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Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Verse 37. They had compunction in their heart, with sorrow for their sins, especially against their Messias. Witham.
Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Verse 38. Be baptized: believing and making profession to believe, and hope for salvation, by the merits of Jesus Christ. Thus you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, the grace of God, and perhaps those other gifts of speaking with tongues, working miracles, and so forth Witham.—The gift of the Holy Ghost. That is, justifying grace, which is infused in our hearts by the laver of regeneration. The exterior gifts of the Holy Ghost, the gift of tongues, of miracles, prophecy, and so forth were, in the beginning of the Church, more regularly the consequences of confirmation or imposition of hands. Calmet.
For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.”
Verse 39. The promise is to you. The good tidings of salvation were first announced to the Jew, then to the Gentile; first to the domestics, then to the strangers, who are far off. It is rather singular, that Saint Peter, after here so clearly shewing that the Gentiles are called to the faith, should afterwards have made such objections to go to baptize Cornelius, because he was a Gentile. This can only be reconciled, by supposing, he did not know distinctly the time nor the manner of their vocation. Calmet.
With many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”
Verse 40. And with a great many other words did he testify and exhort them. Saint Luke only gives an abridgment of those exhortations, which Saint Peter, and the apostles frequently gave to all the people. Saint Peter, as Saint John Chrysostom observes, and as we see in these Acts, was the mouth of all the rest. And on this first day of Pentecost, about three thousand were converted. Witham.
Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. There were added that day about three thousand souls.