Acts 10:11

and saw[beholdeth] heaven opened To shew him that the teaching of the vision was sent to him from God.

and a certain vessel descending unto him The oldest MSS. omit the two last words.

as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth The oldest MSS. only give "a great sheet let down by four corners upon the earth." The word rendered "corners" is used of the "end of a cord" in Herod. 4:60, but it seems that for such a sense there must be added either a noun or adjective for explanation. What the Apostle 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.