76 Dimensions of Baptism
That a household's embracing the (new) religion of its head would have
been a commonplace in Roman antiquity underscores the importance of
exploring the significance of these episodes in Acts. What might the inclu-
sion of a detail so expected, so mundane, contribute to the narrative?
- The Baptism of Cornelius and His Household (Acts 10.1-11.18)
It is unnecessary to name Cornelius and his household as the first Gentile
converts in order to measure the import of this narrative sequence within
the book of Acts. If, as I think more probable, the first Gentile conversion
episode is found rather in Acts 8.26-40, in the encounter between Philip
and the Ethiopian, it remains no less true that, from the vantage point of
the Jerusalem community of Jesus' followers, the episode with Cornelius
and his household poses the real dilemma. This is because, first, within the
Lukan narrative, Jerusalem never learns of the baptism of the Ethiopian;
the Ethiopian returns to his home and Philip, snatched up by the Spirit of
the Lord and having 'found himself in Azotus', moves up the coast to
Caesarea where he apparently remains (8.39-40; 21.8). Secondly, the
obstacle that must be overcome is not the legitimacy of bringing good
news to Gentiles (which would be consistent with Jesus' practice [Lk. 7.1-
10] and directives [Lk. 24.46-48; Acts 1.8]), but rather table fellowship
among Jews and Gentiles.^15 And issues of fellowship or hospitality are not
on the table in Luke's account of the Ethiopian episode, but rather occupy
centerstage in the account of Peter's encounter with Cornelius. At the cli-
max of the Cornelius episode stands the baptism of this Gentile household
by the Holy Spirit and their subsequent baptism with water. It is here, with
reference to the household, that the juxtaposition of the Jerusalem/temple-
centered ideology with the boundary-crossing mission of God comes into
sharpest focus.
By the shorthand of Jerusalem- or temple-centered ideology, I am refer-
ring to the role of the temple as the premier institutional context of the
social world of Second Temple Judaism, and particularly to its central
function of defining and organizing the life-world of the Jewish people.
Using the categories of sacred space, Luke treats the temple as sacred
center (axis mundi), the navel of the earth, an institution with two axes.
Christian Families: Family as a Social Reality and Metaphor (London: Routledge,
1997), pp. 150-65(153-56).
- Contra, e.g., S.G. Wilson, The Gentiles and the Gentile Mission (SNTSMS, 23;
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973), pp. 171-78.