Passage

Acts 10.1

Book: Acts · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

1. Now there was a certain man in Cæsarea, Cornelius by name, a centurion of the band called the Italian band,

a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, who gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always. 3. He saw in a vision openly, as it were about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God coming in unto him, and saying to him, Cornelius. (Acts 10:1-3, ASV)

WEB

1. Now there was a certain man in Caesarea, Cornelius by name, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment,

a devout man, and one who feared God with all his house, who gave gifts for the needy generously to the people, and always prayed to God. 3. At about the ninth hour of the day, he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God coming to him, and saying to him, “Cornelius!” (Acts 10:1-3, WEB)

KJV

1. There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band,

A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. 3. He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. (Acts 10:1-3, KJV)

YLT

1. And there was a certain man in Caesarea, by name Cornelius, a centurion from a band called Italian,

pious, and fearing God with all his house, doing also many kind acts to the people, and beseeching God always, 3. he saw in a vision manifestly, as it were the ninth hour of the day, a messenger of God coming in unto him, and saying to him, 'Cornelius;' (Acts 10:1-3, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Luke, narrating. Acts is the second volume of a two-part work addressed to Theophilus (Acts 1:1, compare Luke 1:1-4).
Audience: Theophilus and the wider church. Within the scene, Cornelius and his household.
Location: Caesarea, on the coast of Judea, the city Herod the Great built and the seat of the Roman governors.
Time period: Probably the late 30s AD; Luke gives no date, and the episode falls before the death of Herod Agrippa I in AD 44 (Acts 12:20-23). Acts was composed c. AD 62-90; the date is debated, and Colin Hemer (The Book of Acts in the Setting of Hellenistic History) argued for the early 60s.

Theological reading

"Now there was a certain man in Cæsarea, Cornelius by name, a centurion of the band called the Italian band." (Acts 10:1, ASV)

A turning point. Acts 10 opens the longest single episode in the book, told in full and then retold by Peter (11:4-17) and recalled at the Jerusalem Council (15:7-9). Luke's emphasis signals its importance: this is how Gentiles were first welcomed into the church without first becoming Jews. See Jerusalem Council.

Caesarea. Herod the Great built Caesarea on the coast and named it for Augustus. It became the residence of the Roman governors of Judea, and the inscription naming Pontius Pilate was found there (see Pilate Stone). It was a largely Gentile city on Jewish soil, a fitting place for the gospel to cross to the Gentiles.

A centurion. A centurion commanded a century, nominally a hundred men. Centurions in the Gospels and Acts are often portrayed favourably (Luke 7:2-10; Luke 23:47; Acts 27:43). Cornelius is a career soldier of the occupying power, the kind of man a devout Jew would avoid (Acts 10:28).

"The Italian band." Speira, a cohort. An auxiliary cohort called the Second Italian Cohort of Roman Citizens is attested by inscriptions in Syria in the later first century. Whether it was stationed in Caesarea at this date is debated; the detail fits a unit raised from Italian volunteers, and Luke's naming of it is the kind of specific detail that has often been confirmed. See Acts as History (Ramsay's Verification).

A God-fearer. He was "a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, who gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always" (Acts 10:2, ASV). He worshipped Israel's God and kept the hours of prayer (10:3, 10:30) but was not circumcised (11:3). His piety is real, yet he still needs to hear the message about Jesus (Acts 11:14: "words, whereby thou shalt be saved"). See Gentiles Cannot Be Saved Objection Defeater.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

None of the words in this verse has its own lexicon entry yet.

Notes

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Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.