7 The P’rushim and some of the Torah-teachers who had come from Yerushalayim gathered together with Yeshua ² and saw that some of his talmidim ate with ritually unclean hands, that is, without doing n’tilat-yadayim. ³ (For the P’rushim, and indeed all the Judeans, holding fast to the Tradition of the Elders, do not eat unless they have given their hands a ceremonial washing. ⁴ Also, when they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they have rinsed their hands up to the wrist; and they adhere to many other traditions, such as washing cups, pots and bronze vessels.)

⁵ The P’rushim and the Torah-teachers asked him, “Why don’t your talmidim live in accordance with the Tradition of the Elders, but instead eat with ritually unclean hands?” ⁶ Yeshua answered them, “Yesha‘yahu was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites — as it is written,

⁸ “You depart from God’s command and hold onto human tradition. ⁹ Indeed,” he said to them, “you have made a fine art of departing from God’s command in order to keep your tradition! ¹⁰ For Moshe said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’^[b] and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’^{[c] 11} But you say, ‘If someone says to his father or mother, “I have promised as a korban” ’ ” (that is, as a gift to God) “ ‘ “what I might have used to help you,” ’ ¹² then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. ¹³ Thus, with your tradition which you had handed down to you, you nullify the Word of God! And you do other things like this.”

¹⁴ Then Yeshua called the people to him again and said, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand this! ¹⁵ There is nothing outside a person which, by going into him, can make him unclean. Rather, it is the things that come out of a person which make a person unclean!” ^16 [d]

¹⁷ When he had left the people and entered the house, his talmidim asked him about the parable. ¹⁸ He replied to them, “So you too are without understanding? Don’t you see that nothing going into a person from outside can make him unclean? ¹⁹ For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and it passes out into the latrine.” (Thus he declared all foods ritually clean.) ²⁰ “It is what comes out of a person,” he went on, “that makes him unclean. ²¹ For from within, out of a person’s heart, come forth wicked thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, ²² greed, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, arrogance, foolishness…. ²³ All these wicked things come from within, and they make a person unclean.”

5 But there was a man named Hananyah who, with his wife Shappirah, sold some property ² and, with his wife’s knowledge, withheld some of the proceeds for himself; although he did bring the rest to the emissaries. ³ Then Kefa said, “Why has the Adversary so filled your heart that you lie to the Ruach HaKodesh and keep back some of the money you received for the land? ⁴ Before you sold it, the property was yours; and after you sold it, the money was yours to use as you pleased. So what made you decide to do such a thing? You have lied not to human beings but to God!”

⁵ On hearing these words, Hananyah fell down dead; and everyone who heard about it was terrified. ⁶ The young men got up, wrapped his body in a shroud, carried him out and buried him.

⁷ Some three hours later, his wife came in, unaware of what had happened. ⁸ Kefa challenged her: “Tell me, is it true that you sold the land for such-and-such a price?” “Yes,” she answered, “that is what we were paid for it.” ⁹ But Kefa came back at her, “Then why did you people plot to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The men who buried your husband are at the door. They will carry you out too!” ¹⁰ Instantly she collapsed at his feet and died. The young men entered, found her there dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. ¹¹ As a result of this, great fear came over the whole Messianic community, and indeed over everyone who heard about it.

10 There was a man in Caesarea named Cornelius, a Roman army officer in what was called the Italian Regiment. ² He was a devout man, a “God-fearer,” as was his whole household; he gave generously to help the Jewish poor and prayed regularly to God. ³ One afternoon around three o’clock he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius!” ⁴ Cornelius stared at the angel, terrified. “What is it, sir?” he asked. “Your prayers,” replied the angel, “and your acts of charity have gone up into God’s presence, so that he has you on his mind. ⁵ Now send some men to Yafo to bring back a man named Shim‘on, also called Kefa. ⁶ He’s staying with Shim‘on the leather-tanner, who has a house by the sea.” ⁷ As the angel that had spoken to him went away, Cornelius called two of his household slaves and one of his military aides, who was a godly man; ⁸ he explained everything to them and sent them to Yafo.

⁹ The next day about noon, while they were still on their way and approaching the city, Kefa went up onto the roof of the house to pray. ¹⁰ He began to feel hungry and wanted something to eat; but while they were preparing the meal, he fell into a trance ¹¹ in which he saw heaven opened, and something that looked like a large sheet being lowered to the ground by its four corners. ¹² In it were all kinds of four-footed animals, crawling creatures and wild birds. ¹³ Then a voice came to him, “Get up, Kefa, slaughter and eat!” ¹⁴ But Kefa said, “No, sir! Absolutely not! I have never eaten food that was unclean or treif.” ¹⁵ The voice spoke to him a second time: “Stop treating as unclean what God has made clean.” ¹⁶ This happened three times, and then the sheet was immediately taken back up into heaven.

¹⁷ Kefa was still puzzling over the meaning of the vision he had seen, when the men Cornelius had sent, having inquired for Shim‘on’s house, stood at the gate ¹⁸ and called out to ask if the Shim‘on known as Kefa was staying there. ¹⁹ While Kefa’s mind was still on the vision, the Spirit said, “Three men are looking for you. ²⁰ Get up, go downstairs, and have no misgivings about going with them, because I myself have sent them.”

²¹ So Kefa went down and said to the men, “You were looking for me? Here I am. What brings you here?” ²² They answered, “Cornelius. He’s a Roman army officer, an upright man and a God-fearer, a man highly regarded by the whole Jewish nation; and he was told by a holy angel to have you come to his house and listen to what you have to say.” ²³ So Kefa invited them to be his guests.

The next day, he got up and went with them, accompanied by some of the brothers from Yafo; ²⁴ and he arrived at Caesarea the day after that. Cornelius was expecting them — he had already called together his relatives and close friends. ²⁵ As Kefa entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell prostrate at his feet. ²⁶ But Kefa pulled him to his feet and said, “Stand up! I myself am just a man.”

²⁷ As he talked with him, Kefa went inside and found many people gathered. ²⁸ He said to them, “You are well aware that for a man who is a Jew to have close association with someone who belongs to another people, or to come and visit him, is something that just isn’t done. But God has shown me not to call any person common or unclean; ²⁹ so when I was summoned, I came without raising any questions. Tell me, then, why did you send for me?”

³⁰ Cornelius answered, “Three days ago around this time, I was at minchah prayers in my house, when suddenly a man in shining clothes stood in front of me ³¹ and said, ‘God has heard your prayer and remembered your acts of charity. ³² Now send to Yafo and ask for Shim‘on, known as Kefa; he is staying in the house of Shim‘on, a leather-tanner, by the sea.’ ³³ So I sent for you immediately, and you have been kind enough to come. Now all of us are here in the presence of God to hear everything the Lord has ordered you to say.”

³⁴ Then Kefa addressed them: “I now understand that God does not play favorites, ³⁵ but that whoever fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him, no matter what people he belongs to.

¹⁴ Do not yoke yourselves together in a team with unbelievers. For how can righteousness and lawlessness be partners? What fellowship does light have with darkness? ¹⁵ What harmony can there be between the Messiah and B’liya‘al? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? ¹⁶ What agreement can there be between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God — as God said,

¹⁷ Therefore Adonai says,

says Adonai-Tzva’ot.”^[d]

7 Therefore, my dear friends, since we have these promises, let us purify ourselves from everything that can defile either body or spirit, and strive to be completely holy, out of reverence for God.

¹¹ Furthermore, when Kefa came to Antioch, I opposed him publicly, because he was clearly in the wrong. ¹² For prior to the arrival of certain people from [the community headed by] Ya‘akov, he had been eating with the Gentile believers; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, because he was afraid of the faction who favored circumcising Gentile believers. ¹³ And the other Jewish believers became hypocrites along with him, so that even Bar-Nabba was led astray by their hypocrisy. ¹⁴ But when I saw that they were not walking a straight path, keeping in line with the truth of the Good News, I said to Kefa, right in front of everyone, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Goy and not like a Jew, why are you forcing the Goyim to live like Jews? ¹⁵ We are Jews by birth, not so-called ‘Goyishe sinners’; ¹⁶ even so, we have come to realize that a person is not declared righteous by God on the ground of his legalistic observance of Torah commands, but through the Messiah Yeshua’s trusting faithfulness. Therefore, we too have put our trust in Messiah Yeshua and become faithful to him, in order that we might be declared righteous on the ground of the Messiah’s trusting faithfulness and not on the ground of our legalistic observance of Torah commands. For on the ground of legalistic observance of Torah commands, no one will be declared righteous.^[a]

¹⁴ As people who obey God, do not let yourselves be shaped by the evil desires you used to have when you were still ignorant. ¹⁵ On the contrary, following the Holy One who called you, become holy yourselves in your entire way of life; ¹⁶ since the Tanakh says,

“You are to be holy because I am holy.”^[a]