Before some men. Peter had a vision (Acts 10:9-16), and he witnessed the Spirit come on Gentiles (Acts 10:44-47). This taught him that God had removed the barrier between Jew and Gentile. Knowing this, he ate with the Gentile Christians and thought nothing about it! But after these men arrived. Note that James sent them. This implies that James, the Lord's brother, was at this time the head of the circumcision party, yet we know that he was willing to take God's side at the Jerusalem Meeting (Acts 15:13-19). In eating with the Gentiles, Peter would be violating the customs and Kosher code of the Jewish dietary laws. Knowing this would cause a hostile reaction from the Judean Jews, Peter took the easy way out!

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Old Testament