Lives of Scripture

Simon the tanner is named only briefly, but his home in Joppa becomes the setting for one of the most consequential events in Acts. After Peter raised Tabitha from the dead in Joppa, "he stayed many days in Joppa with a tanner named Simon" (Acts 9:43) -- a notable detail, since tanning (working with animal hides and carcasses) was considered ceremonially unclean work under Jewish law, making Simon's household an unlikely, boundary-crossing lodging for a leading apostle. It was on the roof of Simon's house that Peter fell into a trance about the sixth hour and saw heaven opened, with a great sheet lowered containing all kinds of animals, and a voice telling him three times, "What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy" (10:9-16). While Peter was still perplexed over the vision's meaning, messengers sent by the Roman centurion Cornelius arrived at Simon's gate asking for him by name -- "the house of Simon, a tanner, by the sea" (10:5-6, 17-18, 32) -- and Peter went with them to Caesarea, where Cornelius and his household became among the first Gentiles to receive the Holy Spirit and be baptized (10:44-48). Simon's own house and trade go unremarked upon further, but the specific, repeated address "by the sea" anchors one of the gospel's pivotal turning points in a real, ordinary home rather than a temple or synagogue.