Acts 10:48

Commanded them to be baptized. The construction seems to imply that Peter himself did not baptize these converts. Jesus and Paul refrained from baptizing converts, and apparently Peter followed a similar course in this instance. Paul declares that he refrained generally from baptizing, lest factions arise and Christian unity be broken by men dividing into parties under the names of those who had baptized them. This may also have been the reason here.

Who administered the baptism we are not told. Perhaps it was done by Peter’s companions. Possibly there already may have been an organized congregation at Caesarea, as the result of Philip’s work, and its elders or deacons, or Philip himself, may have acted under Peter’s instructions.

The Lord. Textual evidence attests the reading “Jesus Christ.”

To tarry. It is probable that Peter consented to stay, and thus showed that he was prepared to act thereafter according to the teaching of his vision. Peter must have mingled freely with the new converts, eating and drinking with them without fear of being defiled thereby. Luke gives so much space to Peter’s experience in Caesarea that it must be considered as marking a turning point in the life of the apostle, attesting his essential agreement with Paul. Although afterward Peter wavered in his attitude toward Gentile Christians, and was rebuked by Paul for so doing, the account of that severe rebuke shows that Peter had laid aside his Jewish prejudices to a great degree, and had acted as he did only under the influence of certain very strict Jews who had come from Jerusalem to Antioch.

Certain days. See on Acts 9:19.