Peter at Lydda and Joppa
Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles No. 18, on Acts 9:21-42.
For a time, Paul has held the centre of the stage; but once again Peter takes the limelight. We are told that he visited Lydda, which was located twenty-five miles northwest of Jerusalem, at the intersection of the highways from Egypt to Syria and from coastal Joppa to Jerusalem. He had left Jerusalem and ministered in a locality where there were Jews and Gentiles living. At Lydda Peter came upon Aeneas, a paralytic who had been bedridden for eight years. Luke does not say whether he was a Jew or a Christian, though presumably, despite his thoroughly Greek name, he was both. One commentator has pointed out that Peter's words, "Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat," are recorded in the present tense by Luke. They should be understood neither as saying “Jesus Christ has healed you" nor “Jesus Christ will heal you" but as this moment “Jesus Christ heals you." News of Aeneas's healing spread throughout Lydda and into the Plain of Sharon to the north. The Plain of Sharon is the largest of the maritime plains of northern Palestine, stretching from Joppa to Mount Carmel and with Caesarea on the coast at its geographic centre. So, Luke tells us, there was a further widening of the Christian mission within the Jewish nation.
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 possessed the only natural harbour on the Mediterranean between Egypt and Ptolemais. At Joppa lived a woman called Tabitha (Hebrew) or Dorcas (Greek); both names mean "gazelle." She was a "disciple" and "was always doing good and helping the poor." Verse 39 indicates that her energies were devoted chiefly to helping 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 Tabitha's body was washed but not anointed for burial and her good deeds were mentioned 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 that only a slight extension of divine power would be needed to raise the dead. Perhaps it is worth noting that in Mt 10:6-8 Jesus said, “you are to go to the lost sheep of the people of Israel. Go and preach, ‘The Kingdom of heaven is near!’ Heal the sick, bring the dead back to life.” 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 and prayed. Then he spoke these words: "Tabitha, get up." 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 exhibition of God's mercy and the Spirit's power, and "many people believed in the Lord." This account 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" , where the messengers from Cornelius would later find him.
In his commentary on these two miracles, William Barclay draws attention to the fact that there is one very interesting word in our passage. Twice the Christians at Lydda are called saints (verses 32 and 41). The same word was used earlier in the chapter by Ananias to describe the Christians at Jerusalem (verse 13). This is the word that Paul always used to describe the church members, for he always wrote his letters to the saints who were at such and such a place. The Greek word is hagios, and it has far-reaching associations. It is sometimes translated as holy, but the root meaning of it is different. Paul told the Ephesians, “You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (2:19). It is not that these people were holier than other people; rather, anyone who had been sanctified in Christ Jesus was, by virtue of that fact, “holy,” i.e., in association with the prophetic action of the Holy Spirit. The word had no direct connection with the modern notion of being a canonized saint.
