Another contextual error that believers make is to elevate food from its supporting role to a leading actor in the story of Cornelius’ salvation. Although prominent in Peter’s
vision, food is not central to the story, but was only used by God as an
allegory to convey a deeper truth about mankind. In Peter’s vision, the sky opened up and a
sheet descended carrying “all kinds of
four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air,”
(Acts 10:12). The vision is understood to contain both “clean”
and “unclean” animals. Peter was
then commanded to “Get up, Peter, kill and
eat!” (Acts 10:13), but he was puzzled
by the command saying, “Lord…I have never
eaten anything unholy and unclean.”
While food was central to
the vision, the greater context of the passage is not about food, but an
analogy classifying people in terms of clean and unclean, as Jesus spoke concerning
His disciples, "Not all of you are clean," (John 13:11). A clean condition was required for any worshiper entering the temple complex.
If a person came in contact with a dead body, or in contact with someone
who touched a dead body, he had to undergo a purification process that required
a minimum of seven days. During that
time, a worshiper was not permitted to enter the temple for daily
worship.
To prevent potential contamination,
first century Jews avoided interaction with "unclean" Gentiles, as expressed by
Peter to Cornelius, “You yourselves know how unlawful
it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him,”
(Acts 10:28). Before Peter would follow the servants of
Cornelius, to enter the house of Cornelius, Peter had to be convinced that the
action was consistent with the will of God, and not contrary to the commandments
of sanctification, “Be holy for I Am
Holy,” (1Pet 1:16).
Somewhere between the
time of his vision and Cornelius’ house, Peter came to correctly understand
that the vision was not about food, but that “God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean,”
(Acts 10:28). The use of food in Peter’s vision was never
intended to be a statement on the permissibility of certain foods, but to
convey the truth that no man should be called “unholy or unclean.” Without
this perspective, Peter would have resisted any request from
Cornelius’ servants since first century Gentiles were largely idol worshiping,
often child sacrificing pagans whose lifestyles contacted dead bodies and other
significant forms of uncleanliness, (1Cor
6:9-11).
As a rule, first century
Jews, including the apostles and disciples, avoided Gentile homes and limited their
time in the common marketplace. The
Essenes were probably the most fanatical of the Jewish sects on this
approach. We appreciate this fact from
the large number of copies of the Book of Jubilees discovered in Qumran,
roughly twice the number of ancient copies as existed prior to their
discovery. In the Book of Jubilees, we read,
“Separate yourselves from the gentiles,
and do not eat with them, and do not perform deeds like theirs. And do not become associates of theirs,
because their deeds are defiled, and all of their ways are contaminated, and
despicable, and abominable. They
slaughter their sacrifices to the dead and to the demons they bow down; and
they eat in tombs. And all their deeds
are worthless and vain. (Jubilees 22:16-17)” [1]
Although believers accept
a position that all races have access to the promises of Abraham through
Jesus Christ, the growth of the church was originally limited to Jews, and then
Samaritans. Prior to the pouring out of
the Spirit on the family of Cornelius, Gentile access to the promises of
Abraham was constrained to proselytes who converted to Judaism, (Matt 23:15). Cornelius became the first Gentile to enter
the Church and the basis for the apostles’ decision in Acts 15. This Cornelius’
story would not have occurred as written apart from Peter’s willingness to follow
the servants of Cornelius. God used food
in the vision received by Peter, but the vision was never intended to change
the dietary restrictions previously established through the Law.
The understanding that
Gentiles had access to the promises of Abraham without becoming Jews was first demonstrated
by the outpouring of the Spirit on Cornelius’ family (Acts 10:44), and was subsequently affirmed by the ruling of the Jerusalem
council in Acts 15. The decision of the Jerusalem council removed
the previous requirement that Gentiles convert to Judaism and submit to the
full weight of the Law, including circumcision.
Most believers fail to appreciate that the audience of the Acts 15 ruling was limited only, “to the brethren in Antioch and Syria and
Cilicia who are from the Gentiles,” (Acts
10:23). The non-Gentile (Jewish/Samaritan)
believers remained under an obligation to all the commandments, including the dietary restrictions, as observed by
James who spoke in a “matter of fact” way to Paul saying, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of
those who have believed and they are all zealous for Law,” (Acts 10:20).
(to be continued...)
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