And he commanded them... — It would seem from this that St. Peter acted on the same general principle as St. Paul (1 Corinthians 1:14-17), and left the actual administration of baptism to other hands than his own. Who administered it in this instance we are not told. Possibly there may have been an ecclesia already organised at Cæsarea, as the result of Philip’s work, and its elders or deacons, or Philip himself, may have acted under Peter’s orders. If those who came with him from Joppa had so acted, it would probably we may believe, have been stated.
Then prayed they him to tarry certain days. — The days so spent must have included at least one “first day of the week,” and both in the solemn breaking of bread, and in the social intercourse of the other days, Peter must have mingled freely with the new converts, eating and drinking with them (Acts 11:2), without any fear of being thereby defiled. That visit to Cæsarea, St. Luke dwells on as one of the great turning-points in the Apostle’s life, attesting his essential agreement with St. Paul. We can well understand how he shrank from marring the effect of that attestation by recording the melancholy inconsistency of his subsequent conduct at Antioch (Galatians 2:11-12).