Acts 11

¹Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God .

²So when Peter went up to Jerusalem , the circumcision party criticized him , saying ,

³You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them .

⁴But Peter began and explained it to them in order :

⁵I was in the city of Joppa praying , and in a trance I saw a vision , something like a great sheet descending , being let down from heaven by its four corners , and it came down to me .

⁶Looking at it closely , I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air .

⁷And I heard a voice saying to me , Rise , Peter ; kill and eat .

⁸But I said , By no means , Lord ; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth .

⁹But the voice answered a second time from heaven , What God has made clean , do not call common .

¹⁰This happened three times , and all was drawn up again into heaven .

¹¹And behold , at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were , sent to me from Caesarea .

¹²And the Spirit told me to go with them , making no distinction . These six brothers also accompanied me , and we entered the man’s house .

¹³And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say , Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter ;

¹⁴he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved , you and all your household .

¹⁵As I began to speak , the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning .

¹⁶And I remembered the word of the Lord , how he said , John baptized with water , but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit .

¹⁷If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ , who was I that I could stand in God’s way ?

¹⁸When they heard these things they fell silent . And they glorified God , saying , Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life .

¹⁹Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch , speaking the word to no one except Jews .

²⁰But there were some of them , men of Cyprus and Cyrene , who on coming to Antioch spoke to the also , preaching the Lord Jesus .

²¹And the hand of the Lord was with them , and a great number who believed turned to the Lord .

²²The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem , and they sent Barnabas to Antioch .

²³When he came and saw the grace of God , he was glad , and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose ,

²⁴for he was a good man , full of the Holy Spirit and of faith . And a great many people were added to the Lord .

²⁵So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul ,

²⁶and when he had found him , he brought him to Antioch . For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people . And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians .

²⁷Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch .

²⁸And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world ( this took place in the days of Claudius ).

²⁹So the disciples determined , every one according to his ability , to send relief to the brothers living in Judea .

³⁰And they did so , sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul .