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.”