Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 9:32

"And it came to pass, as Peter went throughout all parts, he came down also to the saints that dwelt at Lydda." — Acts 9:32 (ASV)

Lydda was located twenty-five miles northwest of Jerusalem, at the crucial intersection of the highways from Egypt to Syria and from coastal Joppa to Jerusalem. At this time Peter was engaged in an itinerant ministry in the western part of Palestine, somewhat like his earlier preaching in Samaria (cf. 8:25). In the course of his travels, he visited “the saints” in the important commercial center of Lydda. However they came to commit themselves to Jesus as God’s Messiah, Peter viewed them as within the sphere of his ministry—even though many of them were probably less scrupulous in keeping the Mosaic law than Jews of the capital city.