Peter’s Vision
ESV Acts 10:9 The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up fon the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. 10 And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance 11 and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is kcommon or lunclean.” 15 And the voice came to him again a second time, m “What God has made clean, do not call common.”
"What is the meaning of the words impure and unclean? The Jew could eat the meat of only those animals which God had declared clean, that is, ruminants and those with cloven hoofs. All other animals were impure and unclean. The large sheet let down to earth contained clean and unclean animals. When God told Peter to kill and eat, he did not make a distinction between these two categories. By contrast, Peter distinguished between clean and unclean; he regarded the clean animals defiled because of their association with the unclean animals.19
b. “Do not consider unclean what God has made clean.” This is the second time a voice speaks from heaven and answers Peter’s legitimate objection. The voice conveys the message that God, who formulated the dietary laws for his people Israel, can also revoke them according to his sovereign will. God has made the animals clean; therefore, Peter with his fellow Jewish Christians can disregard the food laws that have been observed since the days of Moses (compare Rom. 14:14). Literally the Greek text can be translated, “What God has made clean, do not continue to call unclean.”
When does God abolish die dietary laws for Jewish Christians? The moment God removes the barrier between the Jew and Gentile, the validity of the food laws ceases. Abolition of these laws means that Jewish and Gentile Christians enter into a new relationship and accept one another as equals in the church. God himself removes the barrier, for he is the lawmaker.
c. “This happened three times.” The heavenly voice is unable to convince Peter until he has heard it three times. Peter should have remembered Jesus’ teaching that food does not make man unclean when it enters his mouth (Matt. 15:11). Three times the heavenly voice speaks to Peter to tell him that God has made all foods clean. By implication, God is teaching Peter that with the abolition of food laws Peter can now associate with Gentiles and have table fellowship. After hearing the heavenly voice three times, Peter is convinced. When the chief spokesman for the twelve apostles and the leader of the Jerusalem church heeds the voice, the sheet is suddenly taken up to heaven. This return to heaven once again indicates that God himself has opened the way for the gospel ministry to the Gentiles."
Kistemaker, Simon J. ; Hendriksen, William: New Testament Commentary : Exposition of the Acts of the Apostles. Grand Rapids : Baker Book House, 1953-2001 (New Testament Commentary 17), S. 380
"This vision brings to mind the teaching of Jesus as recorded in Mark 7:14–19. In his debate with the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus had taught that it was not foods taken into the body that caused defilement, but thoughts and words which proceed from the heart and mouth. Mark then adds the comment, “In saying this, Jesus declared all foods ‘clean.’” Peter’s vision reinforced this teaching of Jesus. But even in Mark 7 the words of Jesus are brought into close connection with attitudes toward people. Just after Jesus made these comments, he healed the daughter of a Gentile woman. Purity regulations about eating were associated with purity regulations in associations with people.
Gaertner, Dennis: Acts. Joplin, Mo. : College Press, 1993 (The College Press NIV Commentary), S. Ac 10:16
The larger point seems to be that the earlier dietary laws, as well as the laws regarding how the Jews should dress, and so many of the ceremonial laws etc were all meant to keep the Jews separate from their Gentile neighbors.... they were to be a people "set apart" and the sad truth is that the Jews (just as we do) failed in this regard..... however, with the coming of Christ the wall of separation between the Jew and Gentile was broken down, the temple curtain was torn in two.... all signifying that the things that the Jews were told to do so as to protect their ethnic separate identity, after the coming of Christ, were no longer valid..... since it was no longer necessary to insist on ethnic separation, it was also no longer necessary to insist on the sorts of externals that were in place to keep the Jews and Gentiles separate people groups.... and the dietary laws fall under this category.....
for those who want to insist on the continuance of the dietary laws.... do they shave the sides of their beards? If so, this is in direct violation of the Old Testament commandment!
(Lev. 21:5) if not, why keep the dietary laws but not the laws concerning how to dress and shave? This seems to be arbitrary.....
lastly, there is no slippery slope here, that is to say that if the dietary and dress codes are no longer valid, therefore it must also be the case that the moral laws are no longer valid.... this does not follow at all.... unless a law is repealed in the NT, as the dietary laws were, as the dress codes were abolished (or in some cases modified as Paul had to deal with the issue of head coverings with the Corinthians) as the wall of ethnic separations were broken down, the laws remain in effect.... just because it is no longer forbidden to eat sushi, it does not follow that it is no longer forbidden to commit adultery....
blessings,
Ken
, He-brews.