Acts 11:7
Then I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter, kill and eat.’
BSB
ASV
And I heard also a voice saying unto me, Rise, Peter; kill and eat.
KJV
And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise, Peter; slay and eat.
Peter did not dwell on this trifle, but based himself on what was of great importance. If, he says, they received the Spirit, then how could one not impart this to them? By this defense he shows that he is in no way at fault, …
"I heard a voice saying to me." The appearance of the sheet alone would have been sufficient to convince him; but to this, however, a voice was also added: "Rise, Peter, kill and eat."
And I heard a voice saying unto me,.... As he apprehended in his mind; and this voice he heard in the same sense and manner, as the Apostle Paul heard when in a trance, Act 22:17. arise, Peter, slay and eat; that is, get up and slay some of these creatures upon the sheet, and dress them and eat them.
That allowance was afterwards limited by the ceremonial law; but now the restrictions were taken off, and the matter set at large again. It was not the design of Christ to abridge us in the use of our creature-comforts by any other law than that of sobriety and temperance, and preferring the meat that endures to eternal life before that which perishes.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
