Open English Translation ACTs Chapter 11

11 Soon the missionaries and other believers in Yudea heard that non-Jews had also accepted God’s message, 2 but when Peter went to Yerusalem, the strict Jewish believers were upset with him, 3 saying that he had gone into the home of uncircumcised pagans and even eaten with them.

4 But Peter started explaining from the beginning, 5 “I was staying in Yoppa, and as I was praying I saw a vision of an object like a sheet coming down, as if it was being let down out of the sky by its four corners. As it came down to me 6 I looked at it and saw animals, even wild animals, and reptiles and birds. 7 I also heard a voice telling me, ‘Peter, get up and slaughter these and eat them.’ 8 But I said, ‘Master, I can’t because I’ve never eaten anything that’s forbidden.’ 9 But the voice from the sky spoke again, ‘Don’t you be treating anything as unclean that God has made clean.’ 10 This happened three times, and then it was pulled up again into the sky. 11 Next minute there were three men at the house where I was staying saying that they had been sent from Caesarea to fetch me, 12 and the spirit told me to go with them without questioning anything they said. These six other believers went with me, and we arrived at the house of the man who had sent the three. 13 He told us how he’d seen one of God’s messengers standing there in his house and who’d told him, ‘Send someone to Yoppa to fetch Simon, the one called Peter, 14 and he will explain to you how you and all your household can be saved.’ 15 Then when I started speaking to them, the holy spirit came down on them just like it had happened to us previously. 16 That reminded me of the words of the master when he told us, ‘Yohan immersed people in water, but you all will be immersed in the holy spirit. 17 Therefore if God gave the same gift to them that he’d given to us when we’d believed in the master Yeshua the messiah, what authority did I have to contradict God?’ ”

18 When the group heard all this, they had no objections and they praised God, saying, “It seems that God has also allowed the pagans to repent and live.”

19 Over time, due to the persecution that began with Stephen’s killing, the ones who had moved away went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, but they only shared Yeshua’s teaching with other Jews. 20 However, some of the believers were from Cyprus and Cyrene, and when they got to Antioch they proclaimed the good news from the master Yeshua to the Greeks. 21 And the master caused their efforts to prosper, so a large number of Greeks believed and decided to follow the master.

22 News about this reached the assembly in Yerusalem, so they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he arrived and saw how God’s grace was spreading, he was elated and encouraged them all to earnestly continue to follow the master. 24 Barnabas was good man and full of the holy spirit and full of faith in God, and a large number of people decided to follow Yeshua.

25 So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and when he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. Then for a whole year they met with the assembly and regularly taught a large crowd. It was there in Antioch that the believers were first called Christians.

27 In those days, some prophets from Yerusalem went to Antioch, 28 and one of them named Agabus when he was prompted by the spirit, stood up and predicted that the world would experience a severe famine (and this happened later during the reign of Claudius). 29 The believers decided to send assistance to their fellow believers who lived in Yudea—each one according to his means—30 and so they did, sending their contributions with Barnabus and Saul to take to the elders.