Acts 10:20-41

²⁰Go down at once and do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.”

²¹Peter went down to the men and said, “I am the person you are looking for. What is your reason for coming?”

²²The men replied, “Our captain, Cornelius, a pious man who reverences God and is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, has been instructed by a holy angel to send for you to his house, and to listen to what you have to say.”

²³So Peter invited them in and entertained them. The next day he lost no time in setting out with them, accompanied by some of the Lord's followers from Jaffa;

²⁴and the day following he entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them, and had invited his relatives and intimate friends to meet them.

²⁵So, when Peter entered the city, Cornelius met him, and, throwing himself at Peter's feet, bowed to the ground.

²⁶Peter, however, lifted him up, saying as he did so, “Stand up, I am only human like yourself.”

²⁷Talking with him as he went, Peter entered the house, where he found a large gathering of people, to whom he said,

²⁸“You are doubtless aware that it is forbidden for a Jew to be intimate with a foreigner, or even to enter his house; and yet God has shown me that I ought not to call anyone defiled or unclean.

²⁹That was why I came, when I was sent for, without raising any objection. And now I ask your reason for sending for me.”

³⁰“Just three days ago this very hour,” Cornelius said, “I was in my house, saying the Afternoon Prayers, when a man in dazzling clothing suddenly stood before me.

³¹‘Cornelius,’ he said, ‘your prayer has been heard, and your charities have been accepted, by God.

³²Therefore send to Jaffa, and invite the Simon, who is also known as Peter, to come here. He is lodging in the house of Simon the tanner, near the sea.’

³³Accordingly I sent to you at once, and you have been so good as to come. And now we are all here in the presence of God, to listen to all that you have been instructed by the Lord to say.”

³⁴Then Peter began. “I see, beyond all doubt,” he said, “that God does not show partiality,

³⁵but that in every nation he who reverences him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

³⁶God has sent his message to the Israelites and told them, through Jesus Christ, the good news of peace — and Jesus is Lord of all!

³⁷You yourselves know the story which spread through all Judea, how, beginning form Galilee, after the baptism which John proclaimed —

³⁸The story, I mean, of Jesus of Nazareth, and how God consecrated him his Christ by enduing him with the Holy Spirit and with power; and how he went about doing good and curing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

³⁹We are ourselves, too, witnesses to all that he did in Judea and in Jerusalem; yet they put him to death by hanging him on a cross!

⁴⁰This Jesus God raised on the third day, and enabled him to appear,

⁴¹not indeed to everyone, but to witnesses chosen beforehand by God — to us, who ate and drank with him after his resurrection from the dead.