11 The emissaries and the brothers throughout Y’hudah heard that the Goyim had received the word of God; ² but when Kefa went up to Yerushalayim, the members of the Circumcision faction criticized him, ³ saying, “You went into the homes of uncircumcised men and even ate with them!”

⁴ In reply, Kefa began explaining in detail what had actually happened: ⁵ “I was in the city of Yafo, praying; and in a trance I had a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being lowered by its four corners from heaven, and it came down to me. ⁶ I looked inside and saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, crawling creatures and wild birds. ⁷ Then I heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Kefa, slaughter and eat!’ ⁸ I said, ‘No, sir! Absolutely not! Nothing unclean or treif has ever entered my mouth!’ ⁹ But the voice spoke again from heaven: ‘Stop treating as unclean what God has made clean.’ ¹⁰ This happened three times, and then everything was pulled back up into heaven.

¹¹ “At that very moment, three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea arrived at the house where I was staying; ¹² and the Spirit told me to have no misgivings about going back with them. These six brothers also came with me, and we went into the man’s house. ¹³ He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Yafo and bring back Shim‘on, known as Kefa. ¹⁴ He has a message for you which will enable you and your whole household to be saved.’

¹⁵ “But I had hardly begun speaking when the Ruach HaKodesh fell on them, just as on us at the beginning! ¹⁶ And I remembered that the Lord had said, ‘Yochanan used to immerse people in water, but you will be immersed in the Ruach HaKodesh.’ ¹⁷ Therefore, if God gave them the same gift as he gave us after we had come to put our trust in the Lord Yeshua the Messiah, who was I to stand in God’s way?”

¹⁸ On hearing these things, they stopped objecting and began to praise God, saying, “This means that God has enabled the Goyim as well to do t’shuvah and have life!”

¹⁹ Now those who had been scattered because of the persecution which had arisen over Stephen went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch; they spoke God’s word, but only to Jews. ²⁰ However, some of these, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, when they arrived at Antioch, began speaking to the Greeks too, proclaiming the Good News of the Lord Yeshua. ²¹ The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number of people trusted and turned to the Lord.

²² News of this reached the ears of the Messianic community in Yerushalayim, and they sent Bar-Nabba to Antioch. ²³ On arriving and seeing for himself the grace of God at work, he was glad; and he encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with their whole hearts; ²⁴ for he was a good man, full of the Ruach HaKodesh and trust.

²⁵ Then Bar-Nabba went off to Tarsus to look for Sha’ul; ²⁶ and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. They met with the congregation there for a whole year and taught a sizeable crowd. Also it was in Antioch that the talmidim for the first time were called “Messianic.”

²⁷ During this time, some prophets came down from Yerushalayim to Antioch; ²⁸ and one of them named Agav stood up and through the Spirit predicted that there was going to be a severe famine throughout the Roman Empire. (It took place while Claudius was Emperor.) ²⁹ So the talmidim decided to provide relief to the brothers living in Y’hudah, each according to his means; ³⁰ and they did it, sending their contribution to the elders in the care of Bar-Nabba and Sha’ul.