Bede : Rise, Peter, kill and eat. He says, rise to prepare for evangelization. Kill in the nations what they were, and make them what you are. For he who eats food outside takes it into his own body. Therefore, he commands that the nations placed outside through unbelief, with their past life killed, be incorporated into the society of the Church, which Peter signifies. According to what the Apostle Paul says about himself: For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God and Christ. And again: It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (Gal. 2). But those who are surrounded by heretics are as if devoured alive by death. — Commentary on Acts Bede : Rise, Peter, kill and eat. What is said in Latin as "kill" is said in Greek in this place as θύσον, which is not a general term for killing but a specific term for the kind of killing by which sacrifices are offered to God. For both the sacrificial victim or sacrifice in Greek is θυσία, and the altar is called θυσιαστήριον. And in the psalm where we sing: "Sacrifice the sacrifice of righteousness" (Psalm IV), it is said in Greek, θύσατε θυσίαν, and "Offer to God the sacrifice of praise" (Psalm IV), θύσον τῷ Θεῷ θυσίαν. According to this meaning, therefore, it is said to Peter: θύσον and eat, which our translator has rendered as "Kill and eat." He could equally have translated it as "Offer and eat," so that Peter would understand that the various kinds of animals offered to him from heaven were to make those who were designated by such animals, by preaching the sacrifice of the Lord, taken from the harmful life of the paternal tradition and transferred into the new life of divine servitude through the sacraments of the Lord's passion. — Retractions on Acts John Chrysostom : "And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat." "Rise, Peter," saith the Voice, "kill and eat." Probably he was on his knees when he saw the vision. — Homily on Acts 22 Oecumenius : The earth is the sheet, and the creatures in it are the beasts, those from the nations. And the "kill and eat," because those too must be admitted. And the third to happen is this, the baptism. But as Peter was in confusion, the men came conveniently, resolving the confusion. For the soul readily receives the solution. Previously it had come into confusion, just as Joseph earlier suffered restraint to be disturbed, and then the angel came. (Matt. 1:20) — Commentary on Acts Oecumenius : Peter exhorts that the brutal and irrational sort of people be sacrificed, so that once they are cleansed what remains may become edible. The account of piety is delivered plainly, not once the divine voice having said that what God has sanctified is not common, but three times: that we may learn by the one voice God cleansing the Father, and by the other God cleansing the Only‑Begotten, and by the other the Holy Spirit. — Commentary on Acts Oecumenius : Perhaps kneeling he had seen the vision: therefore the voice also said to him, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat." But it showed that what he had seen was divine by reason of his being raised into a trance of mind, and because the voice descended from there, and because on the third time it declared that it was unclean. Moreover, that they came from heaven, and were withdrawn therefore, is a great argument of purification. This, however, was done for those about whom he was afterward to tell the matter. For he himself had indeed heard, "Do not go into the way of the Gentiles." (Matthew 10:5-6) — Commentary on Acts Oecumenius : That the voice was heard a third time likewise shows the truth of the vision itself. It is clear, however, that he did not wish the utterance to be understood as concerning all foods when he says, "I have never eaten anything common or unclean," for oxen, goats, birds, and winged creatures would have been called common with him, since Peter was born among the Jews. For the Jews eat flesh, and among them the eating of meats is not forbidden. Since therefore he himself spoke from the beginning, or at least until he approached the Savior, it is certainly clear that he did not pronounce universally, saying "common and unclean," but concerning those things which the law called common and unclean. And yet when Peter was making a discourse about those things which were common and unclean in the law, God, who had given a sign to the holy Church of Christ, judged nothing to be common to him; for all things are clean to him "which are received with thanksgiving." (1 Tim. 4:4) But although the speech concerning the calling of the Gentiles was somewhat obscure, so that they should not say that those who were uncircumcised were common or unclean, Peter's speech did not entitle people, but those things which were prohibited in the law, as has been shown. [OF SAINT EPIPHANIUS, BISHOP OF CYPRUS, FROM THE FIRST BOOK OF THE PANARION AGAINST THE HERESIES] — Commentary on Acts