Acts 10:10-11

10:10 He became hungry and wanted to eat, but while they were preparing the meal, a trance came over him. ¹  10:11 He ²  saw heaven ³  opened ⁴  and an object something like a large sheet ⁵  descending, ⁶  being let down to earth ⁷  by its four corners.

¹ tn The traditional translation, “he fell into a trance,” is somewhat idiomatic; it is based on the textual variant ἐπέπεσεν (epepesen, “he fell”) found in the Byzantine text but almost certainly not original.

² tn Grk “And he.” Because of the length of the Greek sentence, the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated here. Instead a new English sentence is begun.

³ tn Or “the sky” (the same Greek word means both “heaven” and “sky”).

⁴ tn On the heavens “opening,” see Matt 3:16; Luke 3:21; Rev 19:11 (cf. BDAG 84 s.v. ἀνοίγω 2). This is the language of a vision or a revelatory act of God.

⁵ tn Or “a large linen cloth” (the term was used for the sail of a ship; BDAG 693 s.v. ὀθόνη).

⁶ tn Or “coming down.”

⁷ tn Or “to the ground.”