mistake mistiness for profundity, and clearness of conception for shallowness of thought. This feeling intrudes itself into religion, and men do not take the trouble to form clear conceptions on any subject, and they lapse therefore into the very weakness which afflicted the Church prior to St. Peters vision. The root of practical, vigorous action is directly assailed if men have no clear conceptions as to the nature, the value, and the supreme importance of the truth. If, for instance, a man cherishes the notion, now prevalent in some circles, that Mahometanism is the religion suited for the natives of Africa, how will he make sacrifices either of time, of money, or of thought, to make the Gospel known to that great continent? I do not say that we should seek to have sharp and clear conceptions on all points. There is no man harder, more unsympathetic with the weak, more intolerant of the slightest difference, more truly foolish and short-sighted, than the man who has formed the clearest and sharpest conceptions upon the profoundest questions, and is ready to decide offhand where the subtlest and deepest thinkers have spoken hesitatingly. That man does not, in the language of John Locke, recognise the length of his own tether. He wishes to make himself the standard for every one else, and infallibly brings discredit on the possession of clear views on any topics. There are vast tracts of thought upon which we must be content with doubt, hesitancy, and mistiness; but the man who wishes to be a vigorous, self-sacrificing servant of Jesus Christ must seek diligently for clear, broad, strong conceptions on such great questions as the value of the soul, the nature of God, the person of Jesus Christ, the work of the Spirit, and all the other truths which the Apostles Creed sets forth as essentially bound up with these doctrines. Distinct and strong convictions alone on such points form for the soul the basis of a decided and fruitful-Christian activity; as such decided convictions energised the whole life and character of the blessed apostle of love when writing. “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the evil one.”

III. Now turning from such general considerations, we may compare the two incidents, St. Philips activities and St. Peters labours, in several aspects. We notice a distinction in their guidance. Greater honour is placed on Philip than upon Peter. An angel speaks to Philip, while St. Peter seems to have been left to that ordinary guidance of the Spirit which is just as real as any external direction, such as that given by an angel, but yet does not impress the human mind or supersede its own action, as the external direction does. Dr. Goulburn, in an interesting work from which I have derived many important hints, suggests that the external message of the angel directing Philip where to go may have been Gods answer to the thoughts and doubts which were springing up in His servants mind. The incident of Simon Magus may have disturbed St. Philip. He may have been led to doubt the propriety of his action in thus preaching to the Samaritans and admitting to baptism a race hitherto held accursed. He had dared to run counter to the common opinion of devout men, and one result had been that such a bad character as Simon Magus had crept into the sacred fold. The Lord who watches over His people and sees all their difficulties, comes therefore to his rescue, and by one of His ministering spirits conveys a message which assures His fainting servant of His approval and of His guidance. Such is Dr. Goulburns explanation, and surely it is a most consoling one, of which every true servant of God has had his own experience. The Lord even still deals thus with His people. They make experiments for Him, as Philip did; engage in new enterprises and in fields of labour hitherto untried; they work for His honour and glory alone; and perhaps they see nothing for a time but disaster and failure. Then, when their hearts are cast down and their spirits are fainting because of the way, the Lord mercifully sends them a message by some angelic hand or voice, which encourages and braces them for renewed exertion.

An external voice of an angel may, in the peculiar circumstances of the case, have directed St. Philip. But the text does not give us a hint as to the appearance or character of the messenger whom God used on this occasion. The Old and New Testament alike take broader views of Divine messengers, and of angelic appearances generally, than we do. A vision, a dream, a human agent, some natural circumstance or instrument, all these are in Holy Scripture or in contemporary literature styled Gods angels or messengers. Men saw then more deeply than we do, recognised the hand of a superintending Providence where we behold only secondary agents, and in their filial confidence spoke of angels where we should only recognise some natural power. Let me quote an interesting illustration of this. Archbishop Trench, speaking, in his “Notes on the Miracles,” of the healing of the Impotent Man at Bethesda, and commenting on Joh 5:4, a verse which runs thus, “For an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole, with whatsoever disease he was holden,” thus enunciates the principle which guided the ancient Christians, as well as the Jews, in this matter. He explains the origin of this verse, and the manner in which it crept into the text of the New Testament. “At first, probably, a marginal note, expressing the popular notion of the Jewish Christians concerning the origin of the healing power which from time to time the waters of Bethesda possessed, by degrees it assumed the shape in which we now have it.” The Archbishop then proceeds to speak of the Hebrew view of the world as justifying such expressions. “For the statement itself, there is nothing in it which need perplex or offend, or which might not find place in St. John. It rests upon that religious view of the world which in all nature sees something beyond and behind nature, which does not believe that it has discovered causes when, in fact, it has only traced the sequence of phenomena, and which everywhere recognises a going forth of the immediate power of God, invisible agencies of His, whether personal or otherwise, accomplishing. His will.” The whole topic of angelic agencies is one that has been much confused for us by the popular notions about angels, notions which affect every one, no matter how they imagine themselves raised above the vulgar herd. When men speak or think of angelic appearances, they think of angels as they are depicted in sacred pictures. The conception of young men clad in long white and shining raiment, with beautiful wings dependent from their shoulders and folded by their sides, is an idea of the angels and angelic life derived from mediaeval painters and sculptors, not from Holy Writ. The important point, however, for us to remember is that Philip here moved under external direction to the conversion of the eunuch. The same Spirit which sent His messenger to direct Philip, led Peter to move towards exactly the same southwestern quarter of Palestine, where he was to remain working, meditating, praying till the hour had come when the next great step should be taken and the Gentiles admitted as recognised members of the Church.

IV. This leads us to the next point. Philip and Peter were both guided, the one externally, the other internally; but whither? They were led by God into precisely the same southwestern district of Palestine. Peter was guided, by one circumstance after another, first to Lydda and Sharon, and then to Joppa, where the Lord found him when he was required at the neighbouring Caesarea to use the power of the keys and to open the door of faith to Cornelius and the Gentile world. Our narrative says nothing, in St. Peters case, about providential guidance or heavenly direction, but cannot every devout faithful soul see here the plain proofs of it? The book of the Acts makes no attempt to improve the occasion, but surely a soul seeking for light and help will see, and that with comfort, the hand of God leading St. Peter all unconscious, and keeping him in readiness for the moment when he should be wanted. We are not told of any extraordinary intervention, and yet none the less the Lord guided him as really as He guided Philip, that his life might teach its own lessons, by which we should order our own. And has not every one who has devoutly and faithfully striven to follow Christ experienced many a dispensation exactly like St. Peters? We have been led to places, or brought into company with individuals, whereby our future lives have been ever afterwards affected. The devout mind in looking back over the past will see how work and professions have been determined for us, how marriages have been arranged, how afflictions and losses have been made to work for good.; so that at last, surveying, like Moses, lifes journey from some Pisgah summit, when its course is well-nigh run, Gods faithful servant is enabled to rejoice in Him because even in direct afflictions He has done all things well. A view of life like that is strictly warranted by this passage, and such a view was, and still is, the sure and secret source of that peace of God which passeth all understanding. Nothing can happen amiss to him who has Almighty Love as his Lord and Master. St. Peter was led, by one circumstance after another, first to Lydda, which is still an existing village, then, farther, into the vale of Sharon, celebrated from earliest time for its fertility, and commemorated for its roses in the Song of Solomon, {Son 2:1, Isa 33:9} till finally he settles down at Joppa, to wait for the further indications of Gods will.

But how about Philip, to whom the Divine messenger had given a heavenly direction? What was the message so imparted? An angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, “Arise, and go toward the south, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza: the same is desert.” Now we should here carefully remark the minute exactness of the Acts of the Apostles in this place, because it is only a specimen of the marvellous geographical and historical accuracy which distinguishes it all through, and is every year receiving fresh illustrations. Gaza has always been the gateway, of Palestine. Invader after invader, when passing from Egypt to Palestine, has taken Gaza in his way. It is still the trade route to Egypt, along which the telegraph line runs. It was m the days of St. Philip the direct road for travellers like the Ethiopian eunuch, from Jerusalem to the Nile and the Red Sea. This man was seeking his home in Central Africa, which he could reach either by the Nile or by the sea, and was travelling therefore along the road from Jerusalem to Gaza. The Acts, again, distinguishes one particular road. There were then, and there are still, two great roads leading from Jerusalem to Gaza, one a more northern road, which ran through villages and cultivated land, as it does to this day. The other was a desert road, through districts inhabited then as now by the wandering Arabs of the desert alone. Travellers have often, remarked on the local accuracy of the angels words when directing Philip to a road which would naturally be taken only by a man attended by a considerable body of servants able to ward off attack, and which was specially suitable, by its lonely character, for those prolonged conversations which must have passed between the eunuch and his teacher. Cannot we see, however, a still more suggestive and prophetic reason for the heavenly direction? In these early efforts of the Apostles and their subordinates we read nothing of missions towards the east. All their evangelistic operations lay, in later times, towards the north and northwest, Damascus, Antioch, Syria, and Asia Minor, while in these earlier days they evangelised Samaria, which was largely pagan, and then worked down towards Gaza and Caesarea and the Philistine country, which were the strongholds of Gentile and European influence, -the Church indicated in St. Lukes selection of typical events; the Western, the European destiny working strong within. It already foretold, vaguely but still surely, that, in the grandest and profoundest sense,

“Westward the course of Empire takes its way”

that the Gentile world, not the Jewish, was to furnish the most splendid triumphs to the soldiers of the Cross. Our Lord steadily restrained Himself within the strict bounds of the chosen people, because His teaching was for them alone. His Apostles already indicate their wider mission by pressing close upon towns and cities, like Gaza and Caesarea, which our Lord never visited, because they were the strongholds and chosen seats of paganism. The providential government of God, ordering the future of His Church and developing its destinies, can thus be traced in the unconscious movements of the earliest Christian teachers. Their first missionary efforts in Palestine are typical of the great work of the Church in the conversion of Europe.

V. St. Philip was brought from Samaria, in the centre, to the Gaza road leading from Jerusalem to the coast; and why? Simply in order that he might preach the Gospel to one solitary man, the eunuch who was treasurer to Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians. Here again we have another of those representative facts which are set before us in the earlier portion of this book. On the day of Pentecost, Jews from all parts of the Roman Empire, and from the countries bordering upon the east of that Empire, Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and Arabians, came in contact with Christianity. Philip had ministered in Samaria to another branch of the circumcision, but Africa, outside the Empire at least, had as yet no representative among the firstfruits of the Cross. But now the prophecy of the sixty-eighth Psalm was to be fulfilled, and “Ethiopia was to stretch out her hands unto God.” We have the assurance of St. Paul himself that the sixty-eighth Psalm was a prophecy of the ascension of Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. In Eph 4:8 he writes, quoting from the eighteenth verse, “Wherefore He saith, when He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men.” And then he proceeds to enumerate the various offices of the apostolic ministry, with their blessed tidings of peace and salvation, as the gifts of the Spirit which God had bestowed through the ascension of Jesus Christ. And now, in order that no part of the known world might want its Jewish representative, we have the conversion of this eunuch, who, as coming from Ethiopia, was regarded in those times as intimately associated with India.

Let us see, moreover, what we are told concerning this typical African convert. He was an Ethiopian by birth, though he may have been of Jewish descent, or perhaps more probably a proselyte, and thus an evidence of Jewish zeal for Jehovah. He was a eunuch, and treasurer of Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians. He was like Daniel and the three Hebrew children in the court of the Chaldaean monarch. He had utilised his Jewish genius and power of adaptation so well that he had risen to high position. The African queen may have learned, too, as Darius did, to trust his Jewish faith and depend upon a man whose conduct was regulated by Divine law and principle. This power of the Jewish race, leading them to high place amid foreign nations and in alien courts, has been manifested in their history from the earliest times. Moses, Mordecai, and Esther, the Jews in Babylon, were types and prophecies of the greatness which has awaited their descendants scattered among the Gentiles in our own time. This eunuch was treasurer of Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians. Here again we find another illustration of the historical and geographical accuracy of the Acts of the Apostles. We learn from several contemporary geographers that the kingdom of Meroe in Central Africa was ruled for centuries by a line of female sovereigns whose common title was Candace, as Pharaoh was that of the Egyptian monarchs. There were, as we have already pointed out, large Jewish colonies in the neighbourhood of Southern Arabia and all along the coast of the Red Sea. It was very natural, then, that Candace should have obtained the assistance of a clever Jew from one of these settlements. A question has been raised, indeed, whether the eunuch was a Jew at all, and some have regarded him as the first Gentile convert. The Acts of the Apostles, however, seems clear enough, on this point. Cornelius is plainly put forward as the typical case which decided the question of the admission of the Gentiles to the benefits of the covenant of grace. Our history gives not the faintest hint that any such question was even distantly involved in the conversion and baptism of the Ethiopian. Nay, rather, by telling us that he had come to Jerusalem for the purpose of worshipping God, it indicates that he felt himself bound, as far as he could, to discharge the duty of visiting the Holy City and offering personal worship there once at least in his lifetime. Then, too, we are told of his employment when Philip found him. “He was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet.” His attention may have been called to this portion of Holy Scripture during his visit to the temple, where he may have come in contact with the Apostles or with some other adherents of the early Church. At any rate he was employing his time in devout pursuits, he was making a diligent use of the means of grace so far as he knew them; and then God in the course of His providence opened out fresh channels of light and blessing, according to that pregnant saying of the Lord, “If any man will do Gods will, he shall know of the doctrine.” The soul that is in spiritual perplexity or darkness need not and ought not to content itself with apathy, despair, or idleness. Difficulties will assault us on every side so long as we remain here below.

We cannot escape from them because our minds are finite and limited. And some are ready to make these difficulties an excuse for postponing or neglecting all thoughts concerning religion. But quite apart from the difficulties of religion, there are abundant subjects on which God gives us the fullest and plainest light. Let it be ours, like the Ethiopian eunuch, to practise Gods will so far as He reveals it, and then, in His own good time, fuller revelations will be granted, and we too shall experience, as this Ethiopian did, the faithfulness of His own promise, “Unto the righteous there ariseth up light in the darkness.” The eunuch read the prophet Esaias as he travelled, according to the maxim of the rabbis that “one who is on a journey and without a companion should employ his thoughts on the study of the law.” He was reading the Scriptures aloud, too, after the manner of Orientals; and thus seeking diligently to know the Divine will, God vouchsafed to him by the ministry of St. Philip that fuller light which he still grants, in some way or other, to every one who diligently follows Him.

And then we have set forth the results of the eunuchs communion with the heaven-sent messenger. There was no miracle wrought to work conviction. St. Philip simply displayed that spiritual power which every faithful servant of Christ may gain in some degree. He opened the Scriptures and taught the saving doctrine of Christ so effectually that the soul of the eunuch, naturally devout and craving for the deeper life of God, recognised the truth of the revelation. Christianity was for the Ethiopian its own best evidence, because he felt that it answered to the wants and yearnings of his spirit. We are not told what the character of St. Philips discourse was. But we are informed what the great central subject of his disclosure was. It was Jesus. This topic was no narrow one. We can gather from other passages in the Acts what was the substance of the teaching bestowed by the missionaries of the Cross upon those converted by them. He must have set forth the historic facts which are included in the Apostles Creed, the incarnation, the-miracles, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, and the institution of the sacrament of baptism, as the means of entering into the Church. This we conclude from the eunuchs question to Philip, “See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptised?” Assuredly Philip must have taught him the appointment of baptism by Christ; else what would have led the eunuch to propound such a request? Baptism having been granted in response to this request, the eunuch proceeded on his homeward journey, rejoicing in that felt sense of peace and joy. and spiritual satisfaction which true religion imparts; while Philip is removed to another field of labour, where God has other work for him to do. He evangelised all through the Philistine country, preaching in all the cities till he came to Caesarea, where in later years he was to do a work of permanent benefit for the whole Church, by affording St. Luke the information needful for the composition of the Acts of the Apostles.

VI. Let us in conclusion note one other point. Our readers will have noticed that we have said nothing concerning the reply of Philip to the eunuchs question, “What doth hinder me to be baptised?” The Authorised Version then inserts ver. 37 {Act 8:37}, which runs thus: “And Philip said, If thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” While if we take up the Revised Version we shall find that the revisers have quite omitted this verse in the text, placing it in the margin, with a note stating that some ancient authorities insert it wholly or in part. This verse is now given up by all critics as an integral part of the original text, and yet it is a very ancient interpolation, being found in quotations from the Acts as far back as the second century. Probably its insertion came about somehow thus, much the same as in the case of Joh 5:4, to which we have already referred in this chapter. It was originally written upon the margin of a manuscript by some diligent student of this primitive history. Manuscripts were not copied in the manner we usually think. A scribe did not place a manuscript before him and then slowly transcribe it, but a single reader recited the original in a scriptorium or copying-room, while a number of writers rapidly followed his words. Hence a marginal note on a single manuscript might easily be incorporated in a number of copies, finding a permanent place in a text upon which it was originally a mere pious reflection. Regarding this thirty-seventh verse, however, not as a portion of the text written by St. Luke, but as the second-century comment or note on the text, it shows us what the practice of the next age after the Apostles was. A profession of faith in Christ was made by the persons brought to baptism, and probably these words, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,” was the local form of the baptismal creed, wherever this note was written. Justin Martyr in his first “Apology,” chap. 61, intimates that such a profession of belief was an essential part of baptism, and this form, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,” may have been the baptismal formula used in the ritual appointed for these occasions. Some persons indeed have thought that this short statement represented the creed of the Church of the second century. This raises a question which would require a much longer treatment than we can now bestow upon it. Caspari, an eminent Swedish theologian, has discussed this point at great length in a work which the English student will find reviewed arid analysed in an article by Dr. Salmon published in the Contemporary Review for August, 1878, where that learned writer comes to the conclusion that the substance of the Apostles Creed dates back practically to the time of the Apostles. And now, as I am concluding this book, an interesting confirmation of this view comes to us from an unexpected quarter. The ” Apology” of Aristides was a defence of Christianity composed earlier even than those of Justin Martyr. Eusebius fixes the date of it to the year 124 or 125 A.D. It was at any rate one of the earliest Christian writings outside the Canon. It had been long lost to the Christian world. We knew nothing of its contents, and were only aware of its former existence from the pages of the Church history of Eusebius. Two years ago it was found by Professor J. Rendel Harris, in Syriac, in the Convent of St. Catharine on Mount Sinai, and has just been published this month of May, 1891, by the Cambridge University Press. It is a most interesting document of early Christian times, showing us how the first Apologists defended the faith and assailed the superstitions of paganism. Professor Harris has added notes to it which are of very great value. He points out the weak points in paganism which the first Christians used specially to assail. Aristides “Apology” is of peculiar value in this aspect. It shows us how the first generation after the last Apostle was wont to deal with the false gods of Greece, Rome, and Egypt. It is, however, of special importance as setting forth from a new and unexpected source how the early Christians regarded their own faith, how they viewed their own Christianity, and in what formularies they embodied their belief. Professor Harris confirms Dr. Salmons contention set forth in the article to which we have referred. In the time of Aristides the Christians of Athens, for Aristides was an Athenian philosopher who had accepted Christianity, were at one with those of Rome and with the followers of Catholic Christianity ever since. Aristides wrote, according to Eusebius, in 124 A.D.; but still we can extract from his “Apology” all the statements of the Apostles Creed in a formal shape. Thus Professor Harris restores the Creed as professed in the time of Aristides, that is, the generation after St. John, and sets it forth as follows:-

“We believe in one God Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth: And in Jesus Christ His Son, Born of the Virgin Mary. He was pierced by the Jews, He died and was buried; The third day He rose again; He ascended into Heaven. He is about to come to judge.”

This “Apology” of Aristides is a most valuable contribution to Christian evidence, and raises high hopes as to what we may yet recover when the treasures of the East are explored. The “Diatessaron” of Tatian was a wondrous find, but the recovery of the long-lost ” Apology” of Aristides endows us with a still more ancient document, bringing us back close upon the very days of the Apostles. As this discovery has only been published when these pages are finally passing through the press, I must reserve a farther notice of it for the preface to this volume.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary