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Easter Season · Fifth Sunday of Easter · Year C

Acts 11:1-18

Peter's Defense: The Gentiles Receive the Spirit

May 14, 2028

Peter's Vision of a Sheet with Animals, Domenico Fetti
Peter's Vision of a Sheet with Animals, Domenico Fetti, c. 1619Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Peter asleep on a rooftop while a sheet comes down out of the sky, loaded with animals, painted with Fetti's usual warm informality.What God has made clean, you must not call profane: the reading is this vision and the argument it settled.Domenico FettiA Roman-trained painter who worked in Mantua and Venice, best known for small, warmly coloured paintings of the parables.Kunsthistorisches Museum, ViennaThe Habsburg collection, assembled over four centuries and housed in a purpose-built palace on the Ringstrasse since 1891.Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Revised Common Lectionary
GospelJohn 13:31-35Jn 13:31-35
EpistleRev. 21:1-6Rev 21:1-6
Old TestamentActs 11:1-18
PsalterPs. 148Ps 148

Overview & Insights

"If then God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?" (Acts 11:17, NIV)

Peter returns to Jerusalem and recounts his vision and his visit to the Gentile centurion Cornelius, explaining why he ate with uncircumcised men and baptized them. Hearing that the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles just as at Pentecost, the Jerusalem believers stop objecting and conclude that God has granted even the Gentiles repentance and life.

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Commentary

Commentary on Acts 11:1-18 Working Preacher

Highlights the unusual length and detail Luke gives this Gentile-inclusion turning point.

Acts 11:1-18 Commentary Center for Excellence in Preaching

Explores the Greek behind 'God has granted repentance' and its note of surprised relief.

Acts 11 Commentary: Defending Ministry to the Gentiles Enduring Word · David Guzik

David Guzik's verse-by-verse walk through Peter's defense to the Jerusalem church.

Acts 11 Commentary Precept Austin

A conservative evangelical verse-by-verse compilation with cross-references.

Acts 11:1-18 Commentaries BibleHub

Lines up classic commentaries side by side on Peter's report to the church.

Background & Word Study

Acts 11:1-18 Interlinear BibleHub

Shows the Greek text of Peter's speech word by word.

Book of Acts Overview (Part 1, ch. 1-12) BibleProject

Shows how the Cornelius episode fits Acts' literary design of the gospel moving outward.

Homily 24 on the Acts of the Apostles New Advent · Catholic Encyclopedia

Chrysostom's fourth-century homily on Peter's defense of eating with Gentiles.

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