NOTES for Act 15:1-35

Printable version

¹And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.

²When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question.

³And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren.

⁴And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them.

⁵But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.

⁶And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter.

⁷And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.

⁸And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us;

⁹And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.

¹⁰Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

¹¹But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.

¹²Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.

¹³And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me:

¹⁴Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.

¹⁵And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written,

¹⁶After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:

¹⁷That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.

¹⁸Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.

¹⁹Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:

²⁰But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.

²¹For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.

²²Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren:

²³And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia:

²⁴Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:

²⁵It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,

²⁶Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²⁷We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth.

²⁸For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;

²⁹That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.

³⁰So when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch: and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle:

³¹Which when they had read, they rejoiced for the consolation.

³²And Judas and Silas, being prophets also themselves, exhorted the brethren with many words, and confirmed them.

³³And after they had tarried there a space, they were let go in peace from the brethren unto the apostles.

³⁴Notwithstanding it pleased Silas to abide there still.

³⁵Paul also and Barnabas continued in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also.

Apparently, the question of religion was quite acute in the early Christian Church. It was even necessary to convene what Church historians usually call the Apostolic Council: an assembly of apostles and elders, or presbyters. In some instances, the text of Acts also mentions certain “brothers,” but here there is a textual variant: early Greek manuscripts of Acts speak not of “presbyters and brothers” but of “brother-presbyters.” This seems quite logical: organizationally, the Church was then a religious brotherhood, and such brotherhoods were usually led by a council of elders. Yet the ministry of the apostles, witnesses of Christ's death and resurrection, played a special role in the Church, so the apostolic community naturally also took part in decisions of fundamental importance to it.

The heart of the question was to determine the place of religion in the Church's life. Of course, it was formulated differently in the language of that time and tradition: it concerned Jews and Gentiles, the circumcised and the uncircumcised, those who observed all the religious prescriptions of Judaism and those who did not consider them binding upon themselves. It is important to remember, however, that paganism in those days was by no means always a religion anymore. In most cases, it simply meant secular people and secular society. Naturally, there was some religiosity in this secular society, and it had religious communities of its own.

As a whole, however, the Hellenistic society of the Roman Empire in the early Christian period was thoroughly secular: religion was present, but did not determine its life. Jewish society, whether in Judea itself or in the diaspora, was different: it was thoroughly and deeply religious, its life determined and directed by religious norms and prescriptions. Secular Jewry did not exist in those days. Thus, the question of Jews and Gentiles, circumcised and uncircumcised, was a question of secular and religious people in the Church. More precisely, it was whether the Church had to consist exclusively of religious people or whether secular, nonreligious people could enter it too.

Naturally, the only possible form of religiosity in the early Christian Church was Jewish religiosity. Yet the Apostolic Council's decision holds true for any religion that might grow—and indeed did grow—on Christian soil. The Council, or more precisely the council of elders and apostles, made a wise decision fully consistent with the Church's experience at that time, particularly the experience of Gentiles sharing in the life of the Kingdom without adopting Judaism, as happened with Cornelius. Everyone was allowed to remain what they were in religious terms: a religious Jew, a religious Jew; a secular person, a secular person.

The decision was expressed in the language of the Torah, or more precisely of Halakhah, Jewish religious law. Gentiles entering the Church were instructed to observe the commandments known in Jewish tradition as the commandments of the Noahides, the spiritual heirs of Noah, who, though remaining a Gentile, was nevertheless righteous and, as the Torah says of him, “walked before God.”

These commandments required faithfulness to the One God—and therefore renunciation of pagan ritual meals, of “food sacrificed to idols”—a minimum of ritual purity, abstention from strangled meat, abstention from violence, or “blood,” and from sexual immorality, as well as observance of the moral “Golden Rule.” In the language of Halakhah, such a ruling meant that Gentiles could enter the Church while remaining what they were in religious terms. The Church thereby bore witness that it was not a religious community, but a community of people seeking the Kingdom and living in it. As for religion, a Christian is free to choose whether or not to retain their religiosity. What matters is not imposing it on others, and making sure it does not hinder what is central: life in the Kingdom.

Other notes

For Act 15:1-35