Acts of the Apostles 11

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Peter Explains What Happened

1 The apostles and the brothers who were in the land of Judea heard that Gentiles* also had accepted the word of God. 2 So when Peter returned to Jerusalem, the brothers who were circumcised criticized him. 3 They said to him, “You entered [the home] of uncircumcised men* and ate with them!”

4 So Peter explained to them in detail the matters as they had happened. He said, 5 “I was praying in the town of Jaffa, when a drowsiness came over me, and I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet let down by its four corners from the sky, till it reached me. 6 I looked into it carefully and examined it. I saw animals that walked, and ones that crawled, and wild beasts, and birds from the sky. 7 Then I heard a voice say to me, ‘Get up, Peter; slaughter and eat.’ 8 I said, ‘No, sir. There has never entered my mouth anything unclean or impure.’ 9 The voice from heaven spoke again: ‘What God has made clean, you must not consider unclean!’ 10 This happened three times; then everything was lifted up to heaven again.

11 “At that very moment, there arrived at the house where I was three men who were sent to me from Caesarea. 12 The Spirit told me to go with them without hesitation. So I went; these six brothers accompanied me, and we entered the man's house. 13 He told us how he had seen an angel appear to him in his home and say to him, ‘Send to Jaffa, and summon Simon who is called Peter. 14 He will tell you a message by which you and all your household can be saved*.’ 15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came upon them, just as he came upon us ourselves at the beginning. 16 Then I recalled what our Lord had said to us: ‘John immersed people in water, but as for you, you will be immersed in the Holy Spirit.’* 17 Since God has given them the same gift he gave to us who believed in our Lord Jesus the Messiah, then who am I that I would be able to stop God?”

18 When they heard this, they calmed down and praised God and said, “So then, God has blessed the Gentiles as well with the repentance that leads to life!”

The Believers in Antioch

19 Those who had been scattered in the persecution that took place because of Stephen went to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. They were proclaiming the message, [but] only among the Jews. 20 However, some of them, who were originally from Cyprus and Cyrenaica, when they came to Antioch,* began to speak to Gentiles as well, proclaiming to them the good news about our Lord Jesus. 21 The hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number of the people believed and were led to [follow] the Messiah.

22 The news reached the assembly of believers at Jerusalem, so they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he arrived and saw God's blessing upon them, he rejoiced and encouraged them to hold on to the Messiah wholeheartedly. 24 Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and a very large number of people were joined to our Lord Jesus.

25 Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. 26 When he found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year, Barnabas and Saul met with the believers, teaching a very large number of people. There at Antioch the believers in the Messiah were called Christians for the first time.*

27 During this time, some prophets went from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 One of them, whose name was Agabus, stood up and prophesied by inspiration of the Spirit that a great famine was going to come upon the whole land. This actually took place during the reign of Claudius.* 29 So the disciples decided to send a donation, each one according to his ability, to help the brothers in the region of Judea. 30 Indeed they did this; they sent their donation to the elders* of the group of believers with Barnabas and Saul.

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Definitions

 *11:3 uncircumcised men: At that time, the world was divided spiritually into people who believed in God and the Scriptures, and those who did not. Men who believed were circumcised, as commanded in the Torah, as a sign that they belonged to God, while most other men remained uncircumcised. Jews believed that uncircumcised men were unclean and that their food and houses were unclean as well.

 *11:14 be saved: escape the wrath of God and be accepted into his eternal kingdom. See salvation in the glossary.

 *11:16 what our Lord had said to us: What the Messiah said before he ascended to heaven. See Acts 1:5.

 *11:20 Antioch: At that time Antioch was the capital of the Roman province of Syria and was the third largest city in the Roman Empire. It is now the city of Antakya in southeastern Turkey. Cyrenaica was a Roman province in northeast Libya. See the map of the Roman Empire.

 *11:26 The title Messiah was translated into Greek as Christos, from which we get the English word Christ. At Antioch, Gentiles who followed the Messiah were called Christians.

 *11:28 Claudius: Claudius Caesar. He was the emperor of the Roman Empire from AD 41 until AD 54. The famine occurred from AD 44 to AD 48. See Roman Empire in the glossary.