Acts 11:6

6 [As I] looked intently into it, I was considering [it], and I saw the four-footed animals of the earth and the wild animals and the reptiles and the birds of the sky.

Acts 11:6 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 11:6

Upon the which when I had fastened mine eyes
Not of his body, but of his mind; for this was only in vision presented to him, when he was as Paul was, not knowing whether in the body or out of it:

I considered:
being intent upon this object, he considered in his mind what it was, and what it should mean; it being something strange and unusual; which came down from heaven, and out of it, and came so close and near to him, that it engrossed all his thoughts, and was the subject of deep meditation:

and saw four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and
creeping things, and fowls of the air;
not pourtrayed upon the sheet, but standing or walking upon it; the Syriac Version leaves out, "the wild beasts"; and the Ethiopic versions, "the creeping things"; but both are in the Greek copies, and in other versions.

Acts 11:6 In-Context

4 But Peter began [and] explained [it] to them in an orderly sequence, saying,

5 "I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision--an object something like a large sheet coming down, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came to me.

6 [As I] looked intently into it, I was considering [it], and I saw the four-footed animals of the earth and the wild animals and the reptiles and the birds of the sky.

7 And I also heard a voice saying to me, 'Get up, Peter, slaughter and eat!'

8 But I said, 'Certainly not, Lord! For nothing common or unclean has ever entered into my mouth!'

Footnotes

• [a] *Here "[as]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("looked intently") which is understood as temporal
• [b] *Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation