Acts 15:14

Simeon( Symeon)] This more Jewish form of the name of the Apostle Peter is found also at the commencement of St Peter's second Epistle. The Jews after they came to have much intercourse with Gentiles had frequently two forms of name, one of which was employed on religious and solemn occasions, the other in intercourse with non-Jews and in the ordinary transactions of life. Thus in the Apocrypha (1Ma 5:17, &c.) the name of the Maccabean prince is written Simon, though on his coins it stands Symeon(see Gesenius, s.v.).

how God at the first Better, how God did first visit, &c. It was not at the first, but some time after the mission of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles that Cornelius was converted. What St Peter had narrated was the firstacceptance of a Gentile into the church.

visit the Gentiles In the old sense of "look upon," and generally with the accompanying notion of kindness. (Cp. Luke 1:68; Luke 1:78; Luke 7:16; Hebrews 2:6.)

a people for his name Thus "the chosen people" were no longer to be Jews only, and so those ceremonial ordinances which had hitherto marked out Jews from Gentiles might be seen to be unnecessary.