11
“Peter Explained the Whole Story to Them”
1 News soon reached the other apostles and the brothers and sisters throughout Judea that even the Gentiles had accepted the word of God.
2 When Peter went up to Jerusalem, he was met with criticism from those believers who were strict about Gentile circumcision.
3 “ˢYou went into the home of uncircumcised men and even shared a meal with them!” they said.
4 Peter, then, explained the whole story to them.
5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying,” he began, “when I saw in a trance a vision, something coming down that looked like a large linen sheet, being lowered from heaven by its four corners; it came very close to me.
6 As I stared at it, I kept looking closely, and I saw all sorts of unclean beasts and wild animals and rodents and snakes and frogs and lizards and wild birds.
7 I also heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter! Slaughter these creatures and eat.’
8 “ ‘Certainly not, Lord!’ I replied. ‘Nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth!’
9 “In response the voice spoke a second time from heaven, saying, ‘The things that God pronounces acceptable for eating as clean ˢyou must not yourself consider barred from his sacred precincts and service as common.’
10 “All this happened three times, and then the whole thing was pulled back up into heaven.
11 Just then, there showed up at the house where we were staying three men, having been sent from Caesarea to me.
12 The Spirit told me that I was to accompany them without even the least hesitation.
“Now these six brothers here also accompanied me, and we entered the home of the man who had sent for me.
13 He told us how he had seen an angel in his home, who had appeared and said, ‘Send some men to Joppa and have them bring back Simon, who also goes by Peter,
14 who will declare a message to ˢyou by which ˢyou will be saved, ˢyou and ˢyour entire household.’
15 Well, I had hardly begun speaking, when the Holy Spirit fell on them just as he did on us, too, at the first!
16 Then I remembered the Lord’s words when he would say, ‘Whereas John baptized with+ water, ᵖyou will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’
17 If God gave them the very same gift, therefore, as he gave, too, to us, upon faith in the Lord Jesus the Messiah, then as for me, who was I to dare stand in the way of God?”
18 On hearing these things, they fell silent. Then they began to glorify God, saying, “So then, God has given even the Gentiles opportunity to repent and live!”
“There Were Some of Them Who Began to Proclaim It to Hellenized Non-Jews, Too”
19 Therefore, while many of those who had been forced to scatter as a result of the persecution that broke out in connection with Stephen, on the one hand, went north as far as the coastal plain of Phoenicia, Cyprus, and the city of Antioch in the province of Syria, proclaiming the message to no one except Jews,
20 there were some of them, on the other, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who, on arriving in Antioch, began to proclaim it to Hellenized non-Jews,+ too, declaring the gospel about the Lord Jesus.
21 The power of the Lord was with them, and it was a large number of people, who believed, that turned to the Lord.
22 News reached the assembly in Jerusalem concerning these things, and so they sent Barnabas to Antioch.
23 When he arrived and witnessed the gift of God, he rejoiced and kept exhorting everyone with great earnestness and firm resolve to remain true to the Lord,
24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith. And so a considerable number of people were brought to the Lord.
25 Then Barnabas left for Tarsus to look for Saul,
26 and when he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. It was for an entire year that the two men met with the assembly and taught a good-sized group of people. And the disciples were given, for the first time, in Antioch, the name “Messiah-followers.”+
“There Was About to Fall upon the Whole Empire a Severe Famine”
27 During this time, some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.
28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and warned through the Spirit that there was about to fall upon the whole empire a severe famine. (This took place during the reign of the Roman Emperor Claudius.)
29 The disciples, then, each person contributing according to his ability: They decided to send the brothers and sisters who lived in Judea a financial gift.
30 And this they did, sending the gift to the elders through Barnabas and Saul.