Acts 11:3
“Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →The charge against Peter is named: he entered the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.
What Does Acts 11:3 Mean?
In the first-century world, to eat at a man's table was to accept him fully. Generations of faithful Jews had kept separate tables as a guard against idolatry and impurity, so Peter's meal under Cornelius's roof strikes his critics as a breach of everything sacred.
Notice that the accusation says nothing of preaching or baptism; it fixes on the table. Yet the shared table is exactly where the gospel was heading. Jesus Himself drew fire for eating with publicans and sinners, and His church would soon be one family of Jew and Gentile breaking bread together. What looked like scandal was the first taste of the fellowship Christ died to create.
In the Original Language
synesthio (συνεσθίω), 'eat with' -- to share a table, the ancient mark of full fellowship.