COMMON?—ACTS 10:14 by Avram Yehoshua The Seed of Abraham “But Peter said, ‘Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.’” (Acts 10:14 NKJV) The Apostle Peter spoke those words to the Holy Spirit after the Spirit had said to him, ‘Rise, Peter! Kill and eat!,’ with the Church wrongly making the inference to be to eat the unclean ‘wild beasts’ and ‘creep- ing things,’ etc., on the sheet that was let down three times from Heaven (Acts 10:12-13, 16). The Voice from Heaven then told Peter, ‘What God has cleansed you must not call common’ (Acts 10:15). We know what unclean refers to. Peter is saying that he never ate any unclean animal, but what did he mean by common? Was he just saying the same thing, but in another way? That’s not unusual in Hebrew writings. It’s called a Hebraism. Or does common signify something other than an unclean animal? Acts 10 contains the monumental story of Peter being used by God to bring the first Gentiles to Messiah Yeshua, which happened eight to ten years the resurrection. Many Christians are surprised to find out how long it was the resurrection thatafterthe first Gentile/s came to Jesus, but most Christian theolo- gians teach that it wasafter eight to ten years or longer.1 Acts 10 is confirmed by Scripture as the first time Gentiles are justified ‘in Messiah Yeshua,’ when Peter, in Acts 11, is scrutinized by the believing Apostles, Elders and Pharisees for going in to a Gentile’s home, etc. As Peter recounted the vision to them they came to realize that this was of God: “When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.”” (Acts 11:18 NKJV) Also, in Acts 15, which happened in 48 AD2 which was 18 years the resurrection, or about eight years after Acts 10, Peter literally speaks of the first Gentiles comingafterto Messiah through him, which obvi- ously meant Cornelius & Co. in Acts 10: “And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them, ‘Men and 1 Acts 10 took place about 40 AD: 39-40 AD: Ben Witherington III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1998), p. 347. 40-44 AD: R. J. Knowling, D.D.; author; W. Robertson Nicoll, M.A., LL.D., editor, The Expositor’s Greek Testa- ment, vol. two: The Acts of the Apostles (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2002), p. 250. Before 41 AD: I. Howard Marshall, M.A., B.D., Ph.D., author; Professor R.V.G. Tasker, M.A., B.D., general edi- tor, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: Acts (Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2000), p. 183. 2 Acts 15 took place in 48 AD, eight or nine years after Acts 10: 48 AD: J. D. Douglas, M.A., B.D., S.T.M., Ph.D., organizing editor, The Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Part 1 (Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1998), pp. 281-283. 48 AD: Merrill F. Unger, Unger’s Bible Dictionary (Chicago: Moody Press, 25th printing, 1976), pp. 486-488. 49 AD: Geoffrey W. Bromiley, general editor; Everett F. Harrison, Roland K. Harrison and William Sanford La- Sor, associate editors, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Volume Three (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1979), p. 692. 49 AD: Witherington, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 444, note 361. brethren! You know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the Gospel and believe. So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no dis- tinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.” (Acts 15:7-9) Peter was speaking about Cornelius, who, along with his family and friends, came into the Kingdom of Yeshua through Peter in Acts 10. This is seen in both Peter saying, ‘by my mouth the Gentiles’ came to Yeshua, and also, that God poured out the Holy Spirit to those Gentiles just ‘as He did’ to Peter and the others in Acts 2. Peter, as well as the other six Jewish believers with him at the house of Cornelius, were amazed3 that the Lord poured out the Holy Spirit to Cornelius and the other Gentiles with him (Acts 10:44-48). Acts 10 is the first time that Gentiles were justified or Born Again and filled with the Holy Spirit of the Jewish Messiah. Mosaic Dietary Laws Overturned? The Pharisaic Church uses the three sheets of Acts 10, ‘Kill and eat,’ and ‘what God has cleansed let no man call unclean (Acts 10:11f.) ‘as proof’ that Christians may eat whatever meat they desire as long as they bless it, but nowhere in the chapter does Peter, or anyone else, eat what God calls unclean animals in the Old Testament (Lev. 11:1-47; Dt. 14:3-21). If someone in Acts 10 had eaten and authorized unclean meats for Christians, the Pharisaic Church would be right. As no one actually eats any unclean meat in this chapter, nor is there any mention of unclean meats by Peter or Cornelius, the Pharisaic Church is very wrong in interpreting Acts 10 as license to eat unclean animals/meats. Those who eat unclean meat sin against their Lord and themselves, acting as false witnesses to other believers and non-believers about the Jewish Messiah. Also, the Pharisaic Church uses what the Apostle Paul said to further support their heretical theology. They err because they only take into account one of the two qualifiers in order for food to be sanctified to our bodies. Paul said, ‘for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer’ (1st Timothy 4:5). In other words, the two qualifiers for eating any meat are prayer and the Word of God—not just prayer.4 The Phar- isaic Church is wrong, but because of their traditional understanding of the passage, and their stance against Mosaic Law, they cannot see the proper and simple biblical interpretation of the text. Be that as it may, Peter, the chief Apostle, was used by the Lord to extend salvation and the hand of fel- lowship to those first Gentiles in Acts 10, but it didn’t come without some reproof by the Jewish believers when he returned to Jerusalem. If Cornelius, though, hadn’t been the first Gentile to come into the King- dom of Yeshua, those Jewish believers wouldn’t have been upset with Peter. Cornelius, though, wasn’t just any pagan Gentile. Realize that all the Gentiles were pagans, worshipping gods and goddesses, except for those like Cornelius who had come alongside the Jewish God, His people Israel (Cornelius gave alms to the needy and poor of Israel; Acts 10:4), and had faith in Him. There were also other Gentiles who had even (wrongly) converted to Judaism (cf. Acts 13:16, 26, 42-43, 47-48).5 Cornelius had long ago given up his pagan ways and had been worshipping the God of Israel for some time (Acts 10:1-2). What this means, in light of Peter eating with him (Acts 11:1-3), is that Cornelius didn’t serve Peter bacon or shrimp, etc., but was only eating biblically clean meats. Cornelius had been 3 In Acts 10:45 it says that they were astonished! (HCSB, KJV, NET (greatly astonished!), NKJV, NIV, NRSV) 4 Read more about this in Law 102 and Romans 14 and the Dietary Laws. 5 For why a Gentile can never be a Jew, see Is the Gentile Now a Jew? 2 going to the synagogue, most likely, for years, and had learned many of the ways of Yahveh (Mosaic Law; Torah). This is seen in Acts 15:21, when James ‘matter of factly’ speaks of new Gentile believers continu- ing to go to the synagogues on the 7th day Sabbath to learn Mosaic Law, something he had seen Gentile believers doing since the time of Cornelius, eight years earlier. The Meaning of the Vision During the Vision and ensuing conversation with the Lord, Peter spoke of never having eaten anything common or unclean (Acts 10:14; cf.11:8). The Pharisaic Church teaches that Jesus made ‘all foods clean,’ basing their heretical theology upon their anti-Mosaic Law position and a poor English translation of Mark 7:17, but if that was so, why was Peter, at least eight years the resurrection, saying he had never eaten anything unclean? If Jesus had made unclean meats cleanafterPeter would have already have had many bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches, with plenty of mayonnaise. Mark 7;17 states: “because it goeth not into his heart, but into his belly, and goeth out into the draught? This he said, making all meats clean.” (Mark 7:19 ASV) “For it doesn’t go into his heart but into the stomach and is eliminated.” (As a result, He made all foods clean.)” (Mark 7:19 HCSB) “For it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and then goes out into the sewer.” (This means all foods are clean.)” (Mark 7:19 NET) “For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.”)” (Mark 7:19 NIV) “since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he de- clared all foods clean.)” (Mark 7:19 NRSV) “Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?” (Mark 7:19 KJV) Note that only the KJV does not speak of Jesus cleansing or making all foods clean because it’s not in the Textus Receptus, the Greek New Testament that the KJV is based on.