Acts 10:9-16
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
The Vision of Peter. 9 [a]The next day, while they were on their way and nearing the city, Peter went up to the roof terrace to pray at about noontime.[b] 10 He was hungry and wished to eat, and while they were making preparations he fell into a trance. 11 (A)He saw heaven opened and something resembling a large sheet coming down, lowered to the ground by its four corners. 12 In it were all the earth’s four-legged animals and reptiles and the birds of the sky. 13 A voice said to him, “Get up, Peter. Slaughter and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “Certainly not, sir. For never have I eaten anything profane and unclean.”(B) 15 The voice spoke to him again, a second time, “What God has made clean, you are not to call profane.”(C) 16 This happened three times, and then the object was taken up into the sky.
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- 10:9–16 The vision is intended to prepare Peter to share the food of Cornelius’ household without qualms of conscience (Acts 10:48). The necessity of such instructions to Peter reveals that at first not even the apostles fully grasped the implications of Jesus’ teaching on the law. In Acts, the initial insight belongs to Stephen.
- 10:9 At about noontime: literally, “about the sixth hour.”
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