Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 9:40

"But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down and prayed; and turning to the body, he said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes; and when she saw Peter, she sat up." — Acts 9:40 (ASV)

Peter had been instrumental in a number of physical healings (cf. 3:1–10; 5:12–16; 9:32–35) and even pronounced the death sentence on Ananias and Sapphira (cf. 5:1–11). Yet raising people from the dead was hardly a common feature of his ministry. Nevertheless, knowing himself to be an apostle of Jesus empowered by the Holy Spirit—and probably remembering his Lord’s raising of Jairus’s daughter (cf. Mark 5:21–24, 35–43)—Peter responded to the urgent call. As he had seen Jesus do in the case of Jairus’s daughter, he ordered the mourners out of the room, prayed, and then spoke these words: “Tabitha, get up” (cf. Mark 5:41). When she opened her eyes and sat up, he took her by the hand, helped her to her feet, and presented her alive to the Christians who stood by. It was an exceptional exhibit of God’s mercy and the Spirit’s power, and “many people believed in the Lord.” 43 This verse serves as a geographical and ideological hinge between the accounts of Peter’s miracles in the maritime plain and the account of Cornelius’s conversion at Caesarea. Instead of returning ten miles to Lydda, Peter remained at Joppa “for some time” (cf. 8:11), where the messengers from Cornelius later found him. Of greater significance, however, is the fact that Peter stayed there with a man called Simon, a tanner who was presumably working in his own home. Luke’s stress on this feature of Peter’s lifestyle provides a preface to 10:1–11:18.