Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Acts 10:1-23, Cornelius and Peter's vision
A God-fearing Roman centurion in Caesarea is told in a vision to send for Peter. At noon on a Joppa rooftop Peter sees a sheet full of unclean animals and hears a voice tell him to eat.
Acts 10:1-23, in every translation this tool compares.
Cornelius, a Roman officer stationed at Caesarea, prays to Israel's God and gives to the poor, and an angel tells him to send for Peter in Joppa. Around midday the next day Peter, praying on a rooftop, sees a vision of a sheet full of animals the law forbids and is told to kill and eat. He refuses, as a lifelong keeper of the food laws, and is told not to treat as unclean what God has cleansed. As he puzzles over it, Cornelius's men arrive, and the Spirit tells Peter to go with them.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/rome-in-charge\/","n":"Rome in charge","s":"Rome ruled through client princes, local elites and governors. It kept the power to execute, and its soldiers, coins and taxes were everywhere.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/proselytes-and-god-fearers\/","n":"Converts and God-fearers","s":"Gentiles drawn to Israel's God stood at two distances. Converts took on the whole law, circumcision included, and became Jews. God-fearers worshiped Israel's God, gave to the synagogue and kept some customs, but did not convert.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/jewish-prayer\/","n":"Prayer in Jesus' day","s":"Set prayers, set hours, standing to pray, God addressed as Father, and prayers for his name and his kingdom. Jesus taught his own disciples a prayer inside that world.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/food-laws\/","n":"Clean and unclean food","s":"The law of Moses sorted animals into clean and unclean, and keeping kosher marked Jews off from their neighbors. Strict Jews also avoided Gentile food, Gentile wine and Gentile tables.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/unclean-by-touch\/","n":"Unclean by touch","s":"Under the law, skin disease, bleeding, corpses, tombs and certain animals made a person ritually unclean, and touch could pass it on.","r":""}
Caesarea was the governor's seat, with five auxiliary cohorts and a cavalry unit; auxiliaries were mostly local Syrian recruits, not Roman citizens, and the city's Syrian and Jewish residents often clashed (the cultural backgrounds article Caesarea and Its Soldiers). A centurion commanded about eighty men and a cohort up to six hundred; a cohort kept the name of the place it was first raised, so the Italian Regiment was probably largely Syrian, though Cornelius's Roman name suggests he was a citizen (the article; Keener). The sources differ on pay: Keener says a centurion earned fifteen times a soldier's pay, the ESV Study Bible as much as five times. Soldiers were officially forbidden to marry, so household may mean servants (Keener and his notes). Keener dates the scene before AD 41, when Agrippa I had his own troops in Caesarea; the Zondervan Bible dictionary doubts the Italian cohort was stationed there then and notes the suggestion that Cornelius was retired. Wright notes that the first Roman Luke introduces overturns the picture of army officers as Rome's demigods. Lodging Gentiles overnight broke strict piety, and a tanner's house was already suspect to strict pietists (Keener and his notes).
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, article Caesarea and Its Soldiers, and notes on Acts 10:2, 10:3, 10:14 and 10:23
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Acts 10:1, 10:2, 10:3, 10:14-16 and 10:23a
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Acts 10:1
- N. T. Wright, Acts for Everyone, Part One, comment on Acts 10:1-16
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry Italian Regiment
