Cornelius
the First Hebrew Convert!

The story of Cornelius is considered to be the story of the first ‘Gentile’ to convert to Christianity, and is used by many in the Christian world to make the claim that YHVH’s1 ‘food laws’ are no longer relevant.

Though many believe that this Roman centurion was the first Gentile convert, a deeper look reveals something much different. As we will see –

• Cornelius was a fulfillment of Ezekiel’s Prophecy of the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel
• Cornelius was not a ‘gentile’.
• Cornelius was the first named ‘Hebrew’ to return2 to the covenant God made with Israel.
• Peter ‘opened’ the Kingdom to the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel

The prophecies concerning the restoration of Israel are one of the most, if not the most referenced prophecies in the Bible. Many recognize the 2^nd Exodus passages (Jer. 16:11-16; 23:7-8) - the prophecies of Israel’s scattering and ultimate return to the Promised Land – but the prophecies of return begin back in the days of Moses and are found everywhere in the Tnakh3. What’s more, the fulfillment of those prophecies – at least in part – are found in many places in the New Testament (Rom. 9 – 13; 1 Peter; James; Galatians, etc.).

Two of the most prominent prophecies of return are found in Ezekiel 37. They are the ‘Dry Bones’ and the ‘Two Sticks’ prophecies. Let’s take a look at those prophecies.

A Fulfillment of Ezekiel’s Prophecy

Ezekiel 37 is - for the most part - a vision. It starts with the ‘Dry Bones’ prophecy which pictures the people of Israel as being dead dry bones – so dead that there is no hope that they would ever live again. But YHVH showed Ezekiel that Israel would live again. They would once again be a people when He puts His spirit back in them.

In the vision, YHVH said to Ezekiel -

^NKJ Ezek. 37:9 - “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Come from go to the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live."

YHVH told Ezekiel to speak to the breath. The Hebrew word is “ruach” which means 'spirit' as in  YHVH’s spirit. The translation says that the spirit would come from the four winds, but it appears that the translators did not understand the prophecy. The prophecy would be more understandable if it were translated ‘go’. Why? Because the bones did not all die in one place. They did not all die in that valley. As we’ll see, they died while exiled to the ‘four winds’. The Hebrew word translated as ‘come’ is “bo” (935) which could just as well mean “go”, as in “go to the four winds”.

The prophecy goes on to say -

^NKJ Ezek. 37:11 - “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say,`Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!'.

The bones are the Whole House of Israel – the ten northern tribes who for 200 years had been exiled from the land and scattered to the four winds. The prophecy is not speaking of Judah because in Ezekiel’s day, Judah was being held in exile in Babylon, but had a promise that they could return to the land after 70 years. As exiles, the northern tribes (collectively called ‘Israel’) were CUT OFF from the covenant and their hope of being reconciled back to YHVH was lost, unless (as the prophecy shows) YHVH sends His spirit to them.

The prophecy continues with YHVH saying to Ezekiel -

^NKJEzek. 37:15-17 - “… son of man, take a stick for yourself and write on it `For Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions.' Then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions. ¹⁷“Then join them one to another for yourself into one stick, and they will become one in your hand.

Once YHVH sends His spirit to the scattered Israelites – both Israel and Judah will again be joined together into one nation.

As the prophecy continues, this becomes very clear -

^NKJEzek. 37:18-28 - “And when the children of your people speak to you, saying, 'Will you not show us what you mean by these?'-- 19 "say to them … ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: "Surely I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will join them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand …

Obviously, YHVH is going to JOIN Israel and Judah back together as One People.

Continuing on, Yah says -

^NKJ Ezek. 37:21-22 -"Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land;²² "and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again.

Yah said that He would begin to gather Israel (both Israel and Judah) and bring them back to The Land. They would come from among the nations. Being ‘among’ the nations does not change a person’s ethnicity. When a person immigrates from France to the United States, he is still ethnically ‘French’. Such is the same with Israel. Though scattered through the nations, they would never cease to be Hebrews4.Once brought back, they will be One nation, have ONE king, and the Kingdom of God will begin.

Seeing this is so important. Without the unification of Israel and Judah, the Kingdom of God cannot exist. The tribes must be together just as they were in King David’s day. What’s more, if the Kingdom of God is not restored, Yeshua’s #1 message – The Kingdom of God – is VOID!

When did all this begin? When did the tribes begin to return? We’ll see … but let’s move now to the next point -

Cornelius – Not a Gentile

To the Jews of 1^st century Judea, there were only two peoples - 1) the Jews, and 2) everyone else. If you were not ‘Jewish’, you were considered to be gentile. Therefore, the Romans, the Greeks, as well as the ‘Lost 10 tribes’ were - in the eyes of the Jews - ‘gentiles’, or as the word is sometimes translated – ‘heathen’.

In that day, as we do today - the Jews would be able to identify their own people based on their walk, their practices. As we continue, we will find that due to Cornelius’ practices, He was not a gentile at all. Let’s start by looking at Luke’s narrative in regards to Cornelius -

^NKJActs 10:1-3 - There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment, ² a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always. ³About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, "Cornelius!"

These three verses tell us a lot about Cornelius –

1 – He Was a Devout and Just Man (vs. 2)

Cornelius was a ‘devout’ man, a word that basically means ‘a good worshiper’. In other words, he was known for worshiping the God of Israel as can be understood by the fact that he prayed to God ‘always’. Later on (verse 22) he is called a ‘just’ man. It’s interesting to note that there are only four other men in the entire (KJV)Bible who hold that honor. They are Noah – Gen. 6:9; Joseph – Matt. 1:19; Yeshua – Matt. 27:19; Luke 23:50; and Joseph of Arimathea – Luke 23:50.

The Greek word for ‘just’ is ‘dikaios’ (Strong’s 1342) which is a law term that means that the person is obedient to the law. Thus, Cornelius was thoroughly versed in the law of God – the Torah, and probably had been for some time.

2 – He Feared the God of Israel (vs. 2)

When the text said that Cornelius ‘feared God’, we must assume Luke meant that he feared the God of Israel. Otherwise, the whole narrative makes little sense. The fact that he feared the God of Israel implies that he no longer worshipped the pagan gods of the gentiles. It also indicates that he was familiar with the history of Israel and her God – YHVH, which would also suggest that he was familiar with all they great signs and miracles YHVH had performed for Israel so as to secure their redemption. This would also imply that Corneliius was also familiar with many of the prophecies pertaining to Israel since many of them are found in the Torah (the Law).

3 – He instructed his household in the ways of YHVH (vs. 2)

Many of the instructions in the Torah state that we are to teach them to our children (Deut. 6:7,22; 11:19), our grandchildren (Deut. 4:9). The Torah also instructs of to let your entire household 'rest' on the Sabbath. Thus, Cornelius did as the Torah instructed the Israelites.

4 – He Followed some Jewish Tradition (vs. 3)

Luke makes a point that Cornelius was praying at ‘about the ninth hour’. Because he made that point, it’s likely that he was showing that he was praying at the traditional ‘hour of prayer’ of the Jewish people which coincides with the time of the morning and evening sacrifices.

^NKJ Acts 3:1 - Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.

God seems to have important events coincide with the morning and evening sacrifices. Many events in the New Testament happened at the 3^rd or 9^th hour. For instance – 1) Yeshua was crucified at 3^rd hour and died at 9^th hour; Peter and disciples began to speak on Shavuot at the 3^rd hour; and the lame man was healed at the ‘hour of pray’ – the 9^th hour. There are other examples, but that’s for another study.

What this shows us is that Cornelius followed at least some of the Jewish traditions in regards to prayer.

5 – A Witness of the Hebrew Walk

Another point that helps confirm that, in the eyes of the common Jew, Cornelius would not have been a gentile is found in verse 22 where the men who were sent by Cornelius to convey a message to Peter said –

^NKJ Acts 10:22 - … "Cornelius the centurion, a just man, one who fears God and has a good reputation among all the nation of the Jews, was divinely instructed by a holy angel to summon you to his house, and to hear words from you."

From the way this passage is translated, we learn that the Jews held Corneliius in high esteem, but there’s even more. The Greek word translated ‘reputation’ is ‘martureo’ (Strong’s 3140) which means ‘to be a witness’. To what was Cornelius a witness? Based on what the men of his household indicate, Cornelius was a good witness of the Hebrew walk – probably more so than many of the Jews of his day.

Knowing now how Cornelius conducted himself, it’s VERY UNLIKELY that he would have been considered to be a ‘gentile’ in the Jewish sense. To them, a ‘gentile’ was a person who worshipped the many pagan gods of the Greeks and Romans, but it’s clear that Cornelius worshipped only the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – just as did the Jews. Instead of being a ‘gentile’, he would have been considered a proselyte – a believer in the God of Israel, though not yet baptized (which was a step along the way to Jewish conversion).

In fact, the story never says that Cornelius was a Gentile, though later, Peter’s associates state that because of Peter’s encounter with Cornelius, they now understood that the Holy Spirit had been made available to the Gentiles.

Cornelius Motivates YHVH to Act

Instead of being a gentile, Cornelius was a Hebrew, though not Jewish. One good indicator of that is what YHVH said to him in the vision -

^NKJActs 10:3-4 - About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, "Cornelius!"⁴ And when he observed him, he was afraid, and said, "What is it, lord?" So he said to him, "Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God.”

YHVH is saying that Cornelius’ prayers were a ‘memorial’. The word ‘memorial is from the Greek word ‘mnemosunon’ (Strong’s 3422). That word is used two other times in the New Testament, and it implies that a certain action would cause another to remember something. What is interesting to see is that ‘mnemosunon’ is used in the LXX5 to translate the Hebrew word ‘zekar’ (Strongs 2142) which means 'to remember’. A good example of this is found in the ‘blessings and curses’ chapter of Leviticus –

^LXE Lev. 26:40-42 - And they shall confess their sins, and the sins of their fathers, that they have transgressed and neglected me, and that they have walked perversely before me, …⁴² And I will remember (Heb. ‘sakar / Greek ‘mnemosunon’) 6 the covenant of Jacob, and the covenant of Isaac, and the covenant of Abraam will I remember.

The ultimate ‘curse’ that YHVH would put on the Hebrew people if they turned away from Him and His ways was that he would scatter them as exiles throughout the nations, but if they were to repent while in exile, and turn to YHVH, He would remember His covenant with Abraham and begin to restore them.

Though not necessarily an example of repentance, this is somewhat like what happened when the Hebrews cried out to YHVH just prior to the Exodus story -

^NKJ Exodus 2:23-24 - Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. ²⁴;So God heard their groaning,and God remembered (zekar) His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

Because YHVH remembered His covenant at the cries of the Hebrews while enslaved in Egypt, He began the first ‘redemption’ and gathering of Israel. This pattern in confirmed in a number of other passages in the Tnakh7.Would it not be plausible that YHVH reacted to Cornelius’ prayers in the same way?

Cornelius obviously knew the scriptures – especially the words of the prophets. Maybe he knew about his Hebrew lineage. Maybe he had been a witness to the death of Yeshua8. Maybe he was the centurion that recognized Yeshua as the promised Messiah, and maybe he was praying that the unification of his people – as prophesied by Ezekiel – would come in His day.

For whatever reason – Cornelius’ prayers moved YHVH to react! What was that reaction? I submit that YHVH reacted by moving Peter to begin the restoration of His people.

Now that we’ve learned more about Cornelius, let’s now look at Peter’s role in the story.

Peter – Opens the Kingdom to Israel

One day Yeshua brought His disciples to Caesarea Philippi – an area north of the Galilee that was considered in that day to be the most pagan place on earth. While there, He asked His disciples -

^NKJ Matt. 16:13-19 - … "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?"¹⁴ So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."¹⁵ He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"¹⁶ Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."¹⁷ Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.¹⁸ "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church9, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.¹⁹ "And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

This passage is full of meaning if we first understand the prophecies pertaining to the reunification of Israel. Like that of Ezekiel, there are numerous other prophecies that apply to that topic. We also know that – just like the first Passover lamb died for the redemption of the Hebrew people, Yeshua died for the redemption of HIS people as well. But like Moses was used to bring Israel to the Mt. Sinai , there still needed to be someone who would initiate the re-unification of Israel, and Peter was that man.

Peter recognized that Yeshua was the King, and that He was God; and because He – unlike David – could not be restrained by death, He could be the king forever. Therefore, in spite of His earlier denial of Yeshua, YHVH told Peter three times to “feed my (lost) sheep”; and Yeshua’s sheep were the ‘Lost Sheep of the House of Israel’. They were the northern tribes of Israel – who at that time were steeped in idolatry - except for one man - a centurion named Cornelius.

In essence – Peter held the ‘Key to the kingdom’. He opened the door for Israel to be joined back to Judah and he began to ‘rebuild’ the ‘church’ (i.e. - Israel) - as Stephen called it in Acts 7:38 (KJV).

Let’s continue with the story -

^NKJ Acts 10:9-12 - The next day … Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. ¹⁰Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance ¹¹and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. ¹² In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air …

Peter was praying (though not at the ‘hour of prayer’) and had a vision. In the vision, he saw a ‘four-cornered sheet’10 filled with unclean animals. Peter at first looked at these as unclean animals, but later came to see that they symbolized ‘unclean men’ where he explained -

^NKJ Acts 10:28 - But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

Peter was quite specific in saying that the linen sheet had four corners, and that the corners were ‘bound’. When I saw that, it reminded me of this prophecy –

^NKJIsaiah 11:11-12 - It shall come to pass in that day That the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people who are left, from Assyria and Egypt, from Pathros and Cush, from Elam and Shinar, from Hamath and the islands of the sea. ¹²He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

When God scattered the Hebrews, He sent them to the ‘four corners of the earth’. For generations they were scattered, ‘bound to the corners’, exiled from the Promised Land – unable to return. Though a small percentage of Jews did return to Judea after the Babylonian captivity, most of the Jews remained in Babylon, Persia, and Egypt.

On the other hand, the northern tribes were scattered all over the world, and other than just a very small group in Hezekiah’s day, had not returned to The Land up to the first century. What’s more, the Jews maintained their identity in spite of their scattering because they maintained the Sabbath and festivals11. On the other hand, the northern tribes threw it all away. Without the identifying sign of the Sabbath, the northern tribes lost their identity. For all practical purposes, they looked like and acted like the people of the nations to where they were sent. To the world, they looked like Gentiles, even though their heritage was still Hebrew.

To make Peter’s vision clearer, God specifically had certain animals in the sheet – wild beasts, creeping things, and birds. There is a prophecy that mentions Israel being pictured as similar animals in Jeremiah –

^NKJ Jer. 12:8-9 - My heritage (Israel) is to Me like a lion in the forest; It cries out against Me; Therefore, I have hated it. ⁹My heritage is to Me like a speckled vulture; The vultures all around are against her. Come, assemble all the beasts of the field, bring them to devour!

Obviously, YHVH’s heritage is Israel, but He likens them to lions, vultures, and various beasts.To keep it in perspective - at the time of this prophecy, the northern tribes had already been taken captive by the Assyrians, but Judah was quickly turning against YHVH as well, and would soon be taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar.

Peter likely remembered that prophecy and understood that it applied to his exiled brothers – Israel.

The prophecy goes to say -

^NKJJer. 12:14-15 - Thus says the LORD: "Against all My evil neighbors who touch the inheritance which I have caused My people Israel to inherit-- behold, I will pluck them out of their land and pluck out the house of Judah from among them. ¹⁵"Then it shall be, after I have plucked them out, that I will return and have compassion on them and bring them back, everyone to his heritage and everyone to his land.

Even though God would banish Israel from the land of Israel, He made it clear that He would bring them back. Thus the birds and wild animals of the prophecy represented Israel – and Peter came to see it.

One more thing in regards to the sheet … the Greek word translated sheet is ‘othonay’ (Strong’s 3607) which actually means ‘linen’. If you continue in Jeremiah’s prophecy to chapter 13:1-11, you will see that Israel and Judah are also depicted as a ‘linen’ sash.

So what was Peter seeing in the vision? I believe he was seeing Israel return to YHVH from the four corners of the earth.

How does Cornelius fit in? It’s quite simple. To the Jews (including Peter), those Israelites from the northern tribes were ‘common and unclean’. They were ‘common’ in the mind of the Jews because they would not submit to the Jewish ‘oral’ laws, one of which states that ‘common’ food was indeed ‘food’ (Lev. 11), but was considered unfit to eat because it had not been tithed on.

Likewise, to the Jews of the first century, the northern tribes were ‘Hebrews’ but were not fit to be called ‘Hebrews’ because of their idolatry. They were also ‘unclean’ because they more than likely ate animals that were unclean.

Nailing it Down!

Up to this point, we’ve seen quite a bit of evidence that Cornelius was actually a Hebrew, but to really nail it down, there is one more verse we need to see –

^NKJ Acts 10:28 - Then he said to them, "You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

In the New Testament, the word ‘nation’ is translated from the Greek word 'ethnos' (Strong’s 1484) in every case but two. One of those cases is Galatians 1:14 where ‘nation’ comes from the Greek word ‘genos’ (Strongs 1085). The other case is the above passage where it is translated from ‘allophulos’, which comes from the Greek root words ‘allos’ (Strong’s 243) which means ‘from’, and ‘phyle (Strong’s 5443) which means ‘TRIBE! In fact, 25 out of 31 times in the King James Bible, ‘phyle’ is translated as ‘TRIBE”.

Here are three examples, but there are many more -

^NKJMatt. 19:28 - So Jesus said to them, "Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes (phyle - 5443) of Israel.

^NKJJames 1:1 – “… a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes (phyle - 5443) which are scattered abroad: Greetings.”

^NKJ Romans 11:1 - I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe (phyle - 5443) of Benjamin.

So, this pretty much seals it. Cornelius was from one of the twelve tribes of Israel. I would guess he was from the tribe of Ephraim since Ephraim was the tribe from which leaders and warriors like Joshua came from.

To wrap this up -

Cornelius was not a ‘gentile’ in the context of the Jewish people of his day. Instead, he was a man who recognized his Hebrew lineage and walked in a Godly manner at a time when the majority of his people were steeped in idolatry. He was a descendant of the Lost 10 tribes of Israel, and as such, a fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy of uniting the two sticks of Israel into one people and the beginning of the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel (see Acts 1:6).

Peter - through YHVH’s urging - came to see that through the sacrifice of Messiah Yeshua, the northern tribes had been redeemed, and that the Jews (including himself) should no longer consider them to be ‘common’ and ‘unclean’. He was used by YHVH to bring in the first named ‘convert’ from the Lost Tribes, and in so doing opened the way for Israel (the northern tribes) to come back into the covenant God made with Israel.

Yeshua was true to His word when He said -

"I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. “

^NKJ Matt. 15:24

Shalom Aleichem