Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 9:39

"And Peter arose and went with them. And when he was come, they brought him into the upper chamber: and all the widows stood by him weeping, and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas made, while she was with them." — Acts 9:39 (ASV)

Joppa (modern Jaffa) was the ancient seaport for Jerusalem. Situated on the coast thirty-five miles northwest of the capital city and ten miles beyond Lydda, it possesses the only natural harbor on the Mediterranean between Egypt and Ptolemais (see 2 Chronicles 2:16). Its rival in NT times was Caesarea, thirty miles to the north, which Herod the Great, because the people of Joppa hated him, built into a magnificent new port city and provincial capital. At Joppa lived a woman called Tabitha (Heb.) or Dorcas (Gk.); both names mean “gazelle.” She was a “disciple” and “was always doing good and helping the poor,” particularly destitute widows. When she died, the Christians at Joppa sent this message to Peter at Lydda: “Please come at once.” Luke does not say what they expected from him or asked him to do. But since (1) Tabitha’s body was washed but not anointed for burial and (2) her good deeds were told to Peter when he arrived, they apparently wanted him to restore her to life. Having heard of Aeneas’s healing, they seem to have thought it merely a slight extension of divine power to raise the dead.