Peter’s vision at Joppa is recorded in Acts 10:9–16 and plays a crucial role in the unfolding of God’s plan to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. It reveals God’s intention to break down ceremonial barriers and declare all people clean through faith in Christ.
While staying in Joppa at the house of Simon the tanner, Peter went up to the rooftop to pray around the sixth hour (noon). He became very hungry and fell into a trance. In the vision, he saw heaven opened and something like a great sheet descending, let down to the earth by its four corners. In it were all kinds of four-footed animals, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air.
A voice came to him, saying, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter replied, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” The voice answered him again, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” This occurred three times, and the object was then taken back up into heaven.
While Peter was pondering the meaning of the vision, men sent by Cornelius, a Gentile centurion, arrived and invited him to Caesarea. Peter went with them and soon realized that the vision was not merely about food, but about people. In Acts 10:28, he said, “God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.”
Peter preached the gospel to Cornelius and his household, and while he spoke, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. They believed and were baptized, marking the inclusion of the Gentiles into the church without requiring adherence to Jewish ceremonial laws.
This vision signified the end of the Old Covenant food distinctions and the beginning of a new era in which salvation through Christ is offered freely to all, Jew and Gentile alike. It affirms that in Christ, there is no partiality, and all who fear God and work righteousness are accepted by Him.
