other · 36 · Joppa
Luke calls her mathetria, a disciple, in the feminine — the only time the word appears that way in the New Testament — and gives her name twice, in Aramaic and in Greek, as though both communities knew her. The detail that carries the scene is the evidence the widows produce: they stand round weeping and show the tunics and other garments she had made while she was with them. Peter puts them all outside, kneels, prays, and says Tabitha, arise. The narrative consequence is as large as the miracle: he stays on in Joppa many days, with Simon a tanner, which is where the messengers from Cornelius find him in the next chapter. The whole Gentile question turns on Peter being at that address.
A disciple raised at Joppa, and Peter still in the town when Cornelius sends for him.