Peter Reports to the Church

¹Now the apostles and rthe brothers1 who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. ²So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, sthe circumcision party2 criticized him, saying, ³t“You went to uncircumcised men and uate with them.” ⁴But Peter began and explained it to them in order: ⁵v“I 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, wmaking no distinction. xThese 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; ¹⁴yhe will declare to you a message by which zyou will be saved, you and all your household.’ ¹⁵As I began to speak, athe Holy Spirit fell on them bjust as on us at the beginning. ¹⁶And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, c‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ ¹⁷If then dGod gave ethe same gift to them as he gave to us fwhen we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, gwho was I hthat I could stand in God's way?” ¹⁸When they heard these things they fell silent. And they iglorified God, saying, j“Then to the Gentiles also God has kgranted lrepentance that leads to life.”

The Church in Antioch

¹⁹mNow 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 Hellenists3 also, npreaching the Lord Jesus. ²¹And othe hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed pturned 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 qthe grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord rwith steadfast purpose, ²⁴for he was a good man, sfull of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people twere added to the Lord. ²⁵So Barnabas went to uTarsus 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 vChristians.

²⁷Now in these days wprophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. ²⁸And one of them named xAgabus stood up and foretold yby the Spirit that there would be a great zfamine over all the world (this took place in the days of aClaudius). ²⁹So the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, bto send relief to cthe brothers4 living in Judea. ³⁰dAnd they did so, sending it to ethe elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.