Acts 11:1-30
11 Now the apostles and the brothers that were in Ju·deʹa heard that people of the nations+ had also received the word of God.
2 So when Peter came up to Jerusalem, the [supporters] of circumcision+ began to contend with him,
3 saying he had gone into the house of men that were not circumcised and had eaten with them.
4 At this Peter commenced and went on to explain the particulars to them, saying:
5 “I was in the city of Jopʹpa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, some sort of vessel descending like a great linen sheet being let down by its four extremities from heaven, and it came clear to me.
6 Gazing into it, I made observations and saw four-footed creatures of the earth and wild beasts and creeping things and birds of heaven.+
7 I also heard a voice say to me, ‘Rise, Peter, slaughter and eat!’+
8 But I said, ‘Not at all, Lord, because a defiled or unclean thing has never entered into my mouth.’+
9 The second time the voice from heaven answered, ‘You stop calling defiled the things God has cleansed.’+
10 This occurred for a third time, and everything was pulled up again into heaven.+
11 Also, look! at that instant there were three men standing at the house in which we were, they having been dispatched from Caes·a·reʹa to me.+
12 So the spirit+ told me to go with them, not doubting at all. But these six brothers also went with me, and we entered into the house of the man.+
13 “He reported to us how he saw the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Dispatch men to Jopʹpa and send for Simon who is surnamed Peter,+
14 and he will speak those things to you by which you and all your household may get saved.’+
15 But when I started to speak, the holy spirit fell upon them just as it did also upon us in [the] beginning.+
16 At this I called to mind the saying of the Lord, how he used to say, ‘John, for his part, baptized with water,+ but YOU will be baptized in holy spirit.’+
17 If, therefore, God gave the same free gift to them as he also did to us who have believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ,+ who was I that I should be able to hinder God?”+
18 Now when they heard these things, they acquiesced,+ and they glorified God,+ saying: “Well, then, God has granted repentance for the purpose of life to people of the nations also.”+
19 Consequently those who had been scattered+ by the tribulation that arose over Stephen went through as far as Phoe·niʹcia+ and Cyʹprus+ and Antioch, but speaking the word to no one except to Jews only.+
20 However, out of them there were some men of Cyʹprus and Cy·reʹne that came to Antioch and began talking to the Greek-speaking people,*+ declaring the good news of the Lord Jesus.+
21 Furthermore, the hand of Jehovah*+ was with them, and a great number that became believers turned to the Lord.+
22 The account about them got to the ears of the congregation that was in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barʹna·bas+ as far as Antioch.
23 When he arrived and saw the undeserved kindness+ of God, he rejoiced+ and began to encourage them all to continue in the Lord with hearty purpose;+
24 for he was a good man and full of holy spirit and of faith. And a considerable crowd was added to the Lord.+
25 So he went off to Tarsus+ to make a thorough search for Saul+
26 and, after he found him, he brought him to Antioch. It thus came about that for a whole year they gathered together with them in the congregation and taught quite a crowd, and it was first in Antioch that the disciples were by divine providence called* Christians.*+
27 Now in these days prophets+ came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.
28 One of them named Agʹa·bus+ rose and proceeded to indicate through the spirit that a great famine was about to come upon the entire inhabited earth;+ which, for that matter, did take place in the time of Claudius.
29 So those of the disciples determined, each of them according as anyone could afford it,+ to send a relief+ ministration to the brothers dwelling in Ju·deʹa;
30 and this they did, dispatching it to the older men* by the hand of Barʹna·bas and Saul.+
Footnotes
^ “Greek-speaking people.” Lit., “Hellenists.” AD*, “Greeks.”
^ See App 1D.
^ Or, “named.”
^ “Christians.” Gr., Khri·sti·a·nousʹ; Lat., Chri·sti·aʹni; J17,18,22(Heb.), Meshi·chi·yimʹ, “Messianists.”
^ Or, “elders.” Gr., pre·sby·teʹrous.
