Acts 10:12. All manner of beasts. It is useless to speculate on the way in which the impression of the appearance of ‘all' animals was conveyed. Calvin, quoted by Gloag, says very justly: ‘We must not measure this seeing according to the manner of men, because the trance gave Peter other eyes.'

Wild beasts. This part of the sentence ought to be absent in the verse before us; and it is an obvious remark that such creatures were to be included among the quadrupeds and reptiles. The phrase, however, does occur in the more vivid and detailed account given by St. Peter himself in Acts 11:6 (see the note there).

We must conceive of those animals which were ceremonially unclean as being more peculiarly conspicuous in the vision. Stier suggests that ‘probably the unclean beasts presented themselves first at the edge of the sheet.'

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Old Testament