Acts 10:13
in Acts 10Then a voice said to him: “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill and eat.
KJV
And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.
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This verse in Acts 10
Commentary
12 notes on this verseRise, Peter, kill and eat - Θυσον και φαγε, Sacrifice and eat. Though this verb is sometimes used to signify the slaying of animals for food, yet, as the proper notion is to slay for the purpose of sacrifice, it appears to me to be better to preserve that meaning here.
This site's exposition
a great sheet knit at the four corners
on Acts 10:11-13
Heaven opens and a vessel like a great sheet knit at the four corners descends, holding all manner of fourfooted beasts, wild beasts, creeping things, and fowls of the air together without the distinctions Leviticus drew between clean and unclean. A voice commands, rise, Peter, kill, and eat, an order that would require Peter to violate food laws he had kept his entire life without exception. The vision's content is deliberately mixed, clean and unclean animals sharing the same sheet, so that no reading of it as merely about diet alone survives the scene that follows in Cornelius's house.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
The earth is the sheet, and the creatures in it are the beasts, those from the nations. And the "kill and eat," because those too must be admitted. And the third to happen is this, the baptism. But as Peter was in confusion, the men …
Perhaps kneeling he had seen the vision: therefore the voice also said to him, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat." But it showed that what he had seen was divine by reason of his being raised into a trance of mind, and because the voice descended …
That the voice was heard a third time likewise shows the truth of the vision itself. It is clear, however, that he did not wish the utterance to be understood as concerning all foods when he says, "I have never eaten anything common or unclean," …
"And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat." "Rise, Peter," saith the Voice, "kill and eat." Probably he was on his knees when he saw the vision.
Peter exhorts that the brutal and irrational sort of people be sacrificed, so that once they are cleansed what remains may become edible. The account of piety is delivered plainly, not once the divine voice having said that what God has sanctified is not common, …
5 more voices on this verse
The Medieval Church3 voices
Rise, Peter, kill and eat. He says, rise to prepare for evangelization. Kill in the nations what they were, and make them what you are. For he who eats food outside takes it into his own body. Therefore, he commands that the nations placed outside …
Rise, Peter, kill and eat. What is said in Latin as "kill" is said in Greek in this place as θύσον, which is not a general term for killing but a specific term for the kind of killing by which sacrifices are offered to God. …
Everyone would have begun to accuse Peter as a lawbreaker, and therefore it is arranged by the Spirit so that he would have a defense; that is why he objects to the Angel. For he had to fully observe the law. So this is arranged …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Now they might fare as they fared, and therefore might eat with them, and be fellow-commoners with them. He stuck to his principles, and would by no means hearken to the motion, though he was hungry (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
And there came a voice to him,....
The words behind it
10 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| καὶ | kai | And | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| ἐγένετο | egeneto | came | G1096 → | 667 times |
| φωνὴ | phone | a voice | G5456 → | 139 times |
| πρὸς | pros | to | G4314 → | 700 times |
| αὐτόν· | auton | him: | G846 → | 5565 times |
| ἀναστὰς | anastas | Having risen up | G450 → | 107 times |
| Πέτρε, | petre | Peter, | G4074 → | 155 times |
| θῦσον | thuson | do kill | G2380 → | 14 times |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| φάγε. | phage | do eat. | G5315 → | 93 times |
καὶAnd
kaiG2532 →9120 times
ἐγένετοcame
egenetoG1096 →667 times
φωνὴa voice
phoneG5456 →139 times
πρὸςto
prosG4314 →700 times
αὐτόν·him:
autonG846 →5565 times
ἀναστὰςHaving risen up
anastasG450 →107 times
Πέτρε,Peter,
petreG4074 →155 times
θῦσονdo kill
thusonG2380 →14 times
καὶand
kaiG2532 →9120 times
φάγε.do eat.
phageG5315 →93 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Acts 10:10He became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance.
it leads to
- Acts 22:17
Later, when I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance
- Matthew 21:18
In the morning, as Jesus was returning to the city, He was hungry.
- Ezekiel 8:1–3
In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me; and there the hand of the Lord…
- Matthew 12:1–3
At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them.
- Ezekiel 11:24
And the Spirit lifted me up and carried me back to Chaldea, to the exiles in the vision given by the Spirit of God. After the vision had gone up from me,
- Acts 22:17
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies7
About Acts
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Bede, Commentary on Acts; Bede, Retractions on Acts; John Chrysostom, Homily on Acts 22; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Oecumenius, Commentary on Acts and Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Acts.