Road Trippin With Rachael

Since we believe that all scripture is inspired by God, it should come as no surprise that the Bible is a literary masterpiece. Not only is there the overarching story and continuous theme, but the order is which the individual authors record events build on each other. This is the exact case we see by the time we have made it to Acts 10. 

The Build Up

If we look back through the New Testament, we will see how scripture has built on itself to bring about chapter 10. W/hen we look at John 4, we are first introduced to the people of Samaria through the woman at the well.  If you go back through the blogs from during our study of Ezra and Nehemiah, I address the significance of Samaria. In a nutshell, Samaria is the region where the people of Judea who were not taken into captivity in Babylon intermarried with the people of Canaan who were left in the land. As a result, they created a hodge-podge religion that has some aspects of Judaism and of the pagan cults of the Canaanites. Similarly, Acts 8 shared the account of Philip going through Samaria and introducing us to Simon the Sorcerer. 

The result of this, in as far as the early church is concerned, is that there wasn’t a huge fuss over the people of Samaria coming to Christ (even through Peter and John made a visit to see them when there were reports of the conversions). This was because, for all the problems of syncretism caused by the Babylonian Captivity, there was still a basis or spring board that was able to be corrected or built upon. 

This was not the case for when we get to Acts 10.

The Issue of Gentile Conversions

As we have already established, there is a difference when we discuss Cornelius and his household. This household is the first referenced Gentile household to come to Christ (not including the Ethiopian Eunich from Acts 8). Although Cornelius is what was considered a God-fearer (a term used to describe a Gentile who recognized and practiced Torah – sans circumcision), he would have had a basis for understanding the Jewish scriptures. But the fact remains, he is was new a Hebrew. 

When Peter is on the roof top praying, he has a vision of a tarp coming down that has all kinds of foods on it. Come were items that Hebrew people were permitted to eat in Torah; other items were considered unclean, and not to be touched. In Peter’s vision, God tells him to kill and eat. As you can imagine, that was a radical statement for someone who grew up being told to never touch some of those things. 

But what does this mean? Considering Cornelius’ servant arrived right after, we can deduce that what God wanted Peter to realize is that there aren’t uncleans foods, the same as there aren’t unclean people. The Gospel isn’t meant to be kept from anyone. It isn’t meant to be guarded by a singular people group, socioeconomic group, or culture. It is meant for all peoples, even when they are different from the one sharing the Gospel. 

As we see with Cornelius, by sharing with him, his household also came to Christ. We never know how the Gosepl will spread when it is shared. Now, here we will make a note as this is where theology differs with denominations regarding baptism. As someone who adheres to believers’ baptism, since this section of scripture does not say that there were children counted in this number, don’t see this as support for infant baptism; however, I understand where those of that theological persuasion are coming from. This is not a post to address this issue and I’ll leave that here.