Council of Jerusalem

"Council of Jerusalem" is a name applied in retrospect to a meeting described in Acts of the Apostles chapter 15. The events described there are generally dated about the year 50, some time before the death of James the Just in 62.

The issues

A common interpretation is that the council was convened as the result of the disagreement within the Early Christian community between those, such as the followers of James, who believed the church must observe the rules of traditional Judaism Template:Fn, and Paul of Tarsus, who believed there was no such necessity (see also Supersessionism). However, the "rules of traditional Judaism", the Halakha of Rabbinic Judaism, were still under development at this time, as the Jewish Encyclopedia article on Jesus notes: "Jesus, however, does not appear to have taken into account the fact that the Halakah was at this period just becoming crystallized, and that much variation existed as to its definite form; the disputes of the Bet Hillel and Bet Shammai were occurring about the time of his maturity."

The central issue was circumcision, as the author of Acts relates the initial confrontation in Antioch, where Paul had been preaching:

"And 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." (Acts 15:1) KJV

Paul, along with his friend and fellow missionary disciple, Barnabas, disputed fiercelyTemplate:Fn with the Judaean Christians, so that it was determined that they "and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question." (Acts 15:2). The Western Template:Fn version of Acts states those from Jerusalem ordered Paul and Barnabas and some others to Jerusalem to be judged before the apostles and elders. The author of Acts identifies the position of the Jerusalem Christians as if they were "Pharisees which believed" in Christ, a label of opprobrium for radicals like the early Christians, but one that was not strictly accurate in this case:

"But 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." (Acts 15:5)

The brackets around [them] shows that it is was an addition not found in the original that was needed to make sense in translation. An alternate translation of the Koine Greek construct (Template:Polytonic,15:5) is found in Andy Gaus' Unvarnished New Testament: "They have to be circumcised; we have to proclaim and keep the law of Moses."

At the Council, the "the apostles and presbyters" discussed the issue of circumcision before administration of Baptism. Debate continued until, as Acts 15:12 states, everyone quieted down to listen to advice offered by Simon Peter, whose presence is now made known.

It must be recalled that Simon Peter was forced to flee Judæa after his miraculous release from prison and death under Herod Agrippa I, as explained in Acts 12. With Peter's departure, leadership of the Church in Jerusalem devolved upon James the Less, "the brother of the Lord," a decision apparently made previously, as indicated by the reference in Acts 12:17. Peter made his way to Antioch as Paul notes in Galatians 2:11-14, where he was beyond the reach of Agrippa who died in AD 44. Six years later Peter returned to Judæa. Still wanted as an escaped felon, he arrived at the Council in Jerusalem with some anxiety for his life. Nonetheless, as the Rock, Simon Peter had to attend and be heard:

"After a long debate Peter got up and said to them, 'Brethren, you know that in early days God made choice among us, that through my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe [cf, Acts 10]. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us; and he made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed their hearts by faith.

"Why then do you now try to test God by putting on the neck of the disciples the yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we belive that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they are.'" (Acts 15:7-11)

Following Peter's discourse, Paul and Barnabas gave their testimony of God's blessings on their missionary endeavors (Acts 15:12). Due to Peter's support for them, the Council made its decision afterwhich James, presiding as the leader of the Jerusalem Church, put the decision of the Council in final form (later known as the Apostolic Decree):

The Apostolic Decree

"Wherefore my judgment is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and [from] fornication, and [from] things strangled, and [from] blood.Template:Fn For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day." (Acts 15:19-21)

The Western version of Acts substitutes the negative form of the Golden Rule Template:Fn for the prohibition against things strangled.

A letter containing the decision was made up:

"Then the apostles and presbyters with the whole church decided to elect representatives and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas (Simon Peter was not one of these representatives since he had determined to quit Antioch and head for Rome). These were Judas, surnamed Barsabbas, and Silas (a nickname for Silvanus), leading men among the brethren. They were bearers of the following letter:

"The brethren who are apostles and presbyters send greeting to the brethren of Gentile origin in Antioch and Syria and Cicilia. As we heard that some of our number have disturbed you with their teaching, unsettling your minds, persons to whom we have given no instruction, we have decided, being assembled together , to select representatives and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul: men who have pledged their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have send Judas and Silas, who themselves also by word of mouth will give you the same message. For for the Holy Spirit and we have decided to lay no further burden upon you but this indispensible one, that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from immorality; keep yourselves from these things and you will get on well. Farewell" (Acts 15:22-29).

This indicates rather forcefully that the apostles and presbyters believed the Holy Spirit had guided them, even to overriding Scripture when necessary. Genesis 17:9-14 regarding circumcision, and all of Leviticus 11 regarding keeping kosher has no more validity to the Church. This also demonstrates thee awareness of the apostles and presbyters that the Church was to rule itself, as promised by Jesus. In Matthew 16:18 and 18:18, first to Peter, then to the Church, is granted absolute legislative power by Jesus ("whatsoever you bind ... whatsoever you loose ..."). In John 16:13 Jesus promises "But when he, the Spirit of Truth, has come, he will teach you all truth ..."

The Didache, short for "Teaching of the Lord to the Gentiles by the Twelve Apostles", part of the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible and the Apostolic Fathers collection, is generally dated about the same time as Acts. Though it doesn't mention a council, its title strongly suggests it is meant to represent the decree of that council. It starts with a first commandment, the Shema and the negative form of the Golden Rule, then a second commandment has prohibitions against murder, adultery, corrupting boys, sexual promiscuity, theft, magic, sorcery, abortion, infanticide, coveting, perjury, false testimony, speaking evil, holding grudges, being double-minded, not acting as you speak, greed, avarice, hypocrisy, maliciousness, arrogance, ploting evil against neighbors, hate, narcissism and expansions on these generally with references to the words of Jesus. Chapter 4, verse 13 states you must not forsake the Lord's commandments, neither adding nor subtracting. Chapter 6, verse 2 states if you can bear the whole yoke of the Lord you will be perfect, but otherwise do what you can, (which seems to parallel James as recorded in Acts), followed by the prohibition against meat sacrificed to idols. Related to the Didache are the texts: Epistle of Barnabas, Apostolic Constitutions, Didascalia Apostolorum[1], Apostolic Church Ordinances[2], Summary of Doctrine, Life of Schnudi and On the Teaching of the Apostles (or Doctrina).

Interpreting the Council's decision

The earliest reaction to the so-called Council of Jerusalem was that of Paul himself, in his Epistle to Galatians 2. The account in Acts and Paul's own report are from fairly different anglesTemplate:Fn. In the letter to the churches of Galatia Paul claims he "went up again to Jerusalem" with Barnabas and Titus "in response to a revelation", in order to "lay before them the gospel (he) proclaimed among the Gentiles" (Gal 2:2); them being according to Paul "those who were supposed to be acknowledged leaders" (Gal 2:6): James, Cephas and John; in a "private meeting". Paul claims that the "acknowledged pillars" didn't even pressure Titus, who was Greek, to get circumcisedTemplate:Fn. What he had trouble with was "false believers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy on the freedomTemplate:Fn we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might enslave us" (Gal 2:4). Paul claims the pillars had no issues with him, on the contrary they gave him the "right hand of fellowship", he bound for the mission to the uncircumcised and they to the circumcised, requesting only that he remember the poorTemplate:Fn of Jerusalem.

Justin Martyr in the second century includes the following statement in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew Chapter 47: "But if some, through weak-mindedness, wish to observe such institutions as were given by Moses, from which they expect some virtue, but which we believe were appointed by reason of the hardness of the people’s hearts, along with their hope in this Christ, and [wish to perform] the eternal and natural acts of righteousness and piety, yet choose to live with the Christians and the faithful, as I said before, not inducing them either to be circumcised like themselves, or to keep the Sabbath, or to observe any other such ceremonies, then I hold that we ought to join ourselves to such, and associate with them in all things as kinsmen and brethren. But if, Trypho,” I continued, “some of your race, who say they believe in this Christ, compel those Gentiles who believe in this Christ to live in all respects according to the law given by Moses, or choose not to associate so intimately with them, I in like manner do not approve of them."

Origen in the beginning of the 3rd century placed the apostolic council in Antioch: "Wherefore, as there is some obscurity about this matter [food], without some explanation is given, it seemed good to the apostles of Jesus and the elders assembled together at Antioch, and also, as they themselves say, to the Holy Spirit, to write a letter to the Gentile believers, forbidding them to partake of those things from which alone they say it is necessary to abstain, namely, "things offered to idols, things strangled, and blood."" [Contra Celsus 8.29][3] Circumcision wasn't an issue for Origen, the great third century theologian, whose enemies allege that he castrated himself based on his reading of Matthew 19:12. This defamatory allegation continues to be believed despite Origin's own written testimony that this passage in Matthew is not to be taken literally. The Apostolic Constitutions also reference an apostolic council in Antioch.

Augustine of Hippo in the 4th century, in Contra Faustum 32.13[4] noted: "The observance of pouring out the blood which was enjoined in ancient times upon Noah himself after the deluge, the meaning of which we have already explained, is thought by many to be what is meant in the Acts of the Apostles, where we read that the Gentiles were required to abstain from fornication, and from things sacrificed, and from blood, that is, from flesh of which the blood has not been poured out. Others give a different meaning to the words, and think that to abstain from blood means not to be polluted with the crime of murder. It would take too long to settle this question, and it is not necessary. For, allowing that the apostles did on that occasion require Christians to abstain from the blood of animals, and not to eat of things strangled, they seem to me to have consulted the time in choosing an easy observance that could not be burdensome to any one, and which the Gentiles might have in common with the Israelities, for the sake of the Corner-stone, who makes both one in Himself; while at the same time they would be reminded how the Church of all nations was prefigured by the ark of Noah, when God gave this command,--a type which began to be fulfilled in the time of the apostles by the accession of the Gentiles to the faith."

James's resolution was that most Jewish law, including the requirement for circumcision of males, was not obligatory for gentile followers, possibly in order to make it easier for them to join the movementTemplate:Fn. However, the council did retain the prohibitions against eating meat containing blood, or meat not properly slain. It also retained the prohibitions against "fornication" and idol worship.

Some thinkers have compared James's resolution with the notion of Judaism's Noahide Laws. In this regard, the following is found in The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended, by Sir Isaac Newton (Dublin, 1728, p. 184): "This law [of abstaining from blood] was ancienter than the days of Moses, being given to Noah and his sons, long before the days of Abraham: and therefore when the Apostles and Elders in the Council at Jerusalem declared that the Gentiles were not obliged to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, they excepted this law of abstaining from blood, and things strangled, as being an earlier law of God, imposed not on the sons of Abraham only, but on all nations, while they lived together in Shinar under the dominion of Noah: and of the same kind is the law of abstaining from meats offered to Idols or false Gods, and from fornication." (Italics original).

Jubilees, part of the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible, generally considered to be 2nd century bce Jewish apocrypha, Chapter 7, verses 20-33 states: "And in the twenty-eighth jubilee [1324-1372 A.M.] Noah began to enjoin upon his sons' sons the ordinances and commandments, and all the judgments that he knew, and he exhorted his sons to observe righteousness, and to cover the shame of their flesh, and to bless their Creator, and honour father and mother, and love their neighbour, and guard their souls from fornication and uncleanness and all iniquity. For owing to these three things came the flood upon the earth ... For whoso sheddeth man's blood, and whoso eateth the blood of any flesh, shall all be destroyed from the earth."

The Apostolic Constitutions 6.64[5] states: "Wherefore my sentence is, that we do not trouble those who from among the Gentiles turn unto God: but to charge them that they abstain from the pollutions of the Gentiles, and from what is sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication; which laws were given to the ancients who lived before the law, under the law of nature, Enos, Enoch, Noah, Melchizedek, Job, and if there be any other of the same sort."

The Jewish Encyclopedia article on Paul states: "According to Acts ... Paul began working along the traditional Jewish line of proselytizing in the various synagogues where the proselytes of the gate [a biblical term, for example see Exodus 20:10] and the Jews met; and only because he failed to win the Jews to his views, encountering strong opposition and persecution from them, did he turn to the Gentile world after he had agreed at a convention with the apostles at Jerusalem to admit the Gentiles into the Church only as proselytes of the gate, that is, after their acceptance of the Noachian laws (Acts xv. 1-31)."

Footnotes

Template:Fnb Galatians 2:12
Template:Fnb Robert Eisenman in James the Brother of Jesus identifies Paul with Josephus' Ananias the Jewish merchant (Jewish Antiquities 20.2.3-4), who proselytized Gentiles teaching them that faith in God is superior to circumcision.
Template:Fnb There are two major versions of Acts: Alexandrian and Western; with preference generally given to the Alexandrian, see Bruce Metzger's Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament which has for the Western 15:2 "...for Paul spoke maintaining firmly that they should stay as they were when converted; but those who had come from Jerusalem ordered them, Paul and Barnabas and certain others, to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders that they might be judged before them about this question."
Template:Fnb According to Bruce Metzger's Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament: "the Apostolic Decree [15.29,15.20,21.25] ... contain many problems concerning text and exegesis"; "it is possible ... (fornication means) marriage within the prohibited Levitical degrees (Lv 18.6-18), which the rabbis described as "forbidden for porneia," or mixed marriages with pagans (Nu 25.1; also compare 2 Cor 6.14), or participation in pagan worship which had long been described by Old Testament prophets as spiritual adultery and which, in fact, offered opportunity in many temples for religious prostitution"; "An extensive literature exists on the text and exegesis"; NRSV has things polluted by idols, fornication, whatever has been strangled, blood; NIV has food polluted by idols, sexual immorality, meat of strangled animals, blood; Young's has pollutions of the idols, whoredom, strangled thing, blood; Gaus' Unvarnished New Testament has pollution of idolatrous sacrifices, unchastity, meat of strangled animals, blood; NAB has pollution from idols, unlawful marriage, meat of strangled animals, blood. Hefele's commentary on canon II of Gangra notes[6]: "We further see that, at the time of the Synod of Gangra, the rule of the Apostolic Synod with regard to blood and things strangled was still in force. With the Greeks, indeed, it continued always in force as their Euchologies still show. Balsamon also, the well-known commentator on the canons of the Middle Ages, in his commentary on the sixty-third Apostolic Canon, expressly blames the Latins because they had ceased to observe this command. What the Latin Church, however, thought on this subject about the year 400, is shown by St. Augustine in his work Contra Faustum, where he states that the Apostles had given this command in order to unite the heathens and Jews in the one ark of Noah; but that then, when the barrier between Jewish and heathen converts had fallen, this command concerning things strangled and blood had lost its meaning, and was only observed by few. But still, as late as the eighth century, Pope Gregory the Third 731 forbade the eating of blood or things strangled under threat of a penance of forty days. No one will pretend that the disciplinary enactments of any council, even though it be one of the undisputed Ecumenical Synods, can be of greater and more unchanging force than the decree of that first council, held by the Holy Apostles at Jerusalem, and the fact that its decree has been obsolete for centuries in the West is proof that even Ecumenical canons may be of only temporary utility and may be repealed by disuser, like other laws."
Template:Fnb Hillel the Elder when asked by a Gentile to teach the whole Torah while standing on one foot cited the negative form of the Golden Rule, also cited in Tobit 4:15. Jesus in Gospel of Matthew 7:12, part of the Sermon on the Mount, cited the positive form as summary of the "Law and Prophets".
Template:Fnb Because of the differences, a minority argue Galatians 2:1-10 is not a record of the Council of Jerusalem but a different event. Raymond E. Brown in Introduction to the New Testament argues the majority position that they are the same event but each from a different viewpoint with its own bias.
Template:Fnb Acts 16 says Paul personally circumcised Timothy even though he was Greek and his father was Greek because his mother was of the Jewish faith.
Template:Fnb Some took "freedom in Christ" to mean lawlessness, for example Acts 21:21
Template:Fnb Possibly a reference to the Ebionites
Template:Fnb Acts 15:19

Council of Jerusalem

Contents

The issues

The Apostolic Decree

Interpreting the Council's decision

Footnotes

See also

External links

Further reading