Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 11:4

"But Peter began, and expounded [the matter] unto them in order, saying," — Acts 11:4 (ASV)

But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning.—Perhaps a better rendering, since the word “rehearse” has acquired a different shade of meaning, would be began and set forth the matter. The translators seem to have paraphrased the participle “having begun” somewhat more fully than its actual meaning allows. The nearly verbatim repetition of the same narrative as that in Acts 10:0 seems, at first glance, inconsistent with our common standards of compositional skill. The probable explanation for this is that St. Luke obtained the first narrative from the disciples he met at Caesarea and the second from those in Jerusalem. The close agreement between the two accounts then seemed to him—as indeed it was—a confirmation of the truth of each.