Acts of the Apostles 11

¹ The apostles and the brothers in Judaea heard that gentiles too had accepted the word of God,

² and when Peter came up to Jerusalem the circumcised believers protested to him

³ and said, 'So you have been visiting the uncircumcised and eating with them!'

⁴ Peter in reply gave them the details point by point,

⁵ 'One day, when I was in the town of Jaffa,' he began, 'I fell into a trance as I was praying and had avision of something like a big sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners. This sheet came right downbeside me.

⁶ I looked careful y into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds ofheaven.

⁷ Then I heard a voice that said to me, "Now, Peter, kill and eat!"

⁸ But I answered, "Certainly not, Lord; nothing profane or unclean has ever crossed my lips."

⁹ And a second time the voice spoke from heaven, "What God has made clean, you have no right to callprofane."

¹⁰ This was repeated three times, before the whole of it was drawn up to heaven again.

¹¹ 'Just at that moment, three men stopped outside the house where we were staying; they had beensent from Caesarea to fetch me,

¹² and the Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going back with them. The six brothers here camewith me as wel , and we entered the man's house.

¹³ He told us he had seen an angel standing in his house who said, "Send to Jaffa and fetch Simonknown as Peter;

¹⁴ he has a message for you that wil save you and your entire household."

¹⁵ 'I had scarcely begun to speak when the Holy Spirit came down on them in the same way as it cameon us at the beginning,

¹⁶ and I remembered that the Lord had said, "John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with theHoly Spirit."

¹⁷ I realised then that God was giving them the identical gift he gave to us when we believed in the LordJesus Christ; and who was I to stand in God's way?'

¹⁸ This account satisfied them, and they gave glory to God, saying, 'God has clearly granted to thegentiles too the repentance that leads to life.'

¹⁹ Those who had scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen travel ed as far asPhoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, but they proclaimed the message only to Jews.

²⁰ Some of them, however, who came from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch where they startedpreaching also to the Greeks, proclaiming the good news of the Lord Jesus to them.

²¹ The Lord helped them, and a great number believed and were converted to the Lord.

²² The news of them came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas out toAntioch.

²³ There he was glad to see for himself that God had given grace, and he urged them all to remainfaithful to the Lord with heartfelt devotion;

²⁴ for he was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and with faith. And a large number of people werewon over to the Lord.

²⁵ Barnabas then left for Tarsus to look for Saul,

²⁶ and when he found him he brought him to Antioch. And it happened that they stayed together in thatchurch a whole year, instructing a large number of people. It was at Antioch that the disciples were first cal ed'Christians'.

²⁷ While they were there some prophets came down to Antioch from Jerusalem,

²⁸ and one of them whose name was Agabus, seized by the Spirit, stood up and predicted that a severeand universal famine was going to happen. This in fact happened while Claudius was emperor.

²⁹ The disciples decided to send relief, each to contribute what he could afford, to the brothers living inJudaea.

³⁰ They did this and delivered their contributions to the elders through the agency of Barnabas and Saul.