Acts 10:11

Omit ἐπ' αὐτὸν after καταβαῖνον with אABCE. The words are not represented in the Vulg.

δεδεμένον καὶ omitted with אABCE. They are not represented in the Vulg.

11. καὶ θεωρεῖ τὸν οὐρανὸν�, and he beholdeth heaven opened. For θεωρέω of the vision of things heavenly, cf. Acts 7:56; Acts 9:7. The opened heaven made it clear to Peter that the teaching of the vision was sent from God.

σκεῦός τι ὡς ὀθόνην μεγάλην, τὲσσαρσιν�, a certain vessel as it had been a great sheet let down by four corners upon the earth. The word ἀρχαί is used (LXX. Exodus 28:23; Exodus 39:15) of the extremities of the high-priest’s breastplate to which rings were to be attached for fastening it upon the ephod. What St Peter saw was an extended sheet, the four corners of which were held up as it were by cords let down from the four extremities of the opened sky. The significance of the outstretched sheet, as a figure of the wide world, and the four corners as the directions into which the Gospel was now to be borne forth into all the world has often been dwelt upon.