Teaching Team

Common Objections: Acts 10

As we begin to explore the study and lifestyle of the Torah, many passages come to mind throughout the Gospels and Apostolic Scriptures that appear to speak against the Torah and its observance. In these blog posts we will explore some of these objections and try to answer them.

As Noah is getting ready to get on the ark God gives him specific instructions regarding the animals of the earth:

Then the LORD said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth." (Genesis 7:1-3)

Already in Genesis God is making a distinction between clean and unclean animals. It also appears that Noah already knew what God was talking about since no description or characteristics of these animals is given. Some type of oral form of the commandments was being transmitted possibly going back to Adam and Eve in the Garden. Although Noah is told that "every moving thing that lives shall be food for you" (Genesis 9:3), clean and unclean at this stage did imply what was permissible to sacrifice. The extension of the laws of cleanness into the dietary laws happens in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14.

But what about when we get to the Gospels and Apostolic Scriptures, are these laws still in force? It appears that there are numerous passages that seem to abrogate the dietary laws once and for all. One of the most central passages to this thinking is Peter's vision of the sheet:

The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him: "Rise, Peter; kill and eat." But Peter said, "By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean." And the voice came to him again a second time, "What God has made clean, do not call common." This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven. (Acts 10:9-16)

Upon a cursory reading it certainly does appear that the vision indicates that God has now made everything clean and permissible. God explicitly tells Peter to eat what is unclean by Torah standards. Let examine this passage a little closer.

Upon being commanded to "kill and eat" Peter declares, "By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean." This tells us that Peter, who was a faithful disciple of Yeshua, was also a faithful follower of the Torah and never ate anything that was forbidden by it. He is surprised by the command and this also indicates that Yeshua never ate or declared clean any food that God had declared unclean.

It is curious that Peter uses the phrase, "common or unclean". "Unclean" refers to the Hebrew word tamai which is used in both Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 in describing forbidden food. "Uncommon" on the other hand is the Greek word koine which refers to something that is common or ordinary and possibly translates to the Hebrew chullin. Hillary Le Cornu suggests that this has to do with eating food by the common Israelite in a state of priestly purity but she concludes,

Peter does not appear to have belonged to any of the groups most likely to have conformed to strict purity demands.[1]

It is difficult to know what koinos is referring to here, but at any rate it is obvious that Peter is very scrupulous about not eating unclean meat.

One thing to remember is that parables and visions are meant to teach a lesson or principle but the specific elements contained in them are not to be taken literally. For instance take the parable of the hidden treasure by the Master:

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. (Matthew 13:44)

The parable teaches us about the value of the kingdom of heaven and the joy that we will have in finding it. It also teaches us that no sacrifice is too great in order to obtain it. On the other hand, it is certainly not a blanket approval of the actions of the man in the parable. He had been deceptive in hiding the treasure and then buying the land at a lower price than had the owner known about the treasure.

Likewise with the vision in Acts, it is not a blanket approval of eating un-kosher meat. To find out the meaning of the text we need only go a few more verses forward. Peter himself tells us the meaning.

And he said to them, "You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. (Acts 10:28)

It was man who should no longer be called unclean. The Gentiles had been cleansed by Yeshua's blood and the Spirit of God. Peter could now fellowship with the Gentiles because they were now clean.

Often times the interpretation of Scripture is easier if we let Scripture interpret itself. The revelation of the acceptance of Gentiles is a huge turning point for the followers of Yeshua and therefore it must be revealed through a vision from God.

[1] Hillary Le Cornu and Joseph Shulam, A Commentary on the Jewish Roots of Acts (2 vols.; Jerusalem, Israel: Academon, 2003), 1:565-566.

About the Author: Toby Janicki is a teacher, writer and speaker for FFOZ. He is also a writer for Messiah Journal and the author of the Restoration and Boundary Stones workbooks as well as a book on the Mezuzah.