Acts 11

¹ And the apostles and the brethren who are in Judea heard that also the nations did receive the word of God,

² and when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision were contending with him,

³ saying — ‘Unto men uncircumcised thou didst go in, and didst eat with them!’

⁴ And Peter having begun, did expound to them in order saying,

⁵ ‘I was in the city of Joppa praying, and I saw in a trance a vision, a certain vessel coming down, as a great sheet by four corners being let down out of the heaven, and it came unto me;

⁶ at which having looked stedfastly, I was considering, and I saw the four-footed beasts of the earth, and the wild beasts, and the creeping things, and the fowls of heaven;

⁷ and I heard a voice saying to me, Having risen, Peter, slay and eat;

⁸ and I said, Not so, Lord; because anything common or unclean hath at no time entered into my mouth;

⁹ and a voice did answer me a second time out of the heaven, What God did cleanse, thou — declare not thou common.

¹⁰ ‘And this happened thrice, and again was all drawn up to the heaven,

¹¹ and, lo, immediately, three men stood at the house in which I was, having been sent from Caesarea unto me,

¹² and the Spirit said to me to go with them, nothing doubting, and these six brethren also went with me, and we did enter into the house of the man,

¹³ he declared also to us how he saw the messenger in his house standing, and saying to him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, who is surnamed Peter,

¹⁴ who shall speak sayings by which thou shalt be saved, thou and all thy house.

¹⁵ ‘And in my beginning to speak, the Holy Spirit did fall upon them, even as also upon us in the beginning,

¹⁶ and I remembered the saying of the Lord, how he said, John indeed did baptize with water, and ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit;

¹⁷ if then the equal gift God did give to them as also to us, having believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ, I — how was I able to withstand God?’

¹⁸ And they, having heard these things, were silent, and were glorifying God, saying, ‘Then, indeed, also to the nations did God give the reformation to life.’

¹⁹ Those, indeed, therefore, having been scattered abroad, from the tribulation that came after Stephen, went through unto Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the word to none except to Jews only;

²⁰ and there were certain of them men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who having entered into Antioch, were speaking unto the Hellenists, proclaiming good news — the Lord Jesus,

²¹ and the hand of the Lord was with them, a great number also, having believed, did turn unto the Lord.

²² And the account was heard in the ears of the assembly that [is] in Jerusalem concerning them, and they sent forth Barnabas to go through unto Antioch,

²³ who, having come, and having seen the grace of God, was glad, and was exhorting all with purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord,

²⁴ because he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit, and of faith, and a great multitude was added to the Lord.

²⁵ And Barnabas went forth to Tarsus, to seek for Saul,

²⁶ and having found him, he brought him to Antioch, and it came to pass that they a whole year did assemble together in the assembly, and taught a great multitude, the disciples also were divinely called first in Antioch Christians.

²⁷ And in those days there came from Jerusalem prophets to Antioch,

²⁸ and one of them, by name Agabus, having stood up, did signify through the Spirit a great dearth is about to be throughout all the world — which also came to pass in the time of Claudius Caesar —

²⁹ and the disciples, according as any one was prospering, determined each of them to send for ministration to the brethren dwelling in Judea,

³⁰ which also they did, having sent unto the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.