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associations, Peter pronounces him to be at poeent an alien from the gospel, but holds ont ope of the purifying influence of repentance and payer for forgiveness. The apostles, after some her work, returned to Jerusalem, and on their way ‘evangelized many villages of the Samaritans.’ Thus, in this first effort to extend the gospel beyond its earliest limits, the initiation does not rest with St. Peter. The function which belongs to him, as one of the delegates of the apostolic college, is to set upon the work the seal of authoritative approval, and to deal decisively with a new danger inseparable from the contact of the Church with outside habits of thought and life.
In the earlier chapters of the Acta there is not one clear indication of date. But itis possible to ascertain approximately the time which elapsed between the Ascension and the visit of Peter and John to Samaria. It appears tolerably certain that Damascus was not included in the kingdom of Aretas before the beginning of the reign of Gaius (Schurer, HJP τ. ii p. 8571. ; Turner, art. ΟἩΒΟΝΟΙΟΘΥ or NT in vol. i. pp. 416, 424), and that therefore St. Paul's flight from Damascus (2Co 1153) cannot have been earlier than a.pD. 37, nor his conversion earlier than 35 (Gal 115; cf. Ac 923). Some weeks, perhaps months, must have elapsed between the conversion of St. Paul and the martyr- dom of St. Stephen (Ac 83 915 2246 26100 εἰς τὰς ife σόλως, Gal 113), Hence the pearl visit to Samaria must have taken place about five years after the Ascension (4.D. 29).
3. The Church of the World (9*-end).—After his return from Samaria, it seems that St. Peter con- tinued at Jerusalem during the remainder of the persecution. But the conversion of Saul of Tarsus and the consequent peace of the Church were the ΡῈ for an important change in the apostolic policy. St. Peter starts alone on a journey of visitation and evangelization—vaguely described in Ac 953 by the words διερχόμενον διὰ πάντων. It is followed by a more or less protracted sojourn at Lydda and Joppa, where Christian communities had already been founded, and later at Cwsarea. The significance of this notice is appreciated only when it is observed that throughout the earlier period of the history Luke has been at pains to oupan the solidarity of the apostolic body at Jerusalem (8! 6? 5"). We are therefore led to the conclusion that this is the time when the apostolic college at Jerusalem, with St. Peter as its natural leader and spokesman, separated, and when James became the acknowledged head of the Church there. Luke sketches the history only of St. Peter at this important crisis, partly because of his primacy among the apostles, partly because his divinely guided action had an important bearing on the extension of the Church to the Gentiles.
The apostle’s journey ended at Lydda, where the miraculous restoration of the cripple A2neas had a wide influence through Lydda and ‘the Sharon.’ From Lydda St. Peter is summoned to Joppa, and there restores Tabitha to life. Lk in his account of the miracle seems desirous of suggesting that with one significant exception—‘ he kneeled down and prayed’—St. Peter in action and in words imitated the example of the Lord in the house of Jairus. The miracle was the means of the con- version of many in Joppa. There Peter prolonged his sojourn, in the house of a certain Simon, a tanner, near the shore (105. The place was doubly significant. On the one hand, since the trade of a tanner was considered among the Jews as almost unclean (see Schoettgen and Wetstein on Ac 9%), the choice of this house as a lodging may indicate that the apostle’s Jewish prejudices were becoming weaker. On the other hand, Joppa, looking out over the waters of the Mediterranean, was to a Jew ‘an entrance for the isles of the sea’ (1 Mac 14°), and by its very position suggested the problem of those ‘afar off.’ Thus the apostle’s mind was in a sense prepared for the thrice- repeated vision, and for the divinely given inter- pretation of it—‘ What God hath cleansed, make
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not thou common’ — grenelae scruples which held him back from ‘ killing an eating’ what to him as a Jew was ‘common and unclean’* ; and in turn this ‘voice from heaven’ prepared him to receive the monition of the Spirit that he should go with the messengers of the Roman centurion, ‘nothing doubting.’ Tn re rard, then, to the evangelization of a Gentile, distinct supernatural direction was given to the Hebrew apostle as it had earlier been vouchsafed to the Hellenistic evangelist (8). St. Peter at once with six brethren (11), whose devotion to Judaism was beyond sus-
icion (10%), went with Cornelius’ messengers to
Jesarea. The entrance of the leader of the apostles into the Roman capital of Judea, the noted seaport, predominantly Gentile in charac- ter, was in itself a crisis in the progress of the gospel. The sequel increased the significance of the visit. On his first meeting with Cornelius the apostle refuses the Roman’s unexpected act of reverence, and entering the house begins with an emphatic statement as to the position of a religious Jew towards Gentiles, and as to the way in which God had Himself taught him to regard no human being as ‘common or unclean.’ This was the only explanation of his ready response to Cornelius’ invitation. Then, in answer to Cornelius’ story of the Divine direction granted to him, St. Peter begins his solemn address to his Gentile hearers.