Chapter of the New Testament
Acts 11 is the eleventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records that Saint Peter defends his visit to Cornelius in Caesarea and retells his vision prior to the meeting as well as the pouring of Holy Spirit during the meeting. The book containing this chapter is anonymous but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke composed this book as well as the Gospel of Luke.
Text.
The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 30 verses.
Textual witnesses.
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:
Locations.
This chapter mentions the following places:
Ratification in Jerusalem (11:1–18).
Some church members, identified as 'circumcised believers' (), objected to the reception of Gentiles into the church, using precisely the kind of 'discrimination' that Peter was warned against in (cf. ), on the issue of the 'traditional restrictions on table-fellowship between Jews and Gentiles' (as Peter himself referred in ), that was significant in the early church as written by Paul in Galatians 2:11–14. Peter emphasizes 'the role of the Spirit, the importance of not 'making a distinction' (verse 12), and the parallel with Pentecost (verse 15)' in relation to Jesus' words (verse 16; cf. ). He warns that 'withholding baptism from the Gentiles would be tantamount to hindering God' (verse 17), because each step in the development of the church is initiated by God.
"The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man's house."
Verse 12.
These six fellow believers are not identified, but John Gill suggests it was "a very wise and prudential step" on Peter's part to take them with him from Joppa to Caesarea and from there to Jerusalem, anticipating that once in Jerusalem he might "be called to an account for his conduct".
 [Simon Peter said to the assembly:] "“If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?”"
Verse 17.
The words "them" and "us" emphasize the parallel of the two cases (cf. Acts 11:15), for just as faith existed before the gift of the Spirit in the case of Peter and the Apostles, so in the case of Cornelius and his companions there should exist a degree of faith, otherwise the gift was not manifested in them.
 "When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, "Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.""
Verse 18.
This concludes the "unified and tightly constructed episode of Cornelius' conversion".
The church in Antioch (11:19–26).
This section extends ("those who were scattered", following Stephen's death), as the traveling disciples "[speak] the word" or "preach the word" (verse 19; cf. Acts 8:4) to the Jewish population over a wide region (Phoenicia, Cyprus). It then focuses on the development of the early church in Antioch in Syria (c. north of Jerusalem).
The reference to "the persecution that followed Stephen's death", picks up the Greek wording ἐπὶ Στεφάνῳ ("epi Stephanō"), which has been interpreted as meaning either "after" or "on account of" the stoning of Stephen.
In Antioch, some of the believers started preaching also to "Greeks" (verse 20; Greek: , "Hellēnistas", "Hellenists"; some manuscripts, such as Papyrus 74, have , "Hellēnas", "Grecians"), a development from the earlier Cornelius episode. The apostles reacted to the news (verse 22) similar to that in , but this time they first sent Barnabas (introduced in ) who plays important roles as the liaison to the church in Jerusalem and as the one who brings Saul (or Paul) from Tarsus (verses 25–26) to spend a year quietly engaged in 'teaching'.
" And when he (Barnabas) had found him (Saul or Paul of Tarsus), he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people."
"And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch."
Famine relief measures (11:27–30).
The sending of help for the famine in Judea (during the reign of Claudius, 41-54 CE) raises up some historical difficulties:
References.
 ;templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" / ;