Acts 9:32

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

Acts 9:32. And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters. In the early Chapter s 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 Peter's 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' (Matthew 10:6; see, too, Acts 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 (Acts 9:30 and note), he came to the Roman city of Cæsarea, 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 apostle's 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 Cæsarea.

It is most probable that this official circuit of Peter took place during St. Paul's residence in Tarsus (see note on Acts 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 day's 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 Cæsarea, is known by its ancient name Lidd or Ludd. It was the Lod of the Old Testament (Ezra 2:33).