Peter defends Gentile salvation
Early Church · Draft · BSB
Content revision: 32c9c0a8890ac779 · No editorial review date recorded
Date: c. AD 35–40
In Jerusalem, some criticize Peter for eating with uncircumcised men. He recounts his vision and the gift of the Spirit, and the believers praise God that he has granted the Gentiles repentance leading to life.
Primary Scripture
11:1 The apostles and brothers throughout Judea soon heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.
11:2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers took issue with him
11:3 and said, “You visited uncircumcised men and ate with them.”
11:4 But Peter began and explained to them the whole sequence of events:
11:5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision of something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came right down to me.
11:6 I looked at it closely and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of the air.
11:7 Then I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter, kill and eat.’
11:8 ‘No, Lord,’ I said, ‘for nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’
11:9 But the voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’
11:10 This happened three times, and everything was drawn back up into heaven.
11:11 Just then three men sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying.
11:12 The Spirit told me to accompany them without hesitation. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s home.
11:13 He told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter.
11:14 He will convey to you a message by which you and all your household will be saved.’
11:15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, just as He had fallen upon us at the beginning.
11:16 Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’
11:17 So if God gave them the same gift He gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to hinder the work of God?”
11:18 When they heard this, they had no further objections, and they glorified God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.”
Location evidence
Event map marker: Identified site; [longitude, latitude] = [35.23494, 31.77744]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue.
Jerusalem: Identified site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.23494, 31.77744]. Classification source: rule.
Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire
Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: theographic (331)
Record source: editorial
Events and places adapted from Theographic Bible Metadata (github.com/robertrouse/theographic-bible-metadata), CC BY-SA 4.0. This adapted data is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm