Acts 10:5

And now send men to Joppa, and fetch one Simon, who is surnamed Peter: he lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side.

The angel's directions as given to Cornelius to enable him to contact Peter were full, explicit, sufficient and correct. The mention of Simon's occupation was noted under Acts 9:43; and, if Simon was the head of a large tanning industry, which is a definite possibility, the mention of his being a tanner would greatly have facilitated finding him.

The big question that appears here, however, is, "Why did not the angel himself tell Cornelius what to do to be saved?" The sole purpose of Cornelius' sending for Peter was to speak words "whereby thou shalt be saved" (Acts 11:14); and the thought inevitably surfaces as to why the angel himself did not speak those words. As Root noted:

Jesus committed this task to man and does not intend to relieve him of it. An angel sent Philip to the Ethiopian; but it was the man Philip that told him what to do to be saved. Also, Jesus himself appeared to Saul; but it was Ananias who was commissioned to tell Saul what to do to be saved; and this same pattern is here. Not the angel, but Peter would tell Cornelius what to do to be saved.[6]

Milligan also answered this question the same way:

Because Jesus had committed to the apostles, and through them to the church, the word of reconciliation (Acts 1:8; 2 Corinthians 5:18,19; 1 Timothy 3:15; and 2 Timothy 2:2).[7]

The importance of Peter's participation in this event was stressed by Lange, thus:

It was so ordered that the first pagan should be baptized and received into the church, not by an ordinary member of the church, nor by an evangelist like Philip, but by one of the Twelve themselves, and indeed by that one, who had by his words and deeds, become the most prominent of their number.[8]

Also, as noted in the introduction to this chapter, this was one of the factors establishing this event as altogether unique.

[6] Orin Root, Acts (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company, 1966), p. 75.

[7] Robert Milligan, Analysis of the New Testament (Cincinnati, Ohio: Bosworth, Chase and Hall, Publishers, 1974), p. 349.

[8] John Peter Lange, Commentary on Acts (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1866), p. 192.