Acts 10:24

10:19-33 When we see our call clear to any service, we should not be perplexed with doubts and scruples arising from prejudices or former ideas. Cornelius had called together his friends, to partake with him of the heavenly wisdom he expected from Peter. We should not covet to eat our spiritual morsels alone. It ought to be both given and taken as kindness and respect to our kindred and friends, to invite them to join us in religious exercises. Cornelius declared the direction God gave him to send for Peter. We are right in our aims in attending a gospel ministry, when we do it with regard to the Divine appointment requiring us to make use of that ordinance. How seldom ministers are called to speak to such companies, however small, in which it may be said that they are all present in the sight of God, to hear all things that are commanded of God! But these were ready to hear what Peter was commanded of God to say.

And the morrow after they entered into Caesarea,.... So that they were one day, and part of another, on their journey: and Cornelius waited for them; he had an eager desire to hear the word from Peter's mouth; and was longing and looking for the coming of him, with the men he sent for him; and he and his family were in a waiting posture, and ready to hear the word, when the apostle of Christ should come: it would be well if this was always the case of the hearers of the word, to assemble before their ministers come; and be waiting for them, and in full expectation of them, and ready to receive them, and the words of grace which drop from their lips: and had called together his kinsmen and near friends; or necessary ones: not only his relations according to the flesh, which might be in the Italian band, but his most familiar acquaintance, with whom he was in the strictest friendship; who may be called "necessary", as they are both by the Greeks and Romans, because they are often necessary for assistance and counsel: this shows the true grace of God in him, which wherever it is, puts a man on seeking after the spiritual and eternal welfare of all with whom he is concerned, and especially his relatives and friends.

Near (ἀναγκαίους) The word originally means necessary; hence of those who are bound by necessary or natural ties; blood-relations. But as relatives or kinsmen is expressed by συγγενεῖς, this must be taken in the sense of intimate friends, a meaning which it has in later Greek writers.

Joppa was about fifteen leagues from Caesarea, so that the next day after they set out they might easily come from Joppa thither. His kinsmen; his relations. And near friends; and such as he had the greatest love and kindness for; he thought that he could not express it better, than by giving them an opportunity to hear the word of life, and to gain instruction for their souls: and probably those here spoken of were reckoned as friends, and near friends, by Cornelius, because they were such aswith him had forsaken all pagan idolatry, and were worshippers of the true and living God.

Acts 10:24 . Ἦν προσδοκῶν , was waiting for them) He had not suffered himself to become immersed in other business meanwhile, but wholly devoted himself to this concern, and during the whole of this time was being made ready for it.— τοὺς συγγενεῖς , his kinsmen ) The kingdom of GOD is often propagated, as external circumstances admit. Συγγενεῖς , kinsmen , are from one stock, including those so connected even collaterally.— τοὺς ἀναγκαίους , his connections, his intimate friends [Lat. necessarios , those bound to one by any tie, ‘necessitudo’]) This tie of connection is wider in extent than kindred , and is applied even to affinity, neighbourhood, colleagueship, or fellowship in the same college, etc.— φίλους , friends ) Not all kinsmen and connections are friends. He called together those whom he thought likely to wish to be present. [They were therefore men who were themselves not unlike Cornelius: Acts 10:2 . How often is it the case, that friendship cultivated with the good or the bad, when we are not expecting it, turns out either to our gain or to our hurt!—V. g.]

Verse 24. - On the morrow for the morrow after, A.V.; was waiting for waited , A.V.; having called for and had called , A.V.; and his near for and near , A.V. On the morrow . The addition of after in A.V. makes the sense clearer. They entered into Caesarea . A memorable event, being the first invasion of the Roman empire by the soldiers of the cross. His near friends . We have here a proof of the strong faith of Cornelius. He did not doubt the angel's promise (vers. 5 and 6). We see his brotherly love. He invited his friends to come and hear the message of salvation; those whom, as Chrysostom suggests, he had himself brought to a better mind. Acts 10:24

24 . And the morrow after they entered into Cesarea ] Their road lay all the way along the coast, and as Apollonia was situate about halfway between Joppa and Cæsarea, it is most likely that they passed the night there. And Cornelius waited ( was waiting ) for them ] His attitude of preparation shews how convinced he was of the reality of his vision, and that God was about to give him an answer to his prayers. his kinsmen and near friends ] These we can hardly doubt were men of like mind with Cornelius in their faith and worship, and so had naturally been told of the answer which he was expecting, and invited to be present when Peter arrived.

(24) His kinsmen and near friends. —These, we may well believe, were, like the soldiers and slaves under his command, more or less in sympathy with Cornelius. He, at all events, was seeking to bring them also within the range of the new illumination which he was expecting to receive.

Acts 10:24 . On the route see Edersheim, Jewish Social Life , p. 27; and on this and the following verse in [240] text as specially supporting his theory, see Blass, Philology of the Gospels , pp. 116 ff. and 127.— ἦν προσδοκῶν : characteristic Lucan construction, see above Acts 1:10 ; cf. Luke 1:21 . προσδ ., favourite with St. Luke; six times in Gospel, five in Acts, elsewhere in Gospels only twice in Matthew.— συγκ ., i.e. , on the day on which he expected the advent of Peter and the returning messengers as to a feast; they were probably also fearers of the true God, and of a like mind with Cornelius.— ἀναγκαίους , necessarios cf. Jos., Ant. , vii., 14, 4; xi., 6, 4; xiii., 7, 2, etc., and instances in Wetstein. [240] R(omana), in Blass, a first rough copy of St. Luke.