Acts 10:16 - Printer Friendly

ESV: This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.

NIV: This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.

NASB: This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky.

CSB: This happened three times, and suddenly the object was taken up into heaven.

NLT: The same vision was repeated three times. Then the sheet was suddenly pulled up to heaven.

KJV: This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven.

NKJV: This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again.

Peter is in Joppa, near modern-day Tel Aviv, praying on the rooftop of a tanner named Simon. While he waits for lunch, he has a vision of a sheet filled with different animals being lowered from heaven. A voice tells him to kill the animals and eat them, but some are prohibited by the Mosaic law (Leviticus 11). Peter refuses, and the voice tells him that God has lifted the dietary restrictions and made what was unclean clean (Acts 10:9–15).

Throughout the years, people have tried to figure out why God prohibited the animals He did. Many of the animals He banned are carnivores or eat carrion, but not examples like camels or rabbits. Certainly, God had reasons for those specific animals at that time, but in a way, they are just as arbitrary as the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

That seemingly arbitrary line is a major part of the purpose of such laws. The point isn't the literal physical food, it's whether God's people trust Him enough to do what He asks. This is why Jesus explained that trying to avoid a hidden particle of unclean food was unnecessary—especially while hypocritically avoiding more obvious commands from God (Matthew 15:1–11). The kosher laws were designed to show the neighboring nations that the Israelites were different. The worship of Yahweh was largely hidden from Gentile eyes, but eating was more obvious. If someone tried to sell a Jew pork, the Jew could refuse, explaining his God forbade it.

This prohibition grew into a general rule against eating with anyone who wasn't Jewish, including Gentiles who worshiped the Jewish God but were not circumcised and proselytes, such as Cornelius (Acts 10:1–8). Eating together is still a significant even in Middle Eastern culture; for a devout Jew to eat with someone who was unclean was to become unclean.

Whether or not the number three has specific importance in God's point of view, it is significant for Peter. While Jesus was on trial before the Sanhedrin, Peter denied knowing Him three times (Mark 14:66–72). After Jesus had risen from the dead, Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him, and told Peter to take care of Jesus' followers (John 21:15–17). It's possible Peter sees the animals or hears the voice three times because that will make him recognize it is a message from Jesus. It certainly seems to link the newly-clean animals with Peter's responsibility to proclaim Jesus' message and care for His followers with what is about to happen: three messengers coming to bring Peter to a Roman centurion to share the gospel.

Peter has been a dominant voice in the spread of Jesus' message to Jews and proselytes. Now he brings the gospel to Gentiles. An angel tells Cornelius, a centurion, to ask Peter to come to him. Peter is praying when he receives a vision of food—including non-kosher food—and God's voice telling him to eat. When the centurion's messengers arrive, Peter realizes the dream meant that Gentiles are no longer unclean. He follows the messengers and tells Cornelius' household about salvation through Jesus. Before Peter can lay his hands on them or baptize them, the Holy Spirit falls on them.

Jesus told the disciples they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Oddly, the disciples didn't understand this meant the Holy Spirit would come upon Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles alike. After several years reaching Jews and proselytes in Jerusalem (Acts 1—7) and Samaritans in Samaria (Acts 8:4–25), God calls Peter to bring the message to Gentiles. Peter's witness that Gentiles can be saved (Acts 11) clears the way for Paul's ministry to Gentiles in modern-day Turkey, Greece, and Italy (Acts 13—28).

The summary of the book of Acts is provided in Jesus' words in Acts 1:8: ''But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.'' In Acts 2:1–13, the Christ-followers receive the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:14—7:60 describes the rapid growth of the church in Jerusalem. Chapters 8—12 find Jewish persecution inadvertently spreading the gospel throughout Judea and Samaria. And in chapters 13—28, Paul and his companions spread the good news throughout the Roman Empire.