Acts 10:34-38 But Peter, opening his mouth, said: In truth I have learned that God is not a respecter of persons, but in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is acceptable to Him. God sent the word to the sons of Israel, announcing peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all. You know the word which was done throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached: Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
Peter gradually departs from the ceremonies of the Law, perceiving that the time has now arrived in which God makes no distinction between the circumcised and the uncircumcised. For, as he says, there is no acceptance of persons with God, who—as the Apostle says—wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Acceptance of persons is opposed to distributive justice, and it sins in those cases in which distributive justice ought rightly to distribute—namely, when, in the person to whom something is distributed, the cause in the person for which something is given to him is not considered, but the bare person is regarded, whether on account of friendship, kinship, or favor, not virtue, doctrine, or some excellence on account of which that thing would be owed to him.
For there is a twofold giving, as Dionysius the Carthusian says. The first is an act of distributive justice, in which acceptance of persons can occur as a sin, when something is distributed indiscriminately to those to whom it is not owed. The other is an act of liberality, by which someone gives to one to whom he does not owe anything, when he is obligated to no one, and freely gives what is his own, to whom he wishes and as much as he wishes. In this there is no sin of acceptance of persons.
As to what he says, “God sent the word,” the Greek has it differently: τὸν λόγον ὃν ἀπέστειλε, that is, “the word which He sent,” omitting τὸν in some readings. The interpreter’s sense is clear, reading thus; and it could be translated: “the word which He sent to the sons of Israel, evangelizing peace through Jesus Christ.” He is Lord of all. You know the word, I say, which was done throughout all Judea, which began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached: Jesus of Nazareth—that is, so that the word which was done and spread throughout all Judea after the baptism of John is nothing other than Jesus of Nazareth himself—how God anointed Him.
That He was anointed by the Holy Spirit is said in a way that must be understood according to His humanity, in whom nevertheless all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. But what miracles He worked throughout all Judea you know; Him, however, you do not yet fully know, but we announce Him to you as eyewitnesses and earwitnesses of all. Hence he says:
And we are witnesses of all the things that He did in the region of the Jews and in Jerusalem. Him they killed, hanging Him upon a tree. God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He should be made manifest—not to all the people, but to witnesses preordained by God, to us who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets bear witness, that through His name all who believe in Him receive the remission of sins.
Although Christ bestowed many benefits upon the Jews—healing their sick and freeing those oppressed by the devil—nevertheless in the end, as a recompense, they hung Him upon a tree. Whom God raised from the dead, and of all these things we are witnesses. God preordained us, who as a sign of the true resurrection ate and drank with Him, and He Himself, commanding us, instructed us to testify all these things to all the people, and that He has been appointed judge of the living and the dead, and that in His name all are to receive salvation, since there is no other name given to men under heaven by which they may be saved; and of this all the prophets foretold that He would grant the remission of sins.
The passage thus concludes Peter’s testimony by binding together three inseparable realities: the historical witness of the apostles, the divine appointment of Christ as universal judge, and the prophetic unanimity concerning the forgiveness of sins granted per nomen eius (“through His name”) to all who believe.
CONTINUE.
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