Acts 10:34

St. Peter's Address in the House of Cornelius, 34-43.

Acts 10:34. Then Peter opened his month. This denotes that something grave and deliberate, and demanding serious attention, is about to be uttered. The most solemn instance of the use of this phrase is in Matthew 5:2. What had been said before by Peter to Cornelius (Acts 10:27) was merely conversational and preparatory.

Of a truth I perceive. This is half a soliloquy. Peter now feels that he can justify to himself his own conduct, and he can take firm ground in instructing others. There had been some remnant of doubt in his mind before. Now he sees the whole case. The account of Cornelius himself, confirming what had been stated by the messenger, and showing an astonishing harmony between the experience of the centurion and his own, had brought his conviction to its culminating point. As Cornelius named all the circumstances minutely, and as Peter marked the religious, reverential spirit of those who were assembled before him, all hesitation vanished.

No respecter of persons. This word (προσωπολη ́ πτης) is found only here; but the kindred words, προσωποληπτω and προσωπολημψι ́ α are found in Romans 2:11; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 3:25; James 2:1; James 2:9. They do not belong to Classical Greek, but are strictly part of the Christian vocabulary. They denote the judging a man by a test which has nothing to do with his moral character; as, for instance, by his wealth, his social position, or his beauty (see 1 Samuel 16:7). Here the meaning is, that God does not judge of a man by his nationality, but by his character. Up to this time St. Peter had treated nationality as a kind of moral test.