Acts 10:24-26 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And the morrow after— When St. Peter came nigh Caesarea, one of the servants ran before, and signified to Cornelius that he was approaching. (See the reading in the Cambridge manuscript, Greek and Latin.) Cornelius was almost impatient for his coming, andbig with expectation of some signal event: and, therefore, he had called together his relations and intimate friends, who were devout Gentiles as well as himself. As soon as he heard that the apostle was just at hand, he went out of his house to meet him; and approaching him with profound reverence, he fell down at his feet to worship him; for he had a most exalted idea of the apostle, looking upon him as the ambassador of the Most High God; or, as if he had been something more than a man. The apostle himself, who knew that his message was divine, and that he was only the medium of conveyance, with great humility raised him up, saying, "Do not prostrate yourself to me; I am only a mere man, as you are, and deserve no such homage." In the Eastern world their salutations differ considerably, according to the different rank of the persons they salute. The common salutation, as Sandys informs us, consists in laying the right hand on the bosom, and declining the body a little: but when they salute a person of great rank, they bow almost to the ground, and kiss the hem of his garment. Dr. Shaw's account of the common Arab compliment, "Peace be unto you," agrees with the above; but he further tells us,that inferiors out of deference kiss the feet, the knees, or the garments of their superiors. He might have added, or their hands: for D'Arvieux assures us, that though the Arab Emir whom he visited, withdrew his hand when he offered to kiss it, yet he frequently offered it to the people to kiss, when he had a mind to require that homage. Dr. Shaw further observes, that in these respects the Arabs were just the same 2 or 3000 years ago as they are now; and ceremonies of the like kind, we may presume, were anciently used among the neighbouring people too, as they are at this time. There is something very graceful in the forms of Eastern salutation: some ofthem, however, are too low and mean, and expressive of too much disproportion; on which accountthe natives of the West, even when they have been in those Eastern countries, have not been ready to adopt these profound expressions of respect: nay, many of them have justly thought these obediences too great for mortals. Curtius tells us, (lib. 6: 100. 6.) that Alexander thought the habits and manners of the Macedonian kings unequal to his greatness after the conquest of Asia, and was for being treated according to the modes of Persia; where kings were reverenced after the manner of the immortal Gods. This infatuated monarch, therefore, suffered the people, in token of their respect, to lie upon the ground before him, &c. Well then might St. Peter say to Cornelius, a Roman, who received him with a reverence, esteemed the lowest and most submissive even in the ceremoniousEast, and which the Romans were wont to speak of as too solemn to be paid to mere men,—Stand up; I myself also am a man: though Cornelius intended nothing idolatrous, nor did St. Peter suppose it to be his intention. In truth, there was something extraordinary in this prostration of Cornelius, but without any thing of idolatry. He was a person of rank: St. Peter made no figure in civil life; and yet Cornelius received him not only with respect, as his superior; but with the greatest degree of reverence, according to the usages of his own nation: nay, not only so, but with an expression of veneration, which, though common in the countrywhere Cornelius then resided, his countrymen were ready to say ought to be appropriated only to those who were more than men. But it seems he felt the greatest degree of reverence andawe at the sight of the apostle; and those emotions threw him into the attitude that he had frequently seen the inhabitants of Syria put themselves in, when they would express the greatest respect and deference.