What is the significance of Joppa in the Bible?

Town and sea-port in the tribe of Dan. It was the port of Jerusalem. Timber was cut in Lebanon and brought in 'floats' by sea to Joppa, for the temple at Jerusalem. 2 Chr. 2:16; Ezra 3:7. It was the port from which Jonah took ship to go to Tarshish. Jonah 1:3. It was where Dorcas was restored to life, and where Peter had the vision of the sheet from heaven, with instructions to visit Cornelius. Acts 9:36-43; Acts 10:5-33; Acts 11:5, 13. It was originally called JAPHO, Joshua 19:46; and is now called Jaffa or Yafa, 32 3' N, 34 45' E.

Was not Jonah's errand a proof of it? Let us now return to him. God had told Jonah to go to the east, to Nineveh; with that solemn yet gracious message. But Jonah goes just the opposite way. He goes to the west, to Joppa, taking ship for Tarshish to "flee from the presence of the Lord." Thrice in our chapter (as thrice also in the first) does the Holy Spirit make mention of the prophet's vain attempt to flee from the presence of the Lord, as if to point out the folly of such an attempt.

The town of Joppa has in this sense a very instructive significance. Two servants of the Lord, the one a prophet and the other an apostle, went to that place. Both were entrusted by God with a message to the Gentiles; the prophet of the Old Testament with a warning message of judgment, and the apostle of the New with a message of salvation, grace and peace through Jesus Christ. The prophet went to Joppa in disobedience to the will of God, but the apostle under the guidance of the Spirit. Both of them had in their gracious Master's school to be trained for their service. Hard were the lessons which each of the two had to learn, but those destined for the prophet were the hardest by far, for in his case it was not the consequence of mere ignorance, but of wilful disobedience. Peter, on the roof of the house of Simon the tanner, learnt by the vessel descending from heaven, like a great sheet knit at the four corners, an all-important lesson from heaven, before he left Joppa for Caesarea, to convey to the first fruits of the Gentiles the heavenly message of peace through Jesus Christ. But for Jonah two much harder though blessed lessons were reserved, which he had to learn at the bottom of the sea in the belly of the fish, after he in disobedience had sailed from Joppa to "flee from the presence of the Lord." What lessons! How different in their character and locality, and yet so rich in grace and blessing in their intentions and results! "None can hinder what He will; Wait and trust in Him, be still; Go the way which He doth send thee, Sure and blessed will the end be."

While Peter is yet at Lydda he is called to Joppa. This town, now called Jaffa, was, and is the most important seaport of Judea. It is situated on a sandy promontory jutting out into the Mediterranean, south of Caesarea, and about thirty miles from Jerusalem. The occasion of Peter's call was the death of Dorcas. She was a remarkable woman, "full of good works, and alms-deeds which she did." Here was a practical saint, if you like. As a result she was deeply beloved of the saints, who greatly mourned her loss. On his arrival Peter got the fullest testimony as to the ways of Dorcas, whose name meant "Gazelle," both in the Greek, and in the Syro-Chaldaic form, Tabitha. Whether the weeping widows and others at Joppa expected what took place, we are not told, but God had His purpose in the event. Putting all forth, Peter first entreats the Lord in prayer, and then "turning to the body, said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up. And he gave her his hand, and lifted her up, and when he had called the saints and widows, presented her alive."

In this miracle, for such it was, God doubtless desired to attest outside Jerusalem the power of the Name of Jesus. Beyond this it gave our apostle, as a vessel of God, both in the eyes of the saints, and of the world, a place that was, at the moment, called for. Added to this, one sees the grace of the Lord in stepping in to comfort those that mourn, in a manner unlooked for, and unknown in that day, save at His own blessed hand, while treading the earth. The effect without was great — "and it was known throughout all Joppa; and many believed in the Lord" (Acts 9:42). A great awakening took place evidently, so much so that "Peter tarried many days in Joppa, with one Simon a tanner" (Acts 9:43). From this interesting scene, however, he is soon called to one of wider and outstanding importance, as we shall see in our next chapter.

Verse 3. Jonah rose up at once, but instead of going to the east towards Nineveh he fled in the other direction. Tarshish in Spain was his goal. It is also stated that he fled from the presence of the Lord. This cannot possibly mean that he fled from the presence of Him whom he knew as the omnipresent One. The Psalm of David which speaks of this expressly was then in the possession of Israel, and Jonah must have known it: "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in sheol, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me" (Psalm 139:7-10). He did not flee from the presence of the Lord in the sense of escaping His knowledge and authority. It means that he left the land of Israel where Jehovah dwelt; he fled from the service-commission he had received.

If we look for a motive of this disobedient prophet we find it given in the book itself. In chapter 4:2 we read, "Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish, for I knew that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, and slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest Thee of evil." But why should he fear that God might be merciful to Nineveh and save the city? It was undoubtedly a national spirit which possessed the prophet. It has been suggested that the prophet knew that the Assyrian would be used by the Lord as the instrument to punish Israel and that he thought if Nineveh would perish the people Israel might be saved. Inasmuch as God might show mercy to Assyria, Assyria would then be used as the rod upon Israel, and for this reason he was disobedient to the commission. But the direct prophecy that the Assyrian would be the staff in the hand of the Lord to bring judgment upon Israel was made through Isaiah (chapter 10), and that revelation had not yet been given, for Jonah lived before the prophet Isaiah. It was rather the fear Jonah had as a Jew that the conversion of the Gentiles might rob his nation of the distinction of being the nation of election, to whom Jehovah had revealed Himself exclusively. He therefore went to Joppa where he engaged passage on a ship which was to bring him to Tarshish, which he never reached. It was at Joppa where centuries later another Jew, who was also jealous for his nation, had a vision which made it clear that the gospel should be preached to the Gentiles. That Jew was Peter (Acts 10).

The angel does not preach the gospel to Cornelius, but sends Peter to him for this; so thoroughly does the Lord cleave to His own methods and appointments. Peter moreover, as we have seen, is specially needed here; and that need is seen the more in the means taken to prepare the apostle for what is before him. The Lord goes in advance of the messengers from Caesarea to the house of Simon the tanner by the seaside; and that house is the lowly birthplace of a wide and far-reaching movement in His ways with men.

Independently of the Jews, He sends His angel to Cornelius. His prayers and alms are recognised as being acceptable to God. He is told to send men to Joppa to call for Simon, who, the angel tells him, lodged with one Simon, a tanner. He would tell him what he ought to do. Here is a new and important fact. God was thinking about the Gentiles, and desired to admit them to the assembly without their becoming Jews or submitting to the law. Cornelius, a truly devout man, humble, and fearing God, acts immediately according to the word of the angel, and calls two of his servants and a devout soldier, and, having declared to them all that had happened, sends them to call for Peter.

Peter is staying with Simon, a tanner, in Joppa. He does not yet know that God wants to use him to open up the kingdom of heaven to the “nations”, i.e. to believers from a non-Jewish background. He goes up onto the roof of the house to pray. Peter is hungry, a meal is being prepared. Suddenly he sees "heaven opened". But quite differently than with Stephen, here heaven does not open to reveal the view on the glorified Christ, but Peter sees a "vessel, like a great linen cloth, coming down". In it there are – to the apostle's great horror – "all kinds of four-footed and creeping animals of the earth and birds of the sky". The work of redemption had been accomplished, the curtain of the temple had been torn, the Holy Spirit had come to dwell on the earth, and Peter himself had proclaimed a great message on the day of Pentecost. But the fact that Gentiles should be invited as well, should fully participate in Christian blessing, and be part the church of God, had not yet become clear to him.

The linen cloth, along with the animals that were unclean according to the Mosaic law, was to help him grasp this lesson. But when Peter hears the voice saying "Get up, Peter, slay and eat," he responded with a decisive "Not at all, Lord!" But He got a wonderful answer: "What God has purified, do not call common!" The message, repeated three times, prepared Peter for the visitors who suddenly appear before him: the men Cornelius had sent.

No sooner has Cornelius heard from God what he is to do, than he does it. This shows the earnestness and the fervour of the man. "Immediately therefore I sent to thee," he says to Peter. He will not wait a day. He does not say, I will think about it. Many a man has said, I will think about it, I will "hear thee again of this matter," and, blinded by Satan, and snared by procrastination, has gone to hell for eternity. Well did Rowland Hill say, "Procrastination is the recruiting officer of hell." Cornelius was no procrastinator.

Look at this earnest seeker! No sooner has the angel departed than he obeys the divinely given instructions (Acts 10:7-8). He feels that not a moment is to be lost; and, my reader, can you afford to wait another day to get the concerns of your soul settled? The moment this man hears God's word he sends off his three servants, on their forty miles' journey by the sea-coast, to Joppa. Travelling was not very rapid in those days, and they stayed no doubt somewhere for the night (Acts 10:9), but Cornelius was not long kept waiting. God loves to meet an anxious soul, and ofttimes does it straightway.

Now, let us see how the Lord was preparing His servant to meet this exercised and obedient Gentile. Peter went up to pray on the housetop; and he did pray, for he says in the next chapter, "I was in the city of Joppa praying." It was the sixth hour, noonday, not the time people generally go up to pray. Once Peter had been told to watch and pray, and he did not, with the result that he fell; now we find him praying, and the Lord speaks to him in a vision. He "saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending to him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth; wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. And the voice spake to him again the second time, What God has cleansed, that call not thou common. This was done thrice; and the vessel was received up again into heaven" (Acts 10:11-16). Some have imagined this to be the Church, but I do not believe that is the thought here. Peter was not the vessel through whom God was going to bring out the truth of the Church — that was given to Paul. I believe the vision was given to teach Peter the lesson, that the Cross had done away with all the barriers that had previously existed between Jew and Gentile, and that the grace of God was going out to each alike, and that the same cleansing power was to bring both into blessing.

Will it be believed that a professed and not unlearned translator of the New Testament dared thus to render the opening verse: 'Moreover, there was among the disciples at Joppa a woman named Tabitha, who was always doing good works and giving alms'? I cite from Gilbert Wakefield's second edition ii. 27, though I cannot say (not having its predecessor) whether this is one of its alleged 'improvements' or a mere reproduction of the first. It is the note (on page 375) which is so offensive: — 'I have left out the impertinent explanation in this verse, because, even if no interpolation it must be either ridiculous or unintelligible in a translation.' It is the more shameless from one who allows himself no such audacity in his rendering (as among many like passages) of John 1:38, 41, 42, with all three of which he deals fairly. Now what is the fact in our case? It is the true Aramaic form of that time and country; so Gamaliel's maid was called; and Josephus (B.J. iv. iii. 5) gives as Luke does the same corresponding Greek name to the mother of a certain truculent John, as the English reader can see in Dr. Traill's Tr. ii. 64. The Hebrew word that answers to it means 'beauty'; but it is commonly used of a 'gazelle', 'hart', or 'roe', as in Deut.; 2 Sam.; Song of Solomon. So in our own tongue men and women are called Buck, Doe, Roe, Stag, and the like. In Lucret. iv. 1154 it occurs as a term of endearment. Where is the 'impertinence' of such an explanation? Only in the empty, presumptuous, and profane mind of Mr. Wakefield. I take the trouble of refuting it, as a caution to the misinformed not to be imposed on by the unconscious impiety of such as believe not the inspired character of Holy Writ. Whenever they assail that word, it would be easy to expose their self-sufficient folly.

Tabitha, or Dorcas, then, is described as a disciple at Joppa, who was a doer of the word and not a hearer only; for her pure and undefiled service before her God and Father was to remember the widows in their affliction, keeping herself unspotted from the world. $he was as full of good works and alms-deeds as of faith. In those days then she sickened and died. Now if washed in the usual way, she was laid in an upper room, a suitable place to await the arrival of the apostle. For it seems not obscurely implied that the disciples looked for more than consolation in sending messengers for the apostle just at that moment and admitting of no delay;1 as he on his part promptly met their entreaty. As usual the scene is livingly before us, though it is with Peter for the central figure, not Paul of whom Luke was the cherished companion. But what mattered this or that if the Spirit inspired him to give us the truth to Christ's praise? He certainly had it all before Him as it was, though Luke was not there: and no jealousy for his leader tarnished one word of Luke's narrative. There they were in the upper chamber, and all the widows stood by Peter, not in tears only but displaying the work of Dorcas' loving hands, the clothes inner and outer which she used to make while she was with them. {1 The marginal reading (ver. 38) of the Authorized Version ('be grieved') is in no way suitable as a rendering here, though habitually used in classical authors for the hesitation of shame, pity, or alarm. They were led to retain it in the margin through their respect for Tyndale, followed by Cranmer. The Geneva V. discarded it rightly. The Rhemites give 'Be not loth', though Wiclif had translated correctly, as they adhered servilely to the Vulgate. Num. 22:16; Judges. 18:9 are unquestionable precedents in the LXX., and so Josephus, Ant. ii. 7.}

The details are interesting and encouraging. “This woman was full of good works and alms-deeds.” So great were her activities that Tabitha got a nickname—Dorcas. This means a doe or a roe. These graceful animals are very fleet of foot so one can imagine Tabitha constantly and swiftly moving about on her errands of mercy.