Atos 10

Bede

Atos 10:1

Now there was a certain man in Caesarea, named Cornelius, etc. One attains virtues not through virtues to faith, but through faith to virtues, as blessed Pope Gregory explains. For Cornelius (he says), whose alms were praised by an angel's witness before baptism, came not to faith through works, but to works through faith. For he had believed in the true God even before baptism, whom was he praying to? Or how had almighty God heard him, if he had not revealed himself to be perfected in goodness? Therefore, he knew the creator God of all, but he was ignorant that His almighty Son had been incarnated. He had the faith whose prayers and alms could be pleasing. By his good actions, he merited to know God perfectly, and to believe in the mystery of the Incarnation of His Only Begotten Son, so that he might come to the sacrament of baptism. Therefore, through faith, he came to works, but through works, he was solidified in faith. — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:3

He clearly saw in a vision at about the ninth hour of the day, etc. He rightly receives the oracle to seek baptism at the ninth hour because in the death of Him, who surrendered His spirit at the ninth hour, he was to be baptized. — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:5

And now send men to Joppa. When alms and prayers had been accepted, immediately the teacher of salvation is ordered to be summoned, clearly implying that through those alms and prayers, he sought from the Lord the full knowledge of his salvation. — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:5-6

And summon Simon, who is called Peter; he lodges with a certain Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea. All things in the Holy Scriptures are filled with spiritual figures, even the names and the location of places. Peter lodges in the house of Simon, that is, the obedient one; and he himself is a tanner, because he is a teacher of the Church; there he has a pleasing dwelling and beloved lodging, where he finds obedient listeners, where those who chastise their body and bring it into subjection (I Cor. IX); who, strengthened by God, stand on the height of virtues, so that having crossed all the waves of the fleeting world, they despise them with the tranquil liberty of mind. For this is to have Simon the tanner's house, in which Peter is received in a part of the city which is by the sea, that is, to have perfect listeners of the word in the holy Church, who with unfaltering constancy of true faith, either despise the fleeting glory of the world or the temporary and changing terrors of it. — Retractions on Acts

Atos 10:7

He called two of his domestic servants and a soldier who feared the Lord. Cornelius sent three to Peter, because the Gentiles destined to believe overcame Europe, Asia, and Africa with apostolic faith, partly by military efforts, that is, the urgency of preaching, partly by attending to domestic affairs. Note that one soldier and two domestics were sent. The stronger they are, the fewer you will find among the members of the Church; there are more who know how to hear the word than those who know how to speak it. — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:9

To pray about the sixth hour. At the sixth hour, Peter hungered amidst the prayers, certainly for the salvation of the world, which the Lord in the sixth age of the world came to seek and save. He also wished to indicate this when at the same hour of the day, he thirsted by the well of the Samaritan woman. — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:9

Peter went up to the housetop. This signifies that the Church, leaving behind earthly desires, will have its conversation in the heavens. — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:10

A trance fell upon him, and he saw heaven opened. The opening of heaven designates the future imminent revelation of heavenly mysteries to the Gentiles, and the very entrance of the heavenly kingdom being opened. — Retractions on Acts

Atos 10:11

Submitted by heaven to earth at four corners. The four corners, by which the sheet was hanging, designate the four regions of the world to which the Church extends. For she is indeed the city of our God in His holy mountain, expanding the rejoicings of all the earth. For what is submitted from heaven indicates that it is preserved and increased by the grace of the Holy Spirit alone. Whence John says in the Apocalypse: I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God (Rev. 21). The four corners can also prefigure the evangelists, through whom the Church is imbued and exalted by heavenly grace. — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:11

And a certain vessel descended as it were a great sheet. That vessel signifies the Church endowed with incorruptible faith. For a moth does not consume linen, which corrupts other garments. Therefore, whoever wishes to belong to the mystery of the Catholic Church, let him exclude from his heart the corruption of evil thoughts, and thus be incorruptibly firm in faith, so that he is not gnawed in mind by wicked thoughts as if by moths. Alternatively: The moth is a heretic, wishing to corrupt the garment of the Lord but not being able by the dispensation of the Lord. This was also prefigured in the tunic of the Lord which the soldiers did not dare to tear. — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:12

In which were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles of the earth, and birds of the air. Those animals are all the nations impure by errors, but cleansed by the thrice immersion, that is, by the mystery of the Holy Trinity in baptism, which, leaving the image of man, took on the forms of beasts and serpents. Thus it is said to Herod because of his deceitful wickedness: Go tell that fox (Luke 13). And to the Pharisees: Brood of vipers (Luke 3). And to the lustful: Horses maddened in pursuit of mares (Jer. 5). And of the shameless: Do not give what is holy to the dogs (Matt. 7). And of the voluptuous: Do not throw your pearls before swine (ibid.). And of the proud and deceitful: The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests (Matt. 8). And generally of all: And man being in honor, that is, made in the image of God, did not understand, was compared to senseless animals (Ps. 49). But Solomon shows the true man, that is, incorrupt: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man (Eccl. 12). — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:13

Rise, Peter, kill and eat. What is said in Latin as "kill" is said in Greek in this place as θύσον, which is not a general term for killing but a specific term for the kind of killing by which sacrifices are offered to God. For both the sacrificial victim or sacrifice in Greek is θυσία, and the altar is called θυσιαστήριον. And in the psalm where we sing: "Sacrifice the sacrifice of righteousness" (Psalm IV), it is said in Greek, θύσατε θυσίαν, and "Offer to God the sacrifice of praise" (Psalm IV), θύσον τῷ Θεῷ θυσίαν. According to this meaning, therefore, it is said to Peter: θύσον and eat, which our translator has rendered as "Kill and eat." He could equally have translated it as "Offer and eat," so that Peter would understand that the various kinds of animals offered to him from heaven were to make those who were designated by such animals, by preaching the sacrifice of the Lord, taken from the harmful life of the paternal tradition and transferred into the new life of divine servitude through the sacraments of the Lord's passion. — Retractions on Acts

Atos 10:13

Rise, Peter, kill and eat. He says, rise to prepare for evangelization. Kill in the nations what they were, and make them what you are. For he who eats food outside takes it into his own body. Therefore, he commands that the nations placed outside through unbelief, with their past life killed, be incorporated into the society of the Church, which Peter signifies. According to what the Apostle Paul says about himself: For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God and Christ. And again: It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (Gal. 2). But those who are surrounded by heretics are as if devoured alive by death. — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:14

Because I have never eaten anything common and unclean. The people of the Jews, boasting themselves as part of God, call common foods those which all men use. For example, pork, oysters, hares, and such animals which do not split the hoof, nor chew the cud, nor have scales among fish. But unclean foods are said to be the flesh of beasts or reptiles, which are not edible by any mortals. — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:15

What God has cleansed, do not call common. The meaning of this divine voice is indeed clear, that the Gentiles, whom Peter still considered unclean, the internal providence of their Creator already counted among the clean. But note the custom of Holy Scripture, which usually calls unclean things common, because whoever wants to serve various allurements cannot be clean, as Scripture says: No one can serve two masters (Matt. VI). And again: You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve (Luke IV). Therefore, whoever desires to be clean should not divide his mind with diverse and multifarious thoughts, but should constrain himself to follow solely the will of his Creator. — Retractions on Acts

Atos 10:16

And immediately the vessel was received into heaven. After the third submission, the sheet is taken up to heaven, because after the conversation of this world, in which the Church sojourns purified by faith and baptism, the blessed and eternal heavenly habitation follows. — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:16

Now this happened three times, because the mystery of the Holy Trinity was to be preached by the twelve apostles to the four parts of the world, therefore four lines were let down from heaven a third time. Or as blessed Ambrose interprets, the figure repeated three times expressed the operation of the Trinity. And therefore, in mysteries, a triple question is put forth and a triple confirmation is celebrated, nor can anyone be purified except by a triple confession. Hence, Peter himself in the Gospel is asked three times whether he loves the Lord, so that by a triple response he might loosen the chains that he bound by denying the Lord. These things were shown to Peter opportunely, when Cornelius the gentile sent to summon him, so that he would not hesitate to deliver the Christian faith to the uncircumcised. For he was like those animals shown in the vessel by the Gospel. Hence also by the Holy Spirit he is confirmed to do the same. — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:19

The Spirit said to him: Behold, three men seek you. He heard this in his mind from the Spirit, not in the ear of the flesh. — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:20

Rise therefore and go down, and go with them. He is commanded to go down from the roof and go to preach, that the Church may not only watch for the Lord by climbing high, but also may preach the same to the infirm and to those still placed outside, as it were, but knocking at the door of Simon, that is, obedience, by returning to the active life, as if rising from bed. According to what the Lord said: You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man (John 1). Of which it is rightly remembered that his house was placed by the sea. For the sea designates the turbulent tumults and furies of the world, where wicked men, like very greedy fish, pursue and devour one another. But the conversation of the saints is in heaven (Philippians 3), who, even if the earthly house of this habitation is dissolved, have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2 Corinthians 5). — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:21

Behold, I am he whom you seek. What is the reason for which you have come? The Spirit told him that soldiers were present, and he was silent about why they had come, because to preserve the humility of the human mind, sometimes the Spirit of prophecy touches on part and does not touch on part. — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:25

And it happened that when Peter entered, Cornelius met him, and falling at his feet, worshiped him. By his bodily gesture, Cornelius showed what he had inwardly in his heart of devotion. For the listener met his teacher, who receives the word of faith with a pure heart, attentive ear, and eager desire. For he who is slowly drawn to believe is as if he were raised by his teacher from lying down. But he who, blushing at the stains of his life, falling on his face shows signs of humility and modesty, rightly merits to be raised by his teacher. — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:26

Peter, however, lifted him up, saying: Stand up; I too am a man. For the holiness of action has deserved the equality of communion. For in the fault of Ananias and Sapphira, the crime revealed the right of authority's vengeance. — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:28

And God showed me that no man should be called common or unclean. He undoubtedly showed this when the angelic voice sounded: What God has purified, do not call common. — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:30

And Cornelius said: Four days ago to this hour, I was praying in my house at the ninth hour. In Greek, it is written more fully and clearly: Four days ago to this hour, I was fasting and praying from the sixth hour until the ninth. Where it is clearly shown that four days before he spoke with Peter, he remained fasting until the ninth hour; and to make the fast acceptable to God, he prayed devoutly from the sixth hour until the ninth; hence he deserved to obtain what he sought with great persistence in fasting and prayer. — Retractions on Acts

Atos 10:30

From the fourth day until this hour, I was praying in my house at the ninth hour, and behold, a man stood before me, and so on. In Greek and in some Latin manuscripts it is written thus: From the fourth day until this hour I was fasting, and praying from the sixth hour to the ninth, and behold, a man, and so on. It was very appropriate that he who extended his prayer for three hours from the sixth to the ninth should be heard. At which time the Lord himself, whom he beseeched, prayed with outstretched hands on the cross for the salvation of the whole world. — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:32

He is staying in the house of Simon the tanner by the sea. Immediately therefore I sent to you, and you have done well by coming. It follows in Greek: When he arrives, he will speak to you. — Retractions on Acts

Atos 10:33

Now therefore we are all present before you to hear all that has been commanded to you by the Lord. In Greek it is: We are present before God. Which was rightly said by him who had a mind ready to obey the divine will as soon as he learned it, and he believed that its majesty was present everywhere. — Retractions on Acts

Atos 10:36

He sent the word to the children of Israel, announcing peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. It appears (he says) that God is no respecter of persons, because He sent His only begotten Son, who is the Lord and Creator of all, to make peace with the human race, in whose name, as the Prophets attest, the remission of sins should be received not only by the Jews but by all who believe. — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:37

You know the word which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and so on. He briefly included everything that is recited in the Creed: that Jesus is the Christ, that he is Lord of all, that he was sent to reconcile the world to God, that he was heralded by the voice of John, that he was anointed with the Holy Spirit, that through miracles he was declared to have God dwelling in him, that he was crucified and resurrected from the dead, and appeared to his followers, that he will come as the judge of all at the end, and that through faith, he will also spread his Church throughout the whole world. — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:38

How God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and power. Another edition says: As God anointed Him. Hence John preached Jesus, as God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit, then indeed when he said: He Himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit (Matthew III). And again: Because I saw the Spirit descending like a dove upon Him (John I). Therefore, Jesus was anointed not with visible oil, but with the gift of grace, which is signified by the visible ointment with which the Church anoints the baptized. Yet He was not then anointed with the Holy Spirit when it descended upon Him as a dove after His baptism. For then He deigned to prefigure His body, that is, His Church, in which the baptized especially receive the Holy Spirit. But He is to be understood to have been anointed with that mystical and invisible anointing at the time when the Word of God was made flesh, that is, when human nature was united with the Word of God in the womb of the virgin without any precedents of meritorious good works so that it became one person with Him. For this reason, we confess Him born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:38

Because God was with Him. That is, the Father with the Son. For it is better to understand it thus than to indicate that the divinity of the Son cohabitated with the man whom He assumed, lest we seem to duplicate the person of Christ and fall into the dogma of Nestorius. — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:41

For us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. In Greek, it is added, "For forty days," and Saint Augustine declared that it is so in his Codex, and in explaining it, he added: "Not that they ate and drank with him every day for forty days. For it would be contrary to John, who interposed those eight days during which he was not seen by them, to manifest himself for the third time at the Sea of Tiberias." Explaining the sacrament of his eating and his fasting for as many days elsewhere, he says: "He fasted when he was tempted before his death, still needing food; but he ate and drank when he was glorified, no longer needing food. For there he showed our labor in himself, but here he showed his comfort in us, defining both by forty days. For he fasted for forty days when he was tempted in the desert, as it is written in the Gospel, before the death of his flesh; and again, he was with the disciples for forty days coming and going, eating and drinking after the resurrection of his flesh." By this number forty, the duration of this world seems signified, in those who are called by grace to him, who did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. For there are ten commandments of the law already spread through the world by Christ's grace, and the world is divided into four parts, and ten multiplied by four makes forty, for the Lord redeemed them from the regions; he gathered them from the East and the West, from the North and the sea (Psalm 106). Therefore, fasting for forty days before his death, he seemed to cry out: Abstain from the desires of this world (1 Peter 2): but eating and drinking for forty days after the resurrection of his flesh, he cried out: Behold, I am with you until the end of the age. For fasting is in the tribulation of struggle, since he who is in the contest abstains from all things; but food is in the hope of peace, which will not be perfect until our body, of which we await the redemption, puts on immortality, which we do not yet glory in attaining, but are already fed by hope. The Apostle shows us doing both at the same time, saying: Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, as if the former were in food, the latter in fasting. For while we follow the way of the Lord, we both fast from the vanity of the present age and are refreshed by the promise of the future, here not setting our hearts, there feeding them above. — Retractions on Acts

Atos 10:41

For us who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead. Here blessed Peter expounds what is not recited in the Gospel, namely, that after the resurrection, he drank with the Lord. Unless perhaps we believe it was indicated there where he says: Until I drink it new with you in the house of My Father. — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:44

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. Then they asked him to stay with them for some days. Lest it be doubted that baptism should be given to the Gentiles, it was confirmed by the testimony of the Holy Spirit, which customarily sanctifies the waters of the font, in a new order of precedence, which it never happened with the Jews, as occurred once for the testimony of the Gentiles' faith. — Commentary on Acts

Atos 10:45

And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues, etc. This is similar to that statement by the same apostle Peter, when he was giving an account to the Jews why he had committed the sacraments of baptism to the circumcised. So then, he said, if God gave them the same gift as He gave to us, etc. There are many other testimonies of the Scriptures that consistently attest that the Holy Spirit is the gift of God, insofar as it is given to those who love God through Him. Therefore, it is the gift of God insofar as it is given to those to whom it is given; but it is God Himself, even if it is given to no one, because God was coeternal with the Father and the Son before it was given to anyone; nor because they give, is it given, hence it is not lesser than them. For thus it is given, as a gift of God, so that He gives Himself as God. For the Spirit blows where He wills (John III). — Retractions on Acts

Atos 10:48

And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. And the circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. Since the rule of the Church is that believers are to be baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity, it is asked how Luke, throughout the entire text of this book, testifies that baptism is given only in the name of Jesus Christ. Blessed Ambrose resolved this by saying that the mystery is fulfilled through the unity of the name. For whether you say Christ, you have designated both God the Father, who anointed the Son, and the very Son who was anointed, and the Spirit by whom he was anointed; for it is written: Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit; whether you say Father, and his Son, and Spirit, you indicate equally in the mouth if you even comprehend it in your heart; or if you say Spirit, you name both God the Father, from whom the Spirit proceeds, and the Son, because the Spirit is also of the Son. Hence, that authority may also be joined to reason, Scripture indicates that we can rightly be baptized in the Spirit as well, with the Lord saying: But you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5). And the Apostle says: For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body (1 Cor. 12:13). Elsewhere: It is particularly fitting for us to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, since as the Apostle says: For as many of you as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death, etc. (Rom. 6:3). — Commentary on Acts