5. “I was at prayer in the city of Joppa when in a trance I had a vision, something resembling a large sheet coming down, lowered from the sky by its four corners, and it came to me.
6. Looking intently into it, I observed and saw the four-legged animals of the earth, the wild beasts, the reptiles, and the birds of the sky.
7. I also heard a voice say to me, ‘Get up, Peter. Slaughter and eat.’
8. But I said, ‘Certainly not, sir, because nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’
9. But a second time a voice from heaven answered, ‘What God has made clean, you are not to call profane.’
10. This happened three times, and then everything was drawn up again into the sky.
11. Just then three men appeared at the house where we were, who had been sent to me from Caesarea.
12. The Spirit told me to accompany them without discriminating. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house.
13. He related to us how he had seen (the) angel standing in his house, saying, ‘Send someone to Joppa and summon Simon, who is called Peter,
14. who will speak words to you by which you and all your household will be saved.’
15. As I began to speak, the holy Spirit fell upon them as it had upon us at the beginning,
16. and I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the holy Spirit.’
17. If then God gave them the same gift he gave to us when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to be able to hinder God?”
18. When they heard this, they stopped objecting and glorified God, saying, “God has then granted life-giving repentance to the Gentiles too.”
19. Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that arose because of Stephen went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but Jews.
20. There were some Cypriots and Cyrenians among them, however, who came to Antioch and began to speak to the Greeks as well, proclaiming the Lord Jesus.
21. The hand of the Lord was with them and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.