A Real, Deeply Human Process

Acts 10:13-17, 19 & 28

And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven. Now while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he had seen might mean . . .

And while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him . . .

And [Peter] said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.”

N. T. Wright, Acts for Everyone (Part One)

[T]he point which is being made in this graphic and deeply human story . . . is that, though Gentiles too had to repent and believe in Jesus just as Jew did, they did not have to become Jews before or after that process (165).

Aaron Orendorff

The process through which Peter is brought to a new understanding of God’s intentions is, as Wright puts it, a “deeply human story.” After receiving the initial vision, at first Peter simply refuses—“Lord, by no means”—and so (with amazing patience) the vision is repeated twice more. Still unconvinced by what would have been no doubt a disturbing revelation, v. 17 describes Peter as “inwardly perplexed” and (behold) “three men” suddenly (though not accidentally) appear at his doorstep. “Pondering the vision,” that is, turning it over in his mind, trying to makes sense of it, the Spirit begins to speak until finally—inside Cornelius’ house—Peter understands: “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.”