Acts 9:40

‘But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down and prayed, and turning to the body, he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up.'

Reminiscent of Jesus dealings with Jairus' daughter Peter put everyone from the room. As far as we know he had never tried to raise the dead before. And then he kneeled and prayed, and turning to the body said, “Tabitha, arise”. The parallels with the healing of Jairus' daughter are such as to give us confidence that this incident has brought that one to Luke's mind (Luke 8:51), and yet the differences are potent too. Jesus had not needed to kneel and pray (although He did it at other times). This is not just a carbon copy of that. Jesus had had authority over death. Peter was a suppliant.

‘She opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up.' All the symbolism of what happened here must not take away from us the wonder that has been performed. Like his Master Peter raises the dead. Death has no mastery in the presence of one who comes in the name of Christ. ‘She opened her eyes.' All knew that when some one died it was necessary to close their eyes. Only Christ could open them. And that was why he had come to open men's eyes in a deeper sense (Acts 26:18).

Interestingly ‘Tabitha kumi' (the Aramaic for ‘Tabitha arise') is little different from the ‘Talitha kumi' of Jesus with Jairus' daughter, but as Luke does not draw the similarity out he would not expect his Gentile readers to realise it. On the other hand they would note the similarity between ‘Maid arise' and ‘Tabitha arise'.