What’s the difference between the feeding of the 4,000 and the 5,000?
The difference is obviously 1,000! However, there’s another importance difference and I’d like to take a look at that today…
Tag: Gentile
Council of Jerusalem Guidelines
I mentioned a couple of times last year that I was leading a Bible study working through the Acts of the Apostles. During that time, Paul Pavao over at The Rest of the Old, Old Story was writing a series of posts working through books of the Bible (he was also recently recently kind enough to advertise this blog).
When my Acts of the Apostles Bible study was just beginning, Paul wrote a post about the Council of Jerusalem which is found in Chapter 15 of Acts. The Council of Jerusalem was the first recorded council of Church. The apostles and elders of Jerusalem were called together to respond to an issue concerning the Gentile converts to Christianity. Did a Gentile convert need to be circumcised? Did he have to become a Jew before he could become a Christian?
The Council’s Response
At the Council there was extended discussion around the issue before Peter stood up and affirmed that the Gentiles did not need to be circumcised. St. James then said:
Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the pollutions of idols and from unchastity and from what is strangled and from blood. – Acts 15:19-20
In his blog post, Paul wrote:
“The council decides that they will ask just four things from the Gentiles, and they make it clear that circumcision is not necessary for the Gentiles. There may be people who understand why those specific four things were chosen, but I’m not one of them.”
In the comment section of the article I offered my two cents, saying:
“I’ve always seen the requirements from the Council of Jerusalem as measures to ease tensions between Jews and Gentiles in the Church.
“If I was a lifelong Jew who subsequently recognized Jesus as the Messiah I may find it hard to get used to the relaxed restrictions of the New Covenant. I may be a little sensitive about it, so if my gentile brothers and sisters could refrain from consuming strangled meat, food sacrificed to idols and blood, it would be far more likely that family harmony would be maintained.
“Just a thought”
As my own Bible study progressed towards Acts 15, I had the opportunity to do a little bit of research looking at this question and to dig into it a little more…
Sunday Lectionary: It’s all you need
Sixth Sunday of Easter: 13th May, 2012
The Readings this week start to wrap up our Easter Season prior to the Feasts of Ascension and Pentecost.
In the First Reading we read about that great moment in Church History when the first Gentiles received baptism and entered the Church. In our Second Reading, we conclude our study of St. John’s First Epistle by hearing about the love of God. Finally, in the Gospel, Jesus unpacks His teaching concerning His metaphor of “the vine and the branches” which we heard last week.
As we come to the Eucharistic table this week let us come with thankful hearts. God’s love is so great that He came to redeem us, call us His friends, pour His Spirit into our hearts and make us members of His family.
How Hebrew is your Faith?
How Hebrew is your Faith? I think that within Christianity there is always this Marcionite tendency to try and sever Christianity from its Jewish roots.
When I was back living in London, I had the privilege of hearing the testimony of a man called Roy Schoeman. Roy is the son of Jewish parents who escaped the Nazi persecutions in Germany before World War II. He studied for a while under the noted Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg before eventually falling into atheism. Some time later he had a dramatic conversion and, a little while later, found his way into the Catholic Church.
When I first heard Roy speak, it renewed my appreciation for the Jewish roots of Christianity. I have since listened to a number of his talks and I’ve found that his Jewish perspective often gives me a new awareness when looking at the Sacred Scriptures. I have found this particularly true for St. Paul’s epistles, especially the letter to the Romans.
I would thoroughly recommend everyone to spend some time in the Audio and Video section of his website, listening to his testimony and to some of his talks, I think you’ll find them really enlightening.
“After all, if you [Gentiles] were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature…[and] grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will…[the Jews]….the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!” – Romans 11:24
Lectionary Notes, August 14th
August 14, 2011: Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The readings this week focus around the Gentiles (those of non-Jewish ethnicity) and their place in salvation history. In the First Reading we hear the Lord proclaim through the Prophet Isaiah, that His house will be a house of prayer “for all peoples” and in the Psalm we sing about God’s glory being proclaimed “among all nations”. In the Second Reading, St. Paul gives us some insight into the relationship between the Jews and Gentiles in God’s plan for salvation. Finally, in the Gospel we read about Jesus’ encounter with a Canaanite women who, although a Gentile, is granted her request by the Lord because of her great faith.
