Cornelius (Hastings' Dictionary)

A centurion in the garrison of Ctesarea (Ac 10'). He was probably EUi Italian, the Italian Cohort (cf. Ulass ad loc), bein;; so named to distinguish it from companies locally enrolled, while his name is pure Roman, having been borne by the Scipios and Sulla. In Ac 10 he flits across the line of apostolic history, being brought, in consequence of a series of mutually supplementary visions, into contact with St. Peter, and admitted by baptism into the Church.

According to a later tradition he founded a church at Ciesarea, while another legend makes him bishop of Scamandros. The baptism of C. has generally been regarded as the first step in the admission of the uncircumcised into the Church ; but before this can be definitely main- tained, we should have to assume that the events related in Ac 8-11 are narrated chrono- logically. The eunuch's baptism by Philip (8^), that of C. by St.

Peter (10'''), and the admission of the Greeks (RV) at Antioch (11"), may all have occurred coincidently, or in any order ; the events are dovetailed into each other without any neces- sary implication of historical sequence. There is no evidence that the eunuch was circumcised, though he was probably a proselyte of the wider class (proselytes of the Gate) ; while the Greeks at Antioch may also have belonged to this class.

But C, too, is described as (po^ovueyoi riy ffeoV, the regular phrase in Ac for such proselytes (Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 43), though Renan (TVte Apostles, ch. xi.) says he was not a proselyte in any degree whatever. Now, if C. was a proselyte, the question regarding the admission of the unmitigated heathen still remained, since the apostles could hardly wish tomakethedoorof theChurch narrower than thatof the Synagogue. Some have therefore conjectured that St. Peter simply gave C.

a standing in the Church similar to that which he had in the Syna- gogue (see Weizsiicker, Apostolic Age, i. 103f. ); others, that his case was pa.'*sed asan exceptional one (Ramsay). St. Peter, however, according to Ac 11""-, uses it as a true precedent, though, had it been accepted as such, what was the purpose of the subsequent Council at Jerusalem (Ac 15)? Arguing from this, and from the fact that St.

Peter was blamed, not for admitting the Gentiles, but for eating with them, Pfleidurer (Urchrislentum, Apostclgesrhifhte) holds that the case of C. is given to show the cessation of ceremonial exclusiveness from the Jevish standpoint. But if so, it is strange to find St. Peter later on (Gal 2"") hesi- tating about this veiy point. On the whole, it is A priori unlikely that a terse writer like St.

Luke would have bestowed such pains upon anything but a matter of prime importance, which the relaxing of Jewish exclusiveness could hardly ha»e aiipeared to him — a Gentile — to be. We may, therefore, most safely infer that he looked on tlio baptism of C. as an all-important step in the ad- mission of the Gentiles, while a long cidvance still remained to be made. A. Gkieve. CORNER See Agriculture. CORNER-STONE (in Job 38« njj jsk, XWos yuK/iiun, in Jer 51 (Gr. 28)^ .1)?^ [;n, Xi^oj (h yuHav).

—T:ht corner, stones of important buildings, such as palaces or temples, were sometimes of an exceed- mgly ornate and costly description, and of extra- ordinary dimensions. With the view of giving greater strength to the two walls which they connected, they were generally arranged length- ways and endways alternately, or a single angular stone might be inserted at the corner (Layard, A'»n. u. 254).

There are two passages in the OT where comer- stones are spoken of, which are of primary import- ance because of the use made of them in the NT. These are Is 28'' 'Behold I lay in Zion,' etc., and Ps 118^ 'The stone which the builders rejected,' etc. The first is quoted in 1 P 2" and underlies Eph 2'*, in both of which \Woi aKpoyuvidto^ repre- sents nj5 i^x of Is 28". (On the unusual construc- tion of the latter verse see Davidson's Ileb. Syntax, p. 37.)

The second is quoted in Mt 21-", Mk 12'», Lk 20", Ac 4", and 1 P 2'. Here instead of nis ijK we find ajs Ptin, answering to Ke^paXij yuvlas, • head of the comer.' In Ps 144'' a diil'erent word occurs, nil.) (Syr. lAuOJ ), which in Zee 9^' ia X applied to the comers of the altar. It is doubtful whether in the above psalm comer-.s<6i7!e« (accepted by both AV and RV) is the correct rendering. The Sept. has simply KeKaWwinafjUyat, Aq. uii iirtyutvia, Symm. tis ywyiat KeKoa^Tifji^vai, Vulg.

qu(csi anguli, liesenius understands the word of ' corner-co/umTW beautifully carved,' or of Caryatides. Kautzsch, who in all the other OT passages offers the rendering Eckstein, has here Ecksaulen. In all the NT passages Weizsacker gives Eckstein, rightly treating 'corner-stone' and 'head of the corner ' as synonymous expressions. As to Is 28", Driver (Isaiah', p.

52) finds in the prophet's language an allusion to the huge and costly foundation stones of the temjde (1 K 5"), the i)rominent thought of the passage being that of the permanent element in Zion (the theocracy or the Davidic dynasty). It is easy to understand St. Peter's application of the words. (Cf. Delitzsch, Isaiah, new ed. vol. ii. p. 9.) Similarly, the expres- sions used of Israel in Ps 118^ were readily trans- ferred to Christ.

The figure of Eph '2-" is well explained by Grimm {Clavis, s. iKpoyumaTos). As the corner-stone is inserted at the angle of a building, holding two walls together aHd support- ing the superstructure, so Christ unites Jew and Gentile, and is the support of the Church. The additional thought of 1 P 2* can be without violence derived from the same figure.

As one recklessly turning the corner of a building may stumble over the corner-stone, so, while some find in Christ their supjiort, others stumble at Hira and perish. (Cf. Allord and Ellicott on Eph 2™.) For various superstitions and religious rites connected with the cornerstone, comp. Trumbull, Threshold Covenant, 22, 61, 55, and see Foundation. J. A. Seldie.