Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 10:2

"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)

Cornelius was “devout [GK 2356] and God-fearing”—characteristics also attributed to his entire household (a “household” included both one’s immediate family and one’s personal servants). Perhaps we are to understand by “Godfearing” that Cornelius was a near-proselyte to Judaism or a so-called Proselyte of the Gate (cf. comments on 8:27–28), though more likely it simply means something like “a religious man,” especially in view of Luke’s addition of “devout” and “righteous” in v.22. From his report of Peter’s use of this expression for Cornelius in v.35 (“men from every nation who fear him [God] and do what is right”), it seems that Cornelius was a Gentile who, having realized the bankruptcy of paganism, sought to worship a monotheistic God, practice a form of prayer, and lead a moral life, apart from any necessary association with Judaism. It was, then, to such a spiritually minded Gentile, Luke tells us, that God first reached out his hand in the advance of the Christian mission.