[Cornelius] is depicted as performing
many works of mercy, and like the earlier centurion his alms are specifically
directed toward the Jewish people (ποιῶν ἐλεημοσύνας πολλὰς τῷ λαῷ, Acts 10:2).
The importance of this generous behavior is not at all incidental, since the
angel reports that it is precisely Cornelius’ charity that comes like a prayer
before God. “Your prayers and your alms have ascended like a memorial in the
presence of God” (αἱ προσευχαί σου καὶ
αἱ ἐλεημοσύναι
σου ἀνέβησαν
εἰς μνηνόσυνον
ἔμπροσθεν τοῦ
θεοῦ; 10:4; cf. 10:31). If the charity theme is thus impressively stressed, the
death-to-life motif is redirected and much more subtle. A series of parallels
with the Tabitha story (and larger the parallel to the paired centurion of
Capernaum and the widow of Nain) suggest an intentional connection to the
resurrection motif. A ring structure binding Cornelius’ story with the raising
of Aeneas (9:32–35), whose name inevitably conjures a return from the land of
death, might also be perceived, notably in the threefold repitition of “rise” (ἀνάστηθι,
9:34; ἀνάστηθι 9:40; ἀνάστηθι,10:26). Denis Horton oberves the critical
symbolic moment.
The heart of the conversion scene
(10:24–48) opens with a symbolic, though brief, enactment of Cornelius’s death
and resurrection, foreshadowing the content of the actual conversion process.
When Peter enters the house, Cornelius falls down at his feet (πεσὼν ἐπὶ τοὺς
πόδας, v. 25). Not only does Cornelius’s low position allude to the depths of
the grave, the wording strongly recalls the fatal posture of two others at
Peter’s feet. Ananias and Saphira both fall down dead before the same apostle
(πεσὼν ἔπεσεν...τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ, respectively in 5:5, 10). For Cornelius,
however, this deathlike state proves temporary. Peter reaches down and “raises”
(ἤγειρεν) him up, words that echo the resurrection event wherein God “raises”
Jesus from dead. Moreover, Peter initiates the symbolic resurrection with the
command for Cornelius to “arise” (ἤγειρεν), a command often issued to dead
people prior to their return to life. (Horton, Death and Resurrection, 73-4)
To this it is necessary only to add that the contrast with Ananias
and Saphira plays directly on the difference between their greed and the
generosity of Cornelius: one leads to death, the other leads to life. If the
baptism of the centurion ultimately embodies the new life of this righteous
man, the critical verse comes only at the end, as an interpretation of the
entire event of Cornelius’ reception of the Spirit: “Then God has also given
the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life” (τὴν μετάνοιαν εἰς ζωὴν ἔδωκεν,
11:18).
Eschatological life is here assigned as a promise attending true repentance
(μετάνοια). In Acts 10, such saving repentance – no more confined by ethnic
boundaries or the observance of the Law – is recognized in everyone who fears
God and “does righteousness” (ὁ φοβούμενος αὐτὸν καὶ ἐργαζόμενος δικαιοσύνην,
10:35). This language is not so generic as most translations
suppose (e.g. he who “does what is right” NRSV; “acts uprightly”
NAB; “tut was Recht ist” EÜ; “pratique la justice” BJ). In the case of
Cornelius, the paradigmatic God-fearer (φοβούμενος τὸν θεόν...ποιῶν ἐλεημοσύνας,
10:2), doing δικαιοσύνη is no moral abstraction (cf. Matt 6:1). This is
precisely the צדקה that secures one’s life. (Anthony Giambrone, Sacramental
Charity, Creditor Christology, and the Economy of Salvation in Luke's Gospel
[Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe 439; Tübingen:
Mohr Siebeck, 2017], 224-26)
The story of Cornelius most clearly manifests this unique Lukan development
of the Prov 10:2 tradition. The centurion’s almsgiving clearly figures
prominently in his being found worthy of life. In Acts 15:9, the effect of
Cornelius’ charity is specifically seen to be his cleansing, as Timothy Reardon
has shown (cf. Luke 11:37–44); and this purification is specifically ordered to
membership in “a clean people.” By his alms, Cornelius has thus been freed from
a morally defiling gentile existence, envisioned as a domain of death. His
claim upon ζωή is thus construed not as a rescue from mortal danger or from
actual physical death, but as “repentance,” confirmed by baptism in the Spirit,
and ordered toward membership in the holy people of God. (Ibid., 227-28)
