Acts 11:2–23

²So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers^u criticized him ³and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”^v

⁴Starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story: ⁵“I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision.^w I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. ⁶I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles and birds. ⁷Then I heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.’

⁸“I replied, ‘Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’

⁹“The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’^{x 10}This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.

¹¹“Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea^y stopped at the house where I was staying. ¹²The Spirit told^z me to have no hesitation about going with them.^a These six brothers^b also went with me, and we entered the man’s house. ¹³He told us how he had seen an angel^c appear in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. ¹⁴He will bring you a message^d through which you and all your household^e will be saved.’

¹⁵“As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on^f them as he had come on us at the beginning.^{g 16}Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with^a water,^h but you will be baptized with^b the Holy Spirit.’^{i 17}So if God gave them the same gift^j he gave us^k who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?”

¹⁸When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”^l

The Church in Antioch

¹⁹Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed^m traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch,ⁿ spreading the word only among Jews. ²⁰Some of them, however, men from Cyprus^o and Cyrene,^p went to Antioch^q and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news^r about the Lord Jesus. ²¹The Lord’s hand was with them,^s and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.^t

²²News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas^u to Antioch. ²³When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done,^v he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.^w