Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Acts 11:5

Acts 11:5. I was in the city of Joppa praying. It was essential that Peter should name the place where this remarkable experience had occurred. Thus he names Cæsarea below (Acts 11:11). He is laying before the ‘apostles and brethren' a precise statement of facts. On the other hand, it is of no moment to mention the name of his host at Joppa, or the precise position of the house of Simon the Tanner, though these things were of importance in the commission of the messengers sent by Cornelius from Cæsarea. And to turn to another point, St. Peter does not stay to tell his hearers on this occasion that he was on the house-top when he fell into the trance, that the hour was noon, and that the event occurred when the people in the house were preparing his food. But it was essential that he should mention the fact that he was engaged in prayer when this strange series of events began. This was his starting-point. His fellow-disciples knew, by the teaching of their Lord, and through their own daily experience, the place occupied by prayer in the Christian scheme. And St. Peter's mode of presenting the subject to them is, in fact, a lesson for all time. If we begin with prayer, God will do all the rest.

In a trance I saw a vision. To them, so far from suggesting any difficulty, this would be persuasive. It was strictly according to all they had been taught in their knowledge of early Jewish history. In addressing Cornelius it would have been out of place, especially since all that was seen in the trance had a Hebrew colouring. The essential point for St. Peter (Acts 10:28) to urge on the centurion was, that God had by some mode brought him to a new religious conviction.

Let down from heaven. This is more definite and vivid than that which we find in St. Luke's direct narration; and it is natural that this shade of difference should be found here, where the story is told by the eye-witness himself.

It came even to me. This, again, is an addition, which imparts much liveliness to the story as told by St. Peter himself. It is, moreover, an important addition, as showing that the circumstances of the trance were not vaguely apprehended, but that he saw everything definitely and distinctly.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Acts 11:5

Old Testament

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