Acts 10:11

Acts 10:11. Saw heaven opened. The verb in the original denotes that he gazed upon the opened heaven, and carefully surveyed it. Peter's own phrase afterwards (Acts 11:6) is that he ‘fastened his eyes' on what he saw, and ‘considered.' In his trance he was conscious of an exercise of close attention, and he remembered it.

Descending unto him. In the Greek there is, according to the best MSS., nothing corresponding with the phrase ‘unto him.' But this point is very emphatically expressed in St. Peter's own vivid account afterwards (Acts 11:5), ‘It came even to me.' The impression conveyed is that the great sheet not only floated from heaven, but gradually approached St. Peter, so as to invite his close examination.

Knit at the four corners. The more literal translation would be, ‘fastened to the ends of four cords,' the upper part of the cords being lost in the heavens. This must have been the view of the meaning of the word ἀρχαῑς entertained by one of the old Greek commentators, who fancifully interprets it as denoting the four gospels. If the word meant ‘corners,' we should expect the article ταῑς.