I was in the city of Joppa praying: and in a trance I saw a vision, A certain vessel descend, as it had been a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came even to me:
I was in the city of Joppa praying: and in a trance I saw a vision, A certain vessel descend, as it had been a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came even to me. The historian himself only says it was "let down to the earth" (Acts 10:11). This additional particular from the apostle's own lips gives vividness to the scene.
Verse 6. Upon the which when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered. This emphatic language (also not in the historian's narrative, Acts 10:12) is designed to express the eager gaze with which he looked upon it.
And saw four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. Here the narratives are for several verses almost identical [In Acts 11:8 - "nothing common," etc. - pan (G3956) is clearly not genuine; it should therefore be, 'for a common or unclean thing' (or 'anything common or unclean') 'hath never entered into my mouth'].