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Please note: this study is narrated with AI-generated audio, which may occasionally misread a Scripture reference (for example, "Acts 1 point 9" rather than "Acts 1 verse 9"). For the exact wording, please refer to your Bible.
A Day in the Life · The World of the Tanner
A tanner turned the raw hides of dead animals into leather. It was hard, foul-smelling work, done at the edge of town, and it was one of the least respected trades in the ancient world. Yet God chose the rooftop of one tanner, Simon of Joppa, to open the door of the gospel to the whole world. Let us walk into his world.
His World at a Glance
A tanner turned the skins of dead animals into leather for sandals, water skins, tents, and more.
Simon's house was "by the sea side" (Acts 10:6), at the edge of town where there was water to wash the hides.
Stripping and curing hides used lime, dung, and other harsh materials. Tanneries were known for their stench.
Handling dead animals meant frequent ceremonial uncleanness under the Law (Leviticus 11:39–40).
Tanning was hard, dirty, and looked down upon, a trade for the humble, not the honored.
Peter stayed "many days" with Simon a tanner, just before God sent him to the Gentiles (Acts 9:43; 10).
A word before we begin. Scripture tells us only a little about Simon the tanner: his trade, his town, and that his house sat by the sea. The rest of the picture, how tanning was done and how tanners were regarded, comes from history and from later Jewish writings. The broad facts are firm: tanning was a smelly, lowly trade that involved handling dead animals. Some sharper details about how tanners were treated come from rabbinic sources written down after the New Testament, and we will flag those as tradition. The Bible is our anchor and final word.
The Edge of Town, By the Water
His workshop is downwind, at the edge of Joppa where the town meets the sea. The smell reaches you before the building does. Hides are soaking in pits, the hair and flesh being loosened and scraped away, then worked and cured until raw skin becomes usable leather. His hands are stained, his clothes carry the odor of the trade home with him, and his neighbors keep their distance. It is honest work, and the world cannot do without leather, yet no one grows up dreaming of it. He is a needed man and a looked-down-on man at the same time.
The Greek word Luke uses for his trade is byrseus, from byrsa, a hide or skin. It is a small detail, but Luke bothers to record it, and as we will see, the humble setting is part of the story. Now the real questions.
The Questions You'd Actually Ask
He turned raw animal hides into leather. After an animal was slaughtered or died, its skin had to be preserved before it rotted. The tanner soaked the hides, stripped off the hair and remaining flesh, and treated the skin with various agents until it became soft, durable leather. That leather was then made into sandals, belts, water skins, harnesses, coverings, and tent material. It was essential work; ancient life ran on leather. But the process was messy, physical, and slow.
Mainly the smell and the mess. Loosening the hair and curing the hides involved harsh, foul-smelling materials, and the work left a lasting odor on the tanner and everything around him. That is why tanneries were pushed to the outskirts of town and placed near water, both to wash the hides and to keep the stench away from everyone else. Simon's house "by the sea side" fits this exactly. A trade you can smell from a distance is not a trade that wins respect.
In a real but limited sense, yes. The Law of Moses said that touching the carcass of a dead animal made a person ceremonially unclean until evening: "he that toucheth the carcase thereof shall be unclean until the even" (Leviticus 11:39). A tanner handled dead animals constantly, so he lived in near-continual contact with what the Law called unclean. This did not make his trade sinful, and finished leather was perfectly acceptable to use, but it did mark him as a man forever brushing up against uncleanness.
An honest note: later Jewish writings speak harshly of tanners, treating tanning as an especially despised occupation. Those sharper statements come from rabbinic sources recorded after New Testament times, so we hold the details loosely. What is clear enough is that in Peter's day a tanner was a lowly, unglamorous man.
Partly to identify the house, since "Simon" was an extremely common name, and the messengers needed to find the right one: "he is lodged in the house of one Simon a tanner by the sea side" (Acts 10:32). But the detail also carries weight. Peter was a Jew who kept the customs, and here he is, lodging "many days" (Acts 9:43) in the home of a man whose trade kept him at the edge of clean and unclean. God was already softening the ground in Peter's heart, and He chose this humble, borderline place as the setting for one of the most important moments in the whole book of Acts.
On that rooftop, Peter fell into a trance and saw a sheet let down from heaven full of animals the Law called unclean, and a voice told him to kill and eat. When Peter refused, the voice answered, "What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common" (Acts 10:15). While he wondered what it meant, messengers arrived from Cornelius, a Gentile. Peter went with them and preached, and the Holy Ghost fell on the Gentiles just as it had on the Jews, and they were baptized in the name of the Lord (Acts 10:44–48). The door of the gospel swung open to the whole world, and it happened from the rooftop of a tanner.
Where It Lands
Look at where God did His great work. Not in the temple, not in a palace, not in the home of a respected rabbi, but on the roof of a man who made leather from dead animals, at the smelly edge of town by the sea. The lesson of the setting matches the lesson of the vision. Peter was about to learn, "God is no respecter of persons" (Acts 10:34), and God taught it to him in the house of a man the world did not respect. The place itself preached the message before Peter ever opened his mouth.
The gospel is for everyone, high or low, clean or unclean, near or far. At Simon the tanner's, God broke down the wall Peter had assumed was permanent, and the very next thing that happened was a Gentile household receiving the Spirit and being baptized in the name of the Lord (Acts 10:44–48). That is the same plan Peter had preached at Pentecost: "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call" (Acts 2:38–39). "All that are afar off" turned out to include a tanner, a Roman soldier, and you. God is not looking for impressive people; He is looking for hungry ones, and He loves to use the lowly place.
For You
Maybe you feel like the tanner: unimpressive, overlooked, in a job or a life that no one admires. Take heart. God moved heaven to visit a tanner's rooftop and used that humble home to change the course of the church. He is no respecter of persons. Your status, your trade, your past, none of it puts you beyond His reach or beneath His notice. If God would meet Peter and open the whole Gentile world from a tanner's house, He can meet you right where you are.
And do not look down on others, either. The people the world writes off are exactly the ones God delights to call. Whatever God has cleansed, do not call common. Receive the gospel yourself, and carry it to everyone, because the promise is "to all that are afar off," and that is very good news for people like a tanner, and like us.
Carry It With You
Acts 10:34–35 KJV
"Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him."
For the Historical Notes
Scripture is quoted from the KJV. The picture of tanning is drawn from the New Testament and from standard history of the ancient trade. The harshest statements about tanners come from later rabbinic writings and are flagged as tradition in the study.
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