Peter’s vision, Acts 10:9-16

Verse 9: The experience of Peter occurs “On the morrow” – the next day after the experience of Cornelius, and around noontime (“about the sixth hour”). As Peter ascends the roof to pray, the messengers of Cornelius draw near the city.[1] The time from the departure of Cornelius’s messengers from Cæsarea until their arrival in Joppa is about 20 hours.[2]

Verse 10: After prayer, Peter would engage in the meal being prepared, but while they made ready the meal, he instead fell into a trance. The vision makes use of the notion of eating, apropos to Peter’s circumstances.

Peter’s experience is described as a trance (v. 10, εκστασις) and a vision (vs. 17-19, οραμα, οραματος). The Greek εκστασις means or implies standing outside oneself; henceforth, a mental transport or rapture as to produce a trance-like dissociation or trance-like state, being moved out of one’s self or one’s normal state. See also Acts 3:10; 11:5; 22:17. Our English word “ecstasy” is traced back to this word origin.

Verses 11-12: The conception. The vision consists of several parts. First, heaven is opened. Then “a certain vessel” (σκευος τι) descends down to Peter. Its characteristic is of a huge sheet (οθονην: cf. Acts 11:5) knit or bound (δεδεμενον: cf. Luke 19:30; John 18:24) at the four corners. The opened sheet reveals its contents, “all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.” “all manner” means that the sheet contained things that Jews did not eat.

The modern Critical Greek text leaves out “unto him” (επ αυτον), as well as “knit…and” (δεδεμενον και).

TR:        και θεωρει τον ουρανον ανεωγμενον και καταβαινον επ αυτον σκευος τι ως οθονην μεγαλην τεσσαρσιν αρχαις δεδεμενον και καθιεμενον επι της γης

NU:        και θεωρει τον ουρανον ανεωγμενον και καταβαινον σκευος τι ως οθονην μεγαλην τεσσαρσιν αρχαις καθιεμενον επι της γης

Verses 13-15: The conversation. A voice from heaven gives a command, “Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.” Peter, though hungry, replies as an observant Jew, he had “never eaten any thing that is common or unclean” according to the Law. The voice replies, “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.”[3] God’s command and God’s cleansing is, ultimately, “the law.”

Verses 16: The calculation. “This was done thrice” For emphasis, this vision occurred three times – heaven opened and a four cornered sheet-like vessel let down to the earth; the command of the voice, Peter’s reply, and the voice’s rebuttal. The number “three” is given substantial significance in the chapter. The sheet was let down three times. Three news-bearers appear in Acts 10:  an angel of God (vs. 3, 7); a voice (from heaven, vs. 13, 15); the Spirit (v. 19). Three messengers were coming to seek Peter. Cornelius’s story is told three times (3-7, 22, 30-33). Other threes could have flooded Peter’s thoughts. Peter denied Jesus three times. Jesus lay in the grave three days and three nights. Peter told Jesus three times that he loved him.

“The vision had given Peter considerable food for thought.”[4] While the household of Simon prepares a meal, God serves Peter dinner! It contains physical food (in a vision) and spiritual food that does not entice his palate. The God who declared animals unclean (cf. Leviticus 11) can make them clean.

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[1] Many of these homes had flat roofs that were used for various purposes, such as prayer.
[2] Human adults walk at an average speed of 3 miles per hour, which equates roughly to 1 mile every 15 to 20 minutes. Younger people tend to walk faster than older people do, and men tend to walk faster than women do.
[3] For food restrictions under the Mosaic Law, see Leviticus 11:1-17; Deuteronomy 14:3-21; Exodus 23:19; 34:26. Compare also Acts 15:20, 29; 21:25.
[4] Dwyer, The Book of Acts, p. 166.