X.
(1) There was a certain man in Cæsarea. — We enter on a new stage of expansion in the Church’s growth, the full details of which St. Luke may have learnt either from Philip the Evangelist during his stay at Cæsarea (Acts 21:8; Acts 24:27) or, possibly, from Cornelius himself. His admission into the Church, even if it were not the first instance of the reception of a Gentile convert as such, became, through its supernatural accompaniments and (in the strict sense of that word) its “prerogative” character, the ruling case on the subject. Whether it were earlier or later than the admission of the Gentiles recorded in Acts 11:20, we have no adequate data for determining. (See Note on that passage.)
Cæsarea was at this time the usual residence of the Roman Procurator of Judæa, and was consequently garrisoned by Roman troops. Greeks, Jews, and Romans, probably also Phœnicians and other traders, were mingled freely in its population.
Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band. — The office was a comparatively subordinate one, the centurion commanding the sixth part of a cohort, the sixtieth part of a legion. The Greek implies that he belonged to the cohort, not that he commanded it. The name Cornelius may indicate a connection with the great Cornelian gens which had been made famous by the Gracchi and by Sylla. The bands, or cohorts, stationed at Cæsarea consisted chiefly of auxiliaries levied from the province (Jos. Wars, ii. 13, § 6), who were not always to be relied on in times of popular excitement, and this cohort was accordingly distinguished from the others as Italian, i.e., as being at least commanded by Roman officers. A first Italian legion is repeatedly mentioned by Tacitus (Hist. i. 59, 64; c. 100; iii. 22), but this is said by Dion (Leviticus 24) to have been first raised by Nero; and the term which St. Luke uses for band (spira) was, strictly speaking, not used of the legions, the latter term being applied exclusively to Roman troops. In Acts 27:1 we meet with another of these cohorts, also at Cæsarea, known as the Augustan.