Acts 11:1-18

Apologetic Account by St. Peter at Jerusalem of the Conversion of Cornelius, Acts 11:1.

The commentators have given far too little attention to this section of the Apostolic History. Thus in the excellent commentaries of Bishop Wordsworth, Dean Alford, and Mr. Humphry, the annotations on these eighteen verses collapse into almost nothing. But in fact the account given by St. Peter himself at Jerusalem before the ‘apostles and brethren' who blamed him is by no means a mere repetition of the direct account by St. Luke, which we have had in the tenth chapter. There are variations of the most instructive kind, connected with this new occasion, and furnishing, on a careful comparison of the two Chapter s, a very valuable indirect proof of the natural truthfulness of the whole story.

The argument will be briefly summed up in an Excursus at the close. In the notes on these verses some of the separate points will be indicated one by one.