Acts 10:20

Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I have sent them.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(20) Go with them, doubting nothing.—The command was specially addressed to the perplexed questionings of the disciple. For a time he was to walk, as it were, blindfold, but trusting in the full assurance of faith in the Hand that was guiding him. As once before (John 13:7), he knew not yet what his Lord was doing, but was to know hereafter. He and the messengers from Cornelius were alike acting on the promptings of the Divine Spirit.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:19-33 When we see our call clear to any service, we should not be perplexed with doubts and scruples arising from prejudices or former ideas. Cornelius had called together his friends, to partake with him of the heavenly wisdom he expected from Peter. We should not covet to eat our spiritual morsels alone. It ought to be both given and taken as kindness and respect to our kindred and friends, to invite them to join us in religious exercises. Cornelius declared the direction God gave him to send for Peter. We are right in our aims in attending a gospel ministry, when we do it with regard to the Divine appointment requiring us to make use of that ordinance. How seldom ministers are called to speak to such companies, however small, in which it may be said that they are all present in the sight of God, to hear all things that are commanded of God! But these were ready to hear what Peter was commanded of God to say.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The Spirit - See the notes on Acts 8:29. Compare Isaiah 65:24, "And it shall come to pass, that before they call I will answer," etc.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

17-24. while Peter doubted … what this should mean, behold, the three men … stood before the gate … and asked—"were inquiring," that is, in the act of doing so. The preparations here made—of Peter for his Gentile visitors, as of Cornelius for him—are devoutly to be noted. But besides this, at the same moment, "the Spirit" expressly informs him that three men were inquiring for him, and bids him unhesitatingly go with them, as sent by Him.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Arise therefore; immediately put thyself upon the journey.

Doubting nothing; spend no time in disputing within thyself, because that they, unto whom thou art sent, are not Jews.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Arise, therefore, and get thee down,.... From the top of the house where he was:

and go with them; the three men, to Caesarea

doubting nothing; whether it is right or wrong, lawful or unlawful, to go with them, because not Jews, but uncircumcised Gentiles, laying aside all such Jewish scruples:

for I have sent them: the Spirit of God is said to do what Cornelius did at his instigation and direction, signified by an angel he sent to him, Acts 10:5.

Geneva Study Bible

Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I have sent them.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Acts 10:20. μηδὲν διακ.: “nothing doubting,” i.e., without hesitation as to its lawfulness, cf. Matthew 21:21, Romans 14:23, Mark 11:23, Jam 1:6; the verb is not so used in classical Greek. See Mayor’s note on Jam 1:6, apparently confined in this sense to N.T. and later Christian writings. For the active voice see Acts 11:12, Acts 15:9. If we read a stop after διακ. and διότι or ὅτι immediately following, we may translate, “nothing doubting; for I have sent them,” R.V.; but if no punctuation (so Rendall, Weiss) translate, “nothing doubting that I have sent them,” i.e., the fact that I have sent them. In either case ἐγώ emphatic. Nothing had been spoken to him of his journey, but in the path of unhesitating obedience he was led to the meaning of the revelation (cf. John 13:7).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

20. get thee down] Peter was still on the housetop.

doubting nothing] The oldest texts give the verb here in the middle voice, as in James 1:6, “nothing wavering,” but in the parallel passage, Acts 11:12, it is active, and signifies “making no distinction,” i.e. between Jew and Gentile. The latter was used by the Apostle when events had taught him precisely what the vision and the spiritual exhortation meant. The Spirit’s teaching is given little by little as Christ had told His disciples that it should be, “He shall guide you (lit. lead you on the way) unto all truth” (John 16:13). The vision had given no hint of a journey to be taken; now Peter is informed of it, and so too when the end of the journey is reached the “nothing wavering” is shewn to mean “putting no distinction between Jews and other men,” and thus the vision was made intelligible little by little and the perplexity removed.

Bengel's Gnomen

Acts 10:20. Μηδὲν διακρινόμενος, nothing doubting) A requisite in the highest decree necessary in the case of a good action. Often long-continued doubt is suddenly, when need requires, taken away in life or at death.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 20. - But arise for arise therefore, A.V.; nothing doubting for doubting nothing, A.V. But arise. The but answers the unexpressed idea - Do not hesitate, do not delay, but go at once. For I have sent them. This is one of the many passages which distinctly mark the personality of the Holy Spirit (comp. Acts 8:29; Acts 13:2; Acts 20:28, etc.). Here, too, we may notice the working of God's providence, under whose direction Peter's thoughts and Cornelius's message meet at the same point, like men working from opposite ends of a tunnel and meeting at the same spot. Acts 10:20