Acts 10:9-16

On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. 10 But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; 11 and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, 12 and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. 13 A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.” 15 Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” 16 This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky.

In this section (of which there are seven dealing with this topic), Peter is given a strange teaching through a trance. He saw in his mind a great sheet coming down from the sky; and on this sheet there were all kinds of animals and creatures, some which were considered unclean according to Jewish laws. When a voice from heaven told him to kill and eat these things, Peter protested, saying that he would never eat anything unclean. Ah, leave it to Peter to argue with the Lord!

But when the voice explained that what God has cleansed, we should no longer consider unholy, Peter apparently got the message.