Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
How that it is an unlawful thing (wv aqemiton estin). The conjunction wv is sometimes equivalent to oti (that). The old form of aqemitov was aqemistov from qemisto (qemizw, qemiv, law custom) and a privative. In the N.T. only here and 1 Peter 4:3 (Peter both times). But there is no O.T. regulation forbidding such social contact with Gentiles, though the rabbis had added it and had made it binding by custom. There is nothing more binding on the average person than social custom. On coming from the market an orthodox Jew was expected to immerse to avoid defilement (Edersheim, Jewish Social Life, pp. 26-28; Taylor's Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, pp. 15, 26, 137, second edition). See also Acts 11:3; Galatians 2:12. It is that middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile (Ephesians 2:14) which Jesus broke down.
One of another nation (allofulw). Dative case of an old adjective, but only here in the N.T. (allov, another, fulon, race). Both Juvenal (Sat. XIV. 104, 105) and Tacitus (History, V. 5) speak of the Jewish exclusiveness and separation from Gentiles.
And yet unto (kamoi). Dative of the emphatic pronoun (note position of prominence) with kai (crasiv) meaning here "and yet" or adversative "but" as often with kai which is by no means always merely the connective "and" (Robertson, Grammar, pp. 1182f.). Now Peter takes back both the adjectives used in his protest to the Lord (verse Acts 10:14) "common and unclean." It is a long journey that Peter has made. He here refers to "no one" (mhdena), not to "things," but that is great progress.
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Luke 17:18
John 18:28
Acts 5:13
Acts 9:26
Acts 10:2
Acts 10:3
Acts 10:14
Acts 11:3
Acts 17:34
Romans 14:14
2 Timothy 1:18
1 Peter 4:3
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