after the baptism which John preached, Jesus of Nazareth: how God anointed Him with the Holy Ghost, and with power, who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed [1] by the devil, for God was with Him. And we are witnesses[2] of all things that He did in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they killed, hanging Him upon a tree. Him God raised up the third day, and gave Him to be made manifest, not to all the people, but to witnesses pre-ordained [3] by God, even to us who did eat and drink with Him after He arose again from the dead, and He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that it was He who was appointed by God to be the Judge of the living and of the dead. To Him all the prophets[4] give testimony, that by His Name all receive remission of sins who believe in Him.”
Whilst Peter was yet speaking, the Holy Ghost[5] came upon all who heard him. Peter and his disciples[6] were astonished to hear these Gentiles speak in divers tongues, even as the apostles had done on the day of Pentecost. Then Peter said: “Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?” And he commanded[7] them all to be baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
From that time forth the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles in various other places. Paul, as Saul was now called, and Barnabas,
- ↑ Oppressed. Or possessed.
- ↑ Witnesses. What you know about Jesus you know only by hearsay, but we, the apostles, know it by experience, having seen with our eyes and heard with our ears all that occurred. Moreover we are not only eye-witnesses, but we are official public witnesses, because sent by Christ to bear witness before the world.
- ↑ Pre-ordained. The apostles were pre-ordained by God, i. e. were chosen from all eternity to be witnesses to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
- ↑ All the prophets. The prophets foretold this, as, for example, in that passage quoted in Old Test. LV: “In His days shall justice spring up, and abundance of peace”, and again in Old Test. LXXV: “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
- ↑ The Holy Ghost. When Cornelius and his friends accepted with faith Peter’s words, Almighty God visibly interposed to confirm what His apostle said, and sent down the Holy Ghost in the same manner as He had been sent on the Day of Pentecost.
- ↑ His disciples. Who had been Jews, and were known as the Jewish-Christians.
- ↑ Commanded. This may mean that he ordered his assistants (perhaps deacons) to baptize the household of Cornelius.
