Acts 10:44 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

The Holy Ghost fell on all them, &c.— Probably this effusion of the Holy Spirit was attended with a glory, as when it fell upon the apostles and their company on the famous day of Pentecost: and it is most likely, that a glory always attended the immediate effusion of the Spirit, from the day of Pentecost to the calling of the idolatrous Gentiles. Thus wasthe Spirit poured down upon Cornelius and his friends, as upon the apostles, and the hundred and twenty; and was not communicated by the laying on of the hands of the apostles, as it had been to the Jewish and Samaritan converts: and the reason why God communicated the Holy Spirit in this most honourable manner to the first fruits of the devout Gentiles, was to remove the prejudices of the Jewish Christians, and to make way for their cheerfully receiving the devout Gentiles into the Christian church, and to all its privileges. Dr. Lightfoot observes, that one important effect of this descent of the Holy Spirit upon them, was, that hereby they were enabled to understand the Hebrew language; and so had an opportunity of acquainting themselves with the prophesies of the Old Testament. See Acts 10:46.