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CORNELIUS
99
Paul's converts are described variously as:
`Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led' (1 Cor. 12:2).
`When ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods' (Gal. 4:8).
`At that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the
covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world' (Eph. 2:12).
Yet it is abundantly clear from Acts 10 that had he not had the vision of the sheet Peter would have called the
devout, prayerful Cornelius `common and unclean'. How is this attitude possible if it is true that the Church began
at Pentecost? The dispersion of the Jew throughout the Roman world had of necessity influenced Gentile thought,
and there were accordingly some who, though uncircumcised and outside the Hebrew pale, were nevertheless
worshippers of the true God. Lydia, a woman of Thyatira, is said to be one who `worshipped God' and is found at
the place of prayer (Acts 16:14). At Thessalonica there was `a great multitude of devout Greeks' (Acts 17:4), at
Athens Paul disputed with devout persons (Acts 17:17); and at Corinth Paul found a refuge in the house of one
named Justus who `worshipped God' (Acts 18:7). It was to this class that Cornelius belonged, for if he had been a
proselyte he would not have been looked upon by the Jew as `common and unclean'. This conclusion is further
strengthened by Peter's confession:
`Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh
righteousness, is accepted with Him' (Acts 10:34,35).
We must now turn our attention to the vision given to Peter, which produced so great a revolution.
Joppa! Did Peter ever think of Jonah? Was not Peter's name `Simon bar Jonah'? Did not Jonah remonstrate
with God because of His mercy to Gentiles? Were the problems of the expanding gospel forcing themselves upon
Peter? We are not told, but we believe that he would have been neither human nor an apostle, if such were not the
burden of his thought.
Falling into a trance upon the housetop he saw a vessel descending from heaven, and containing four-footed
beasts, reptiles of the earth, and fowls of the air, and a voice said to him: `Rise, Peter, slay and eat'. It is hardly
possible for any Gentile to enter into the thoughts that would fill the mind of a Jew, whether Christian or otherwise,
who received such a command. We can, however acquaint ourselves with the law that governed this matter of clean
and unclean animals and see what is written:
`These are the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth. Whatsoever parteth the hoof,
and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat' (Lev. 11:2,3).
Then follows the long list of prohibited animals, with the recurring sentiment:
`They are unclean to you' (Lev. 11:8).
`Ye shall have their carcases in abomination' (Lev. 11:11,20,23).
Not only so, but
`These are unclean to you among all that creep: whosoever doth touch them, when they be dead, shall be unclean
until the even' (Lev. 11:31).
All this prohibition is because Israel were a separated people:
`For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy ... This
is the law of the beasts, and of the fowl, and of every living creature that moveth in the waters, and of every
creature that creepeth upon the earth: TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE between the unclean and the clean, and between
the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten' (Lev. 11:44-47).
This instruction to `make a difference' is reiterated in the corresponding section of Leviticus, namely, chapter 20.
`I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with
milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have SEPARATED YOU from other people. Ye shall therefore
PUT DIFFERENCE between clean beasts and unclean ... which I have SEPARATED from you as unclean. And ye