Acts 10:1-16 ▼

1 Now there was a certain man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort,

2 a devout man, and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people, and prayed to God continually.

3 About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in to him, and said to him, “Cornelius!”

4 And fixing his gaze upon him and being much alarmed, he said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God.

5 “And now dispatch some men to Joppa, and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter;

6 he is staying with a certain tanner named Simon, whose house is by the sea.”

7 And when the angel who was speaking to him had departed, he summoned two of his servants and a devout soldier of those who were in constant attendance upon him,

8 and after he had explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.

9 And on the next day, as they were on their way, and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray.

10 And he became hungry, and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance;

11 and he beheld the sky opened up, and a certain object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground,

12 and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air.

13 And a voice came to him, “Arise, Peter, kill and eat!”

14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.”

15 And again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.”

16 And this happened three times; and immediately the object was taken up into the sky.