Peter had an aversion to Gentiles, especially Roman Gentiles. We don’t really know much else about Cornelius, but it’s really important to talk about Peter’s role in this story. Enter the disciple Philip who explains the text to him. The eunuch from Ethiopia wants to understand the Bible but has no one to guide him. This reminds me of the eunuch who talks with Philip in Acts 8. This happens when Peter refuses to eat with the Gentile Christians in Galatians 2. Even Peter has a difficult time swallowing his pride and gets reprimanded for doing so by Paul. After all, many of them underwent circumcision and other rituals that the Gentiles didn’t have to. We also know the Jews had a difficult time accepting Gentiles into The Way. Enter Cornelius and his god-fearing family. Those of The Way had baptized Jews and Samaritans (people who had Jewish roots), but no Gentiles. Apart from this, we don’t see many Gentiles jump into the narrative until Acts 10. Who Was Cornelius in the Book of Acts?Īs mentioned before, Cornelius serves as a Roman centurion. We’ll also discuss what we can learn from his story and his interactions with Peter, two men from completely opposite worlds. In this article, we’ll dive into the character of Cornelius and what he does. Because Christ died on the cross for all humanity, this grafted in Gentiles into God’s people for those who choose to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. In the vision, God essentially declares the Gentiles no longer unclean. An angel appears to Cornelius and Cornelius connects with Peter after Peter undergoes a vision. He serves as a Roman soldier (centurion, to be specific), a rarity amongst Christian circles. We find such a case in Acts 10 when we meet a Roman centurion named Cornelius.Ĭornelius, who lives in a town known as Caesarea, ends up converting his whole family to Christianity. Nevertheless, many Roman citizens converted to The Way, later known as Christianity. Hence why Christians endured executions, persecution, and imprisonment under the name of the Roman Empire. When the news of the Gospel spread throughout the Roman world in the first century, the group least on board for the message was the Romans.
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