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Atos 10

BLIVRE · Chapter 10/28

1E havia um certo homem em Cesareia, de nome Cornélio, centurião, do esquadrão chamado Italiano;

2Devoto, e temente a Deus, com toda a sua casa; e que fazia muitas doações ao povo, e continuamente orava a Deus.

3Ele viu claramente em visão, cerca da hora nona do dia, a um anjo de Deus, que vinha a ele, e lhe dizia: Cornélio!

4E ele, olhando-lhe atentamente, e muito atemorizado, disse: O que é, Senhor?E disse-lhe: Tuas orações e doações subiram à memória diante de Deus.

5E agora envia homens a Jope, e manda chamar a Simão, que tem por sobrenome Pedro.

6Este está hospedado na casa de um Simão curtidor, cuja casa é junto ao mar; este te dirá o que deves fazer.

7E tendo partido o anjo que falava com Cornélio, ele chamou a dois de seus servos, e a um soldado devoto, dos que permaneciam continuamente com ele.

8E tendo lhes contado tudo, enviou-os a Jope.

9E no dia seguinte, enquanto estes iam pelo caminho, e chegando perto da cidade, Pedro subiu ao telhado para orar, quase à hora sexta.

10E tendo ele fome, quis comer; [e] enquanto estavam [lhe] preparando, caiu sobre ele um êxtase.

11E ele viu o céu aberto, e descia a ele um certo objeto, como um grande lençol, amarrado pelas quatro pontas, e abaixando-se à terra;

12Em que havia de todos os animais quadrúpedes da terra, e animais selvagens, e répteis, e aves do céu.

13E veio-lhe uma voz, [dizendo] : Pedro, mata e come.

14Mas Pedro disse: De maneira nenhuma, Senhor; porque nunca comi coisa alguma ordinária ou impura.

15E a voz voltou a [dizer] ,pela segunda vez: O que Deus purificou, não faças tu [como se fosse] ordinário.

16E isto aconteceu três vezes; e o objeto voltou a ser recolhido acima ao céu.

17E enquanto Pedro estava pensando perplexo consigo mesmo o que seria aquela visão que ele tinha visto, eis que os homens que tinham sido enviados por Cornélio, perguntando pela casa de Simão, pararam à porta.

18E chamando, perguntaram se Simão, que tinha por sobrenome Pedro, estava hospedado ali.

19E estando Pedro pensando naquela visão, o Espírito lhe disse: Eis que três homens te buscam.

20Então levanta-te, desce, e vai com eles, sem duvidar; porque eu os enviei.

21E Pedro, tendo descido aos homens que tinham lhe sido enviados por Cornélio, disse: Eis que eu sou a quem buscais; qual é o motivo pelo qual estais aqui?

22E eles disseram: Cornélio, [que é] centurião, homem justo e temente a Deus, [e] que tem [bom] testemunho de toda a nação dos judeus, foi revelado por um santo anjo para te chamar até a casa dele, e ouvir de tuas palavras.

23Então chamando-os para dentro, recebeu-os em casa. Mas no dia seguinte, Pedro foi com eles; e foram com ele alguns dos irmãos de Jope.

24E no dia seguinte chegaram a Cesareia. E Cornélio estava esperando por eles, tendo chamado a seus parentes e amigos mais íntimos.

25E sucedeu que, ao Pedro entrar, Cornélio se encontrou com ele, e caindo aos pés dele, adorou-o.

26Mas Pedro o levantou, dizendo: Levanta-te; eu mesmo também sou um ser humano.

27E tendo conversado com ele, entrou; e achou a muitos que [ali] tinham se reunido.

28E disse-lhes: Vós sabeis como não é lícito a um homem judeu juntar-se de estrangeiros, ou aproximar-se deles; mas Deus me mostrou que a ninguém chame de ordinário ou impuro.

29Portanto eu, tendo sido chamado, vim sem qualquer oposição [de minha parte] . Então eu pergunto: por que motivo me mandastes chamar?

30E Cornélio disse: Há quatro dias que, até esta hora eu estava jejuando, e orava à hora nona em minha casa.

31E eis que um homem se pôs diante de mim com uma roupa brilhante, e disse: Cornélio, tura oração tem sido ouvida, e tuas doações têm sido lembradas diante de Deus.

32Envia pois a Jope, e manda chamar a Simão, que tem por sobrenome Pedro; este se hospeda na casa de Simão o curtidor, junto ao mar; quando ele vier, falará contigo.

33Então logo eu enviei a ti; e bem fizeste em vir até aqui; agora pois estamos todos [aqui] presentes diante de Deus, para ouvir tudo quanto Deus tem te ordenado.

34E Pedro, abrindo a boca, disse: Reconheço que é verdade que Deus não faz acepção de pessoas.

35Mas sim, em toda nação, aquele que o teme, e pratica a justiça, [este] lhe é agradável.

36A palavra que Deus enviou aos filhos de Israel, anunciando o Evangelho da paz por meio de Jesus Cristo; este é o Senhor de todos.

37Vós sabeis da palavra que veio por toda a Judeia, começando desde a Galileia, depois do batismo que João pregou.

38[E] sobre Jesus de Nazaré; como Deus o ungiu com o Espírito Santo, e com poder; o qual percorreu [os lugares] fazendo o bem, e curando a todos os oprimidos pelo diabo; porque Deus era com ele.

39E nós somos testemunhas de todas as coisas que ele fez; tanto na terra dos judeus, como em Jerusalém; ao qual mataram, pendurando [-o] em um madeiro.

40A este Deus ressuscitou ao terceiro dia, e fez com que fosse manifesto;

41Não a todo o povo, mas sim a testemunhas determinadas por Deus com antecedência: a nós, que juntamente com ele comemos e bebemos, depois dele ter ressuscitado dos mortos.

42E ele nos mandou pregar ao povo, e dar testemunho de que ele é o que foi ordenado por Deus [para ser] Juiz dos vivos e dos mortos.

43A este todos os profetas dão testemunho, de que todos os que nele crerem receberão perdão dos pecados por meio do seu nome.

44E estando Pedro ainda falando estas palavras, o Espírito Santo caiu sobre todos os que ouviam a palavra.

45E os crentes que eram da circuncisão, tantos quantos tinham vindo com Pedro, ficaram muito admirados de que também sobre os gentios fosse derramado o dom do Espírito Santo.

46Porque eles os ouviam falar em [diversas] línguas, e a engrandecer a Deus. Então Pedro respondeu:

47Por acaso pode alguém impedir a água, para que não sejam batizados estes, que também, assim como nós, receberam o Espírito Santo?

48E mandou que fossem batizados no nome do Senhor. Então lhe pediram que continuasse [com eles] por alguns dias.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

God prepares Peter with a vision of a sheet full of unclean animals, teaching him not to call impure what God has made clean. Peter goes to the house of the Roman centurion Cornelius, and the Holy Spirit falls on the Gentiles gathered there.

Explanation

This is a turning point in Acts: for the first time, Gentiles (non-Jews) receive the Holy Spirit and are baptized without first becoming Jews. The vision of the sheet breaks down a deep cultural and religious barrier for Peter, raised under strict Jewish dietary laws. Cornelius, a God-fearing Roman soldier, shows that sincere seeking is recognized by God regardless of ethnic origin. The episode confirms once and for all that the gospel is for all peoples, not an exclusive club.

Fun facts

  • Cornelius's 'Italian Regiment' was an auxiliary unit of the Roman army made up of recruits from Italy, confirmed by Roman historical records as having served in Syria-Palestine in the first century.
  • The Jewish dietary laws (kashrut) that forbade certain animals come from Leviticus 11 — which is why Peter's vision of eating 'reptiles and unclean birds' was so shocking to a practicing Jew.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Atos 10:1Cornelius was a mid-ranking Roman officer, commanding about a hundred soldiers. The Italian cohort was a military unit made up of recruits from Italy itself, serving in the province of Judea.
  2. Atos 10:2Cornelius is introduced as an unusual Gentile: devout, God-fearing along with his whole household, generous in giving alms, and devoted to prayer, even without having converted to Judaism.
  3. Atos 10:3The ninth hour was around 3 p.m., one of the fixed times for Jewish prayer. Cornelius, even as a Gentile, kept prayer habits similar to the Jews’ because he feared God, without yet being fully converted to the Jewish faith.
  4. Atos 10:4Startled by the angel’s appearance, Cornelius hears something unexpected: his prayers and alms had already “come up” before God as a memorial, proof that God already recognized his devotion even though he was a Gentile.
  5. Atos 10:5The angel gives a very practical instruction: send for a specific man, Simon, also called Peter, who was in another city, Joppa.
  6. Atos 10:6The angel spells out the exact address: Peter was staying at the house of another Simon, a tanner, by the sea — information precise enough to make him easy to find.
  7. Atos 10:7As soon as the angel disappears, Cornelius acts quickly, calling together two trusted servants and a devout soldier from among his own men.
  8. Atos 10:8After telling them everything that had happened, Cornelius sends these three men on the journey to Joppa, setting off the chain of events that will bring the two sides of the story together.
  9. Atos 10:9While Cornelius’s messengers are approaching Joppa, Peter goes up to the housetop to pray around noon, a simultaneous detail the narrative uses to link the two scenes.
  10. Atos 10:10Hungry, Peter waits for the food to be prepared, and it is during this ordinary interval of waiting that he has an ecstatic experience, a kind of trance.
  11. Atos 10:11The vision of the sheet brings every kind of animal, including species Jewish law classified as unclean and forbidden to eat. It is the centerpiece of the experience God uses to prepare Peter to understand the message that follows.
  12. Atos 10:12In the vision every kind of animal appears: four-footed creatures, reptiles, and birds, including species Jewish law classified as unclean and forbidden to eat.
  13. Atos 10:13A voice directly commands Peter to kill and eat the animals on the sheet, an instruction that runs against everything he had learned as an observant Jew.
  14. Atos 10:14Peter is referring to the Jewish dietary laws of Leviticus, which separated permitted animals from forbidden ones. The vision asks him to eat precisely the forbidden ones, which shocks him at first.
  15. Atos 10:15The voice repeats the command, saying Peter must not call unclean what God has already cleansed, planting the central idea he will only truly understand later on.
  16. Atos 10:16The scene repeats three times in a row before the sheet is taken back up into heaven, a repetition that reinforces the importance of the message for Peter.
  17. Atos 10:17While Peter is still trying to work out the meaning of the vision, Cornelius’s messengers already arrive and stand at the gate of the house asking for him — the practical explanation of the vision is literally knocking at the door.
  18. Atos 10:18The men confirm whether that was indeed where Simon, also called Peter, was staying, showing they knew exactly where to look.
  19. Atos 10:19While Peter is still processing the vision, the Holy Spirit intervenes directly, telling him that three men were looking for him.
  20. Atos 10:20The Spirit tells Peter to go down and go with the men without hesitating, assuring him that He Himself had sent them — removing any doubt about following unknown Gentiles.
  21. Atos 10:21Peter goes down and introduces himself directly to the messengers, asking the reason for their visit, still without knowing the full details of the situation.
  22. Atos 10:22The men explain who Cornelius is — a centurion respected even by the Jews themselves — and tell him that an angel instructed Cornelius to send for Peter to hear his message.
  23. Atos 10:23Peter lodges the messengers for a night, an ordinary gesture of hospitality, and the next day sets out with them, also bringing along some Christians from Joppa as witnesses to what would happen.
  24. Atos 10:24After another day of travel, they arrive in Caesarea, where Cornelius is already waiting for them, having gathered his relatives and close friends to hear Peter along with him.
  25. Atos 10:25Seeing Peter arrive, Cornelius falls at his feet in a gesture of worship, probably a common custom before important figures in the Roman culture of the time.
  26. Atos 10:26Peter immediately rejects this kind of reverence, reminding Cornelius that he too is only a man, not a divine figure to be worshipped.
  27. Atos 10:27Still talking at the entrance, Peter goes into the house and finds a much larger group of Gentiles gathered than he had probably expected.
  28. Atos 10:28Peter explains to Cornelius that avoiding close contact with Gentiles because of purity rules was a Jewish social custom, not necessarily a written law. The vision of the sheet was what changed his understanding of this.
  29. Atos 10:29Peter makes clear that he came without hesitation despite the cultural barrier, and asks directly what the specific reason for the summons was.
  30. Atos 10:30Cornelius tells his own side of the story: he was fasting and praying at home when he had the vision, beginning the account of how it all started on his end.
  31. Atos 10:31Cornelius repeats what the angel told him: that his prayers had been heard and his alms remembered by God, confirming the same message already told to the reader before.
  32. Atos 10:32Cornelius also repeats the exact instruction to send for Peter at the house of Simon the tanner, by the sea, showing how the details match perfectly between the two visions.
  33. Atos 10:33Cornelius finishes by explaining why he gathered so many people: everyone there was ready and willing to hear everything God had commanded Peter to say.
  34. Atos 10:34Peter arrives at the conclusion that God is “no respecter of persons”: He welcomes anyone who fears Him and does what is right, whether Jew or Gentile, with no preferential treatment based on ethnic origin.
  35. Atos 10:35Peter concludes that God accepts anyone, from any nation, who fears Him and lives righteously — it is not a matter of being born Jewish or Gentile.
  36. Atos 10:36Peter recalls that the message of peace through Jesus Christ had already been sent first to Israel, making clear that the Jews had historical priority, but not exclusivity.
  37. Atos 10:37Peter assumes that his Gentile listeners already knew something about the events that had taken place in Judea, beginning with John the Baptist’s preaching in Galilee.
  38. Atos 10:38Peter sums up Jesus’s ministry simply: anointed by God with power, He went about doing good and healing people oppressed by evil, proof that God was with Him.
  39. Atos 10:39Peter presents himself, along with the other apostles, as an eyewitness to all this, and mentions Jesus’s death “hanged on a tree,” an expression for crucifixion.
  40. Atos 10:40Peter affirms that God raised Jesus on the third day and made a point of letting this become publicly known.
  41. Atos 10:41The resurrection was not shown to everyone, only to witnesses chosen beforehand by God, who even ate and drank with Jesus after He rose.
  42. Atos 10:42The apostles were charged with preaching this to the people and testifying that Jesus was appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.
  43. Atos 10:43Peter concludes that all the Old Testament prophets already pointed to this same promise: whoever believes in Jesus receives forgiveness of sins through His name.
  44. Atos 10:44The Holy Spirit falls on the Gentile listeners even before water baptism, unlike the pattern seen in other episodes. In the eyes of the Jews present, it is a sign that God had already accepted these Gentiles without requiring them to become Jews first.
  45. Atos 10:45The Jewish Christians accompanying Peter are astonished to see the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out on Gentiles too, something that broke their expectations.
  46. Atos 10:46The visible proof that the Gentiles had also received the Spirit is the same seen at Pentecost: they begin speaking in tongues and openly praising God.
  47. Atos 10:47Peter draws the logical conclusion on the spot: since God had given these Gentiles the Spirit, there would be no reason to deny them water baptism.
  48. Atos 10:48Peter orders them to be baptized in the name of the Lord, and the group even asks him to stay lodged with them for a few more days, extending the contact.

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