Acts 9:36
Full of good works and almsdeeds
The introduction is one sentence long and it is entirely about what she did for other people. The feminine word for disciple is used only here.
People of the Bible
Dorcas
The evidence brought to her funeral was the clothes she had made, held up by the women wearing them.
Also called Tabitha
She lives at Joppa and the text gives her two names, the Aramaic Tabitha and the Greek Dorcas, both meaning gazelle, which suggests a woman known in both communities of a port town. She is called a disciple, and the word is in its feminine form, the only time in the New Testament that happens. What is said about her is a single clause: this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did. Then she falls sick and dies.
Scroll down to the storyThe movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of Dorcas
- 01
- 02
Acts 9:37-38
They laid her in an upper chamber
Lydda is near and two men are sent to ask Peter to come without delay. The request is made before anybody says what they expect.
- 03
Acts 9:39
Showing the coats and garments
The widows do not describe her, they display her work and they are wearing it. It is the plainest obituary in Scripture.
- 04
Acts 9:40-41
Tabitha, arise
He puts them all out and kneels, which is the pattern of an earlier room in Galilee. He gives her his hand and calls the saints and widows back in.
- 05
Acts 9:42-43
He tarried many days in Joppa
The news spreads through the town and many believe. Peter stays on with Simon a tanner, in the house where the next chapter finds him.
Why it matters
The washing and the upper room are ordinary preparations for burial. What is not ordinary is the exhibit. When Peter arrives, all the widows stand by him weeping and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas made while she was with them. Her life is not summarised, it is worn into the room. Peter puts them all out, kneels, says Tabitha, arise, and gives her his hand. Then he presents her alive, and many believed in the Lord at Joppa.
The music
The music
Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.
No song in the catalogue reaches these chapters yet.