`Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man' (Matt. 15:11).

`To eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man' (Matt. 15:20).

`And when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they

found fault. For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft (margin with the fist or up to

the elbow, i.e. a ceremonious washing, not a washing that is required for ordinary cleanliness), eat not' (Mark

The following quotation will give some idea of the intensity of feeling that arose in connection with this matter

of eating with a Gentile:

`He who eats with an uncircumcised person, eats, as it were, with a dog; he who touches him, touches, as it

were, a dead body; and he who bathes in the same place with him, bathes, as it were, with a leper' (Pirke Rabbi

Eliezer, 29).

The bearing of all this upon the words and attitude of Peter in Acts 10 is most evident by the following

`Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean' (Acts 10:14).

`What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common' (Acts 10:15).

`Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another

nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean' (Acts 10:28).

Here are the words of Peter himself. If we accept the chronology of the A.V., this incident occurred eight years

after Pentecost, and Peter is still by his own confession `A man that is a Jew'. He, at least, did not believe that `the

Church began at Pentecost'. Not only was he still a Jew, though a believer, but he was still under the Law. `It is an

unlawful thing', said he. How then can we tolerate the tradition that the Church began at Pentecost? He told

Cornelius to his face that he would have treated him as `common and unclean', for all his piety and prayers, had he

not received the extraordinary vision of the great sheet. Yet at Pentecost:

`All that believed were together, and had ALL THINGS COMMON' (Acts 2:44).

When taken with Acts 10 this is absolute proof that no Gentile could have been there. Yet the tradition that the

Peter moreover makes manifest his state of mind by adding: `Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying, as

soon as I was sent for' (Acts 10:29). Can we imagine the apostle Paul speaking like this even to the most abject of

Pagans? No, the two ministries of these two apostles are poles apart. Further, Peter continued: `I ask therefore for

what intent ye have sent for me?' (Acts 10:29). Can we believe our eyes ? Do we read aright? Is this the man who

opened the Church to the Gentile on equal footing with the Jewish believer? He asks in all simplicity, `What is your

object in sending for me?' Again, we are conscious that such words from the lips of Paul would be not only

impossible but ridiculous. He was `debtor', to wise and unwise, to Jew and Gentile, to Barbarian and to Greek. Not

so Peter. He was the apostle of the Circumcision (Gal 2:8), and therefore the call of Cornelius seemed to him

`For what intent have ye sent for me?' Can we imagine a missionary in China, India or anywhere else on the

broad earth, asking such a question, or asking this question in similar circumstances? Any Mission Board would ask

such a missionary to resign his post, and rightly so. No! every item in this tenth chapter is eloquent of the fact that

Peter had no commission to the Gentiles.

At last Peter `began to speak' (Acts 11:15). Let us listen to the message he gives to this Gentile audience:

`Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons (first admission): but in every nation he that feareth

Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him (second admission). The word which God sent unto the

children of Israel (note, not as Paul in Acts 13:26), preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (He is Lord of all:) (third

admission) ... published throughout all Judæa ... in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem ... preach unto the

people (i.e. the people of Israel) ... whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins' (Acts 10:34-43).