Acts of the Apostles 11

Peter explains himself in Jerusalem

1The apostles and the brothers and sisters throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles too had received the word of God. 2So when Peter came up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers took issue with him. 3“You went into the house of uncircumcised men,” they said, “and ate with them.” 4Peter began and set the whole matter before them, point by point: 5“I was in the town of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision: something coming down like a great sheet, lowered from the sky by its four corners, and it came right to me. 6I looked into it closely and saw the four-footed animals of the earth, the wild beasts, the reptiles and the birds of the air. 7And I heard a voice say to me, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.’ 8I said, ‘Never, Lord. Nothing profane or unclean has ever passed my lips.’ 9The voice from heaven answered a second time, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ 10This happened three times, and then it was all drawn back up into the sky. 11At that very moment three men came to the house where we were staying; they had been sent to me from Caesarea. 12The Spirit told me to go with them without hesitating. These six brothers came with me as well, and we went into the man’s house. 13He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and fetch Simon who is called Peter. 14He will speak words to you by which you and your whole household will be saved.’ 15As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as it had fallen on us at the beginning. 16And I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17If God gave them the same gift he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God’s way?” 18When they heard this they had nothing more to say, and they praised God: “So God has granted even the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”

The church at Antioch

19Meanwhile those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message to no one but Jews. 20But some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, came to Antioch and spoke to the Greek-speaking people as well, announcing the good news of the Lord Jesus. 21The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord. 22News of it reached the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch. 23When he arrived and saw the grace of God at work, he was glad, and he urged them all to stay true to the Lord with resolute hearts; 24for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a large crowd was added to the Lord. 25Then Barnabas went off to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26and when he found him he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year the two of them met with the church and taught a large crowd; and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.

Famine relief for Judea

27In those days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28One of them, named Agabus, stood up and indicated through the Spirit that a great famine was about to come upon the whole world — it came in the reign of Claudius. 29So the disciples decided that each of them, according to his means, would send help to the brothers and sisters living in Judea; 30and they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.