![]() ![]() The passage in Acts 10 where Peter hesitates to go to Cornelius is an excellent demonstration of how Jews and Gentiles did not associate with one another, even though Cornelius was “a devout man who feared God…gave alms generously…and prayed continually to God”(Acts 10:2). Long says in this post, the Jew-Gentile separation was obviously huge at that time. I am not sure of the timing of Galatians 2 when Paul and Peter meet in Antioch compared to Peter and Cornelius, but it is evident that Peter was trying to work out the Jew and Gentile cultures would look like after Christ came. In Galatians 2 we see Peter being hyprocritical when it came to associating with Jews and Gentiles. HIs opening comments about it being against Jewish law to associate with a Gentile do seem to show Peter’s thinking is still filled with cultural separation between the Jews and Gentiles. Either way, Peter eventually went on his way and met with Cornelius. I’m not sure if this would be a sign of his hesitation or whether it was a practical issue in that the journey would be too long to be completed that day anyway. So Peter goes and meets them, but then invites them in to be guests and then they left the next day (v. When the men came to get Peter, he had just been commanded by the Spirit to not hesitate in going with the men. Even though God had told Peter that the unclean foods where now clean Peter refused to kill and eat any of it.Īfter reading chapter ten and the post, my first question is whether Peter really did hesitate in going to Cornelius. Paul same as Peter did not just give up the Law and stop following it. One thing I noticed was evidence that Peter and Paul kept the mind set of following the Law for themselves even after the message of Grace was revealed. This vision probably puzzled Peter, especially when he went and uncircumcised Gentiles received the Holy Spirit. “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” (Acts 10:15) Peter obviously still had a mindset that the Kingdom was coming and the only way Gentiles could be saved was to become a Jew. That is why God gave the vision of unclean food becoming clean to Peter, so he would go to the house of an uncircumcised Gentile even though it was against Jewish Law. Peter had a strong conviction to follow the Law and that was not going to change easily. It is very interesting to see how Peter would live a Tanner who was considered unclean because of their job but would not eat with a God fearing Gentile. The difference, of course, is that even if Cornelius was a God-Fearer, he was still an uncircumcised Gentile. Peter has no problem staying in the home of a tanner who was unclean, yet will not enter the home of a Gentile God-fearer, someone who was likely more “clean” than the tanner, with respect to the Law. This is a testimony to how far Jews and Gentiles were separated culturally. It is therefore quite curious that Peter hesitates when he is told to God to Cornelius in chapter 10. While tanners are never included in the list of outsiders with whom Jesus eats, they might very well be in the same category as tax collectors and prostitutes. Just like Jesus, he is eating and drinking with the outcast, people who are Jewish but on the fringe of society from the perspective of Temple purity and Pharisaical tradition. That Peter shares hospitality with Simon is significant. The home is large enough to have a gate and courtyard far enough away from the house that Peter did not hear Cornelius’ men arrive (10:17-18). But business appears to be good for Simon since he is able to open his home to Peter. It is possible that Simon owns a tanning business and does not work the trade himself. They make a tannery only at the east side of a town” ( m.Batra 2:9). The rabbis mention tanners or tanneries in the context of other “unclean things.” In m.Meg 3:2, a tannery is in the same category as a bathhouse and public urinal in m.Ket 7:10 a tanner is lumped together with “he who is afflicted with boils, or who has a polypus, or who collects dog excrement.” Because of the stench of the tanner’s shop, most towns required that the tanner had to live on the outskirts of town, downwind! The Mishnah states “They put carrion, graves, and tanneries at least fifty cubits away from a town. A tanner was one of the most unclean trades in any ancient society, the nature of their work kept them in a state of ritual uncleanliness (Lev 11:35), and the process of tanning leather resulted in a state of physical uncleanliness.
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