Verses 11-13
The sheet-like container, similar perhaps to an awning on the roof or a ship’s sail, was full of all kinds of animals, clean and unclean (cf. Acts 11:6). The issue of unclean food was the basic one that separated observant Jews like Peter from Gentiles.
"Milk drawn by a heathen, if a Jew had not been present to watch it, bread and oil prepared by them, were unlawful. Their wine was wholly interdicted-the mere touch of a heathen polluted a whole cask; nay, even to put one’s nose to heathen wine was strictly prohibited!" [Note: Edersheim, The Life . . ., 1:92.]
". . . the point is that the Lord’s command frees Peter from any scruples about going to a Gentile home and eating whatever might be set before him. It would be a short step from recognizing that Gentile food was clean to realizing that Gentiles themselves were ’clean’ also." [Note: Marshall, The Acts . . ., p. 186.]
The Jewish laws distinguishing between clean and unclean animals appear in Leviticus 11.
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