Why did Peter say he had never eaten anything common or unclean in Acts 10?
Peter said he had never eaten anything common or unclean because he was a law-keeping Jew who strictly observed the kosher dietary laws and would not break the law by eating non-kosher food. This reflected the long-standing separation between Jews and Gentiles that God had emphasized.
Les explains that Peter was a law-keeping Jew who wasn't about to break the law by eating something that wasn't kosher. This was because God had emphasized that the covenant people, the Jews, were to be a separated people, not to co-mingle with Gentiles, not to intermarry, and to have nothing to do with pagan Gentiles. They were never told to evangelize them. This separation carried into the New Testament. Even in Acts 10, when the Lord gave Peter the vision of the sheet with unclean animals and told him to kill and eat, Peter refused, saying he had never eaten anything common or unclean. Later, at Cornelius's house, Peter acknowledged that it was unlawful for a Jew to keep company with Gentiles, but God had shown him otherwise, as He was now turning to the Gentiles.
More Questions
How did Peter respond when the Lord told him to eat unclean animals?
Peter, as a kosher Jew, was shocked at the Lord's command to eat unclean animals and objected that he had never eaten anything unclean.
What did Peter say to Cornelius about a Jew associating with a Gentile?
Peter told Cornelius at the threshold of his house that it was unlawful for him, a Jew, to keep company with a Gentile, which illustrates how strong the Jew-Gentile separation was right before God turned to the Gentiles.