What Does Acts 10:1 Mean?
There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
There was a certain man in Cæsarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band,THE KEY
The English repeats “called,” but the Greek distinguishes Cornelius’s personal name from the label of the military cohort that contains him.
THE MEANING
Cornelius is named as a particular person, then placed within Rome’s military order. The verse holds his personal identity and his public classification in view at once.
THE ROOT
ὀνόματι
onomati
GROWS FROM
ὄνομα
Name, personal designation, or reputation
“called Cornelius” in this verse is onomati. The phrase means “by name”: the Greek uses ὄνομα (onoma, “name”), rather than the verb later translated “called” for the Italian band. The sentence identifies Cornelius personally before adding the military and national labels around him.
ALSO GROWS
onomazō: To name or mention by name
ὀνομάζω
It carries the same name-root into the act of identifying someone.
epōnymos: Named after or bearing a name
ἐπώνυμος
It shows how a name can mark the identity associated with a person or thing.
καλουμένης
kaloumenēs
GROWS FROM
καλέω
To call, name, or summon
“called the Italian band” in this verse is kaloumenēs. This is a different Greek word from the phrase used for Cornelius’s name. English repeats “called,” while the Greek separates a person’s name from the designation assigned to his cohort.
ALSO GROWS
klēsis: Calling or invitation
κλῆσις
The shared root can describe the act of calling or assigning someone a place.
klētos: Called or invited
κλητός
This branch describes someone marked by a call, extending the root from naming a group to identifying a person.
THE PATTERN
God’s recognition reaches people inside national and civic categories that might appear to place them beyond the expected boundary.
And he returned to the man of God, he and all his camp, and came, and stood before him. And he said, Look, now I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel. Now therefore, please, take a blessing from your servant.When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, Truly, I say to you, I have not found such leaning of the full weight, not even in Israel.Then Peter opened his mouth and said, In truth I have laid hold of this, that God lifts no one's face. But in every nation the one who lives in awe of him and works alignment is received by him.THE THREAD
To him the gatekeeper opens, and the sheep hear and respond to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.John uses the same Greek word, ὄνομα (onoma, “name”), when the shepherd calls each sheep by name. Acts introduces Cornelius by his personal name before describing the cohort that classifies him.
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