Acts 10:1

Caesarea stood on the Mediterranean coast about 30 miles north of Joppa. Formerly its name was Strato’s Tower, but Herod the Great renamed it in honor of Augustus Caesar, his patron who was the adopted heir of Julius Caesar. "Sebaste" is the Greek equivalent of the Latin "Augustus." Herod the Great had modernized the city, made it the provincial capital of Judea (Pilate lived there), and built its magnificent harbor. It was at this time the major Roman seaport for Palestine and its most important center of Roman government and military activity. [Note: See Hengel, pp. 55-58.]

Cornelius was a common Roman name. [Note: See Longenecker, pp. 384-85.] Centurions were non-commissioned officers of the Roman army who each commanded 100 soldiers and were on about the same level of authority as a captain in the United States army. A "cohort" contained 600 soldiers, and Cornelius’ cohort had connections with Italy. [Note: See Barrett, p. 499.] Every reference to centurions in the New Testament is positive (Matthew 8:5-10; Matthew 27:54; Mark 15:44-45; Acts 22:25-26; Acts 23:17-18; Acts 27:6; Acts 27:43). These men were "the backbone of the Roman army." [Note: Bruce, Commentary on . . ., p. 215. Cf. Barclay, p. 82.] Cornelius was similar to the centurion of Luke 7:1-10 (see especially Acts 10:5).

"The legion was the regiment [cf. an American division] of the Roman army, and it consisted nominally of 6000 men. Each legion was divided into ten cohorts [Amer. battalion], and again each cohort contained six centuries or ’hundreds’ of men [Amer. company]. The officer in command of a cohort was called a tribune or in the Greek chiliarch: Such was Claudius Lysias of xxi 31 and xxiii 26. A century was under a centurion or kekatontarch." [Note: Rackham, p. 147.]

Cornelius represents a new type of person to whom the gospel had not gone before, as recorded in Acts. The Ethiopian eunuch was also a Gentile, but the Jews viewed his occupation favorably. There was nothing about his occupation that would have repulsed the Jews. However, Cornelius, in addition to being a Gentile, was a member of Israel’s occupying army. The Jews would have avoided him because of his occupation even though he possessed an admirable character and was friendly to the Jews.

It is interesting to note that the first Gentile Jesus dealt with during His ministry was a Roman centurion and he, too, believed. In response to that man’s faith Jesus announced that many would come from among the Gentiles to join Jews in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 8:11).