Acts 10:14Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Why, they will say, did he object? So that no one might say that God was testing him, as He tested Abraham when He commanded him to sacrifice his son.

Or as He tested Philip when Christ asked him, "How many loaves do you have?" (Mk 6:38). He did not ask in order to learn this, but to test him (Jn 6:5).

Moreover, in the Law Moses separately indicated the clean and the unclean, both among land creatures and sea creatures. Yet Peter did not understand this.

Why, then, did such an event take place? For the generations that followed, to whom it would be told. And Peter himself had heard the command, "Do not go into the way of the Gentiles" (Mt 10:5).

Do not marvel at this. If Paul considered circumcision and sacrifices necessary, then they seemed still more necessary at that time, at the beginning of the preaching, when there were still weaker believers.

Then it became clear that the time had come for the shadows to become truth. The transition from figures to truth was fulfilled. This had to show that those things had not been placed there without reason, as some suppose.

Therefore the Lawgiver does not regard the pig or other animals as sometimes clean and sometimes unclean, but always good. For it is written, "And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good" (Gen 1:31), and He blessed it.

By virtue of the fact that all creatures came into being and received life, they naturally contain good in themselves. Thus, although it is not proper to the pig to chew the cud, it is nevertheless not an unclean animal.

It is an animal entirely fit to eat. What belongs to an animal's own nature will in no way defile anyone. As I have said, the Law is figures and shadow until the time of reformation (Heb 9:10).

It seemed strange to Peter that the voice from heaven commanded him without qualification to kill and eat creatures among which the unclean were so mixed with the clean.

More than this, the very presence of the unclean among them apparently defiled the whole sheet. Therefore, with his characteristic liveliness and self-confidence, he answered: "No, Lord, for I have never eaten anything common or unclean."

It made no distinction between clean and unclean, leaving it to his own choice. This means that he was not forbidden to eat even the animals prohibited for food by the Law.

The apostle directed his attention precisely to this side of the command, as something extraordinary. Therefore he strongly refuses to eat what was forbidden by the divine Law through Moses.

It stood before the Church as an urgent matter requiring resolution, in view of the universal purpose of the Gospel. Everyone remembered the Lord's word: "Preach the Gospel to every creature" (Mk 16:15).

Now the apostle Peter finds that many creatures are unclean. Why? Because according to the Law of the Old Testament, some were recognized as fit for use and others as unfit.

But the same Lawgiver, God, declares that when He has cleansed something, it must no longer continue to be considered unclean. Therefore, when it was commanded to proclaim the Gospel to every creature, one must preach to all.

Those who accept this preaching must no longer be considered unclean. They must be received into communion equally with the Jews.

The miraculous character of the appearance and the threefold instruction, of course, could not fail to move Peter toward deeper reflection on the meaning of the vision. He had to understand it not in the ordinary sense of food.

For what was seen both descended from heaven and ascended there again, as something not material but spiritual. Therefore it had to be considered spiritually.

The command for the apostle to rise is significant in that he was praying on his knees. Or, seeing the opened heaven and what descended from it, he fell on his face.

This is what Old Testament prophets did at especially striking visions; see Dan 10:9. The adaptation of the vision to Peter's hunger is also significant.

It shows that when eating food, one must firmly remember that man shall not live by bread alone. It is good to share food with one who needs it more; see verse 23.

It is still better to share spiritual bread. According to blessed Theophylact's explanation, "Peter, the first of the apostles, needed a divine revelation concerning the calling of the Gentiles to Christian faith.

"He did not know that circumcision and uncircumcision make no difference with respect to faith. He certainly did not clearly know that the Lord had said that, when the ministry of faith was revealed, the Gentiles also were to be taught that faith.

"They did not know this until His ineffable will revealed the mysteries through this appearance." "The vision occurred three times to signify the undoubted truth of what was communicated in it.

It assured Peter of the immutability of the divine determination concerning this."