Bible Strands
Acts 10:12
It contained all kinds of four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth, as well as birds of the air.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Peter observes a vision while praying in Joppa, where a large sheet lowered from heaven displays its contents. The moment occurs immediately before a voice commands him to kill and eat.
The words — The Greek ὑπῆρχεν (hupērchēn) indicates a state of "being" or "containing," and τετράποδα (tetrapoda) literally means "four-footed." These terms function as a precise inventory of the creatures placed inside the sheet.
The thread — The text's broad animal catalog matches the comprehensive lists in Genesis 7:8 and the restored creation imagery of Isaiah 11:6 and Isaiah 65:25. Scripture uses these same categories to frame divine scope and future reconciliation.
Why it lands — The passage states that the sheet held every category of earthly creature, not a selective or ritual subset. It requires a reader to abandon inherited boundaries and accept the listed animals as part of a divinely authorized inventory.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.
Cross-references
- Genesis 7:8 The clean and unclean animals, the birds, and everything that crawls along the ground
- Isaiah 11:6 The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat; the calf and young lion and fatling will be together, and a little child will lead them.
- Isaiah 65:25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but the food of the serpent will be dust. They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain,” says the LORD.
- John 7:37 On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.
- 1 Corinthians 6:9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,