Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 10:16

"And this was done thrice: and straightway the vessel was received up into heaven." — Acts 10:16 (ASV)

The voice told Peter, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” The particular application had to do with nullifying Jewish dietary laws for Christians in accord with Jesus’ remarks on the subject in Mk 7:17–23. But Peter was soon to learn that the range of the vision’s message extended much more widely, touching directly on Jewish-Gentile relations as he had known them and on those relations in ways he could never have anticipated. Three times this interchange took place, and three times the message was indelibly impressed on Peter’s subconscious. Luke then says, “The sheet was taken back to heaven.”