Indifference…

A guest blog by Shawn Blythe.

The Bible reading for this week includes Acts 10 and 11, which I always found interesting for a somewhat strange reason.  The author duplicates two passages in their entirety and I always wondered why.

The story of the angel appearing to Cornelius is related to us directly in Acts 10:1-6, summarized in Acts 10:22, and then repeated verbatim in Acts 10:30-33.  The story of Peter’s vision is related to us directly in Acts 10:9-16, alluded to in Acts 10:28, and then repeated verbatim in Acts 11:4-10.

As the husband of an amazing editor, I can tell you that if I had written this, the duplicate passages would have been replaced with something along the lines of “Cornelius retold the story detailed above”, or “Peter told them about the dream described earlier”.

So, the question for me has always been why were they repeated?  This is particularly relevant in a time when writing was laborious, the medium didn’t come in tidy 500 sheet packages and copy/paste was not yet a thing.

As I look at the reading, the repeated passages are in response to closely related questions.  In the case of the description of Cornelius’ dream, they are in response to Peter’s questions.  He asks the men sent by Cornelius why they had come and then asks Cornelius himself why he sent for him.  In both cases, Peter wants to know why Cornelius (a gentile) has come to him (a Jew). In the second case, it’s almost as if Peter wants to hear it from Cornelius directly, even though he already knows the story.

In the repeated passage of Peter’s vision – it was the circumcised believers’ question (again, paraphrased – and perhaps rhetorical) “Why did you go?”  Given the context, it is unlikely that the circumcised believers felt that there was an adequate answer to this question.  In fact, it was less of a question and more of a statement – i.e. you went someplace you shouldn’t have gone.  They wanted to know why Peter (a Jew) went to Cornelius (a gentile).

In each case, the party prompting the repeated passage was somewhat incredulous about what brought them to that point.  Why would theywant something from us, and why would we want anything to do with them.  Peter is told three times not to call something impure that God has made clean.  Then he must be told twice why Cornelius had sent for him.  The circumcised believers could hardly believe that Peter, the leader of their fledgling sect, was now abandoning all accepted religious teachings and eating with whomever he pleased.  It is perhaps to their credit that they, unlike Peter, only needed to hear the story once!

There is clearly something important here that would cause the writer to repeat these stories.  Perhaps it’s a reminder to us that we need to tell the story of what God has done for us again and again, for how else will others know?  Perhaps it’s a reminder for us to listen to what others have to say, as we likely only know a portion of their story.

But perhaps more likely it is simply repeated to emphasize the significance of God’s indifference to what we consider different.  The fact that “they” are just like “us” – and we are just like them.  In a time of social, racial and political animosity, it’s a message that is just as relevant today as it was in Peter and Cornelius’ time – and bears repeating.

A reminder that it doesn’t matter who we see, or what we think about them – we can rest assured that “God has granted even [them] repentance unto life.” (Acts 11:18)