House of St. Peter, Jaffa
Descending from the highest part of Jaffa to the extreme northwest corner of the city, we find the house of Simon, the Tanner, “by the sea.” Tradition says, it was here Peter prayed about the sixth hour, fell into a trance, saw heaven open and the great sheet let down.
A distinguished writer says, “We Gentiles should regard this vision of Peter with special interest, and I see no reason why tradition may not have preserved the knowledge of the site. Both Christians and Mohammedans reverence the place. The roofs of the houses even now have a wall or balustrade around them where a person may sit or kneel without exposure to the view of others.” Dr. Hackett says, “At Jerusalem I entered the house of a Jew early one morning and found a member of the family sitting secluded and alone, on one of the lower roofs, engaged in reading the Scripture and offering his prayers.”
When surrounded by battlements, and shaded by vines trained over them like those of the present day, they would afford a very agreeable retreat even at the “sixth hour.” Peter was here prepared to preach the gospel of salvation to the heathen world. The Christ whom he proclaimed had himself given the commission to his apostles and to his church to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
The tradition which is called to our mind by this locality is quite ancient, but no one pretends to believe that the existing house with its well and tanner’s slab is the identical house spoken of in the Scriptures, but the site has at least this much in its favor—it is in “Joppa,” and “by the seaside.”
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