(15) What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.--In the framework of the vision, the clean and the unclean beasts stood on the same footing, were let down from heaven in the same sheet. That had purified them from whatever taint had adhered to them under the precepts of the Law. In the interpretation of the vision, all that belongs to humanity had been taken up into heaven; first, when man's nature was assumed by the Eternal Word in the Incarnation (John 1:14), and, secondly, when that nature had been raised in the Ascension to the heaven of heavens, sitting on the right hand of God (Acts 7:56; Mark 16:19).

Verse 15. - A voice for the voice, A.V.; came for spake, A.V.; make not for that call not, A.V. What God hath cleansed, etc. "The Law was our schoolmaster ['tutor,' R.V.] to bring us to Christ." But now, under the gospel of faith, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. There is neither Jew nor Greek. "Old things are passed away, and all things are become new."

10:9-18 The prejudices of Peter against the Gentiles, would have prevented his going to Cornelius, unless the Lord had prepared him for this service. To tell a Jew that God had directed those animals to be reckoned clean which were hitherto deemed unclean, was in effect saying, that the law of Moses was done away. Peter was soon made to know the meaning of it. God knows what services are before us, and how to prepare us; and we know the meaning of what he has taught us, when we find what occasion we have to make use of it.And the voice spake unto him again the second time,.... The following words,

what God hath cleansed; that is, hath pronounced clean and lawful to be used, as he now had all sorts of food, Matthew 15:11.

that call not thou common; or pronounce it to be unholy or unclean, and unlawful to be used: and the same holds good of men, as well as things; for as hereby the Lord instructed Peter, that there was nothing of itself common, or unclean, and unfit for use; so that no man, not any Gentile, Barbarian, Scythian, or be he who he would, was common or unclean, and his company to be avoided as such. Distinctions both of men and meats were now to be laid aside; and the Jews themselves own, that what is now unclean, will be clean in the time to come, or the times of the Messiah; they say (f),

"every beast which is unclean in this world,

the holy blessed God ,

cleanses it, in the time to come, (the times of the Messiah,) as they were at first clean to the sons of Noah Genesis 9:3, wherefore, as the herb was clean to all, and as the beasts were clean to the sons of Noah; so also in the time to come he will loose what he has bound, or forbidden.''

And particularly they observe, that a swine is call from "to return", because the Lord will return it unto Israel. (g).

(f) R. Moses Haddarsan in Galatin. l. 11. c. 12. & Bereshit Rabba in Pugio Fidei, c. 12. sect. 1.((g) Abarbinel Rosh Amana, c. 12. fol. 18. 2.