Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 10:12

"wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts and creeping things of the earth and birds of the heaven." — Acts 10:12 (ASV)

Though Peter was not by training or inclination an overly scrupulous Jew, and though as a Christian his inherited prejudices were wearing thin, he was not prepared to go so far as to minister directly to Gentiles. A special revelation was necessary for that, and Luke now tells how God took the initiative in overcoming Peter’s reluctance.

The revelation came to him on the day following Cornelius’s vision, as the three from Caesarea were approaching Joppa. About noon Peter went to the roof of the tanner’s house to pray, apparently looking not only for solitude but also for shade under an awning and a cooling breeze from the sea. While in prayer, Peter became very hungry and, it seems, somewhat drowsy. As he was waiting for food, he fell into a trance and saw a vision (cf. 10:17, 19; 11:5) of “something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners,” on which were “all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air.” Then he heard a voice say, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.” Psychologically, the details of the vision may be explained in terms of (1) Peter’s increasing perplexity about Jewish-Gentile relations within various Christian congregations of the maritime plain, (2) the flapping awning over him (or perhaps, the full sail of a boat out on the sea), and (3) his gnawing hunger. God frequently reveals himself not only in but also by means of our human situations. And Peter took what the voice said as a message from God—a message in the form of an almost inscrutable riddle, but one soon to be clarified by both word and event.