{"id":12638,"date":"2013-02-02T07:00:14","date_gmt":"2013-02-02T14:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=12638"},"modified":"2016-01-05T15:47:52","modified_gmt":"2016-01-05T22:47:52","slug":"jerusalem-guidelines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2013\/02\/02\/jerusalem-guidelines\/","title":{"rendered":"Council of Jerusalem Guidelines"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u00a0over at\u00a0The Rest of the Old, Old Story<\/a>\u00a0was writing a series of posts working through books of the Bible (he was also recently recently kind enough to\u00a0advertise this blog<\/a>).<\/p>\n

When my Acts of the Apostles\u00a0Bible study was just beginning, Paul wrote\u00a0a post about the Council of Jerusalem<\/a>\u00a0which is found in Chapter 15 of Acts.\u00a0The 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?<\/p>\n

\"Twelve<\/p>\n

The Council’s Response<\/h2>\n

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:<\/p>\n

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<\/span> and from <\/em>unchastity<\/span> and from what is strangled<\/span> and from blood<\/span>.<\/em> – Acts 15:19-20<\/span><\/p>\n

In his blog post, Paul wrote:<\/p>\n

“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\u2019m not one of them<\/span>.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In the comment section of the article I offered my two cents, saying:<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve always seen the requirements from the Council of Jerusalem as measures to ease tensions between Jews and Gentiles in the Church<\/span>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

“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.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

“Just a thought”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“So that the world may believe…”<\/h2>\n

After a little bit of research, I found that while my explanation was pretty valid there was a little more to say…<\/p>\n

1. Church Unity:<\/strong> It is true that, by observing the minimal code for religious purity, the Christian Gentiles would minimize friction within the Church and would not scandalize the Jewish Christian believers.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Council of Florence<\/a> (AD 1442) explained that the decree of the Council of Jerusalem was just a temporary measure to bring about unity between Jewish and Gentile Christians during the early days of the Church. Once these ethnic circumstances changed and the Church became mostly composed of Gentiles, the restrictions became unnecessary.<\/p>\n

2. Rejection of Paganism:<\/strong> In addition, the Jews associated idols, sexual immorality and the consumption of blood with paganism. So, what St. James did at the Council was not to ask the Gentiles to become Jews, but just to shun the things which were associated with their former religious affiliations.<\/p>\n

Ever Ancient, Ever New<\/h2>\n

However, one has to ask, why did James suggest these particular<\/span>\u00a0restrictions\u00a0on the Gentiles?<\/p>\n

1. No idols
\n2. No sexual immorality
\n3. No drinking blood
\n4. No eating of strangled meat<\/p>\n

After making these recommendations, James says something which gives us a clue as to the origin of their inspiration:<\/p>\n

…\u00a0For<\/span> from early generations Moses<\/span> has had in every city those who preach him, for he is read every\u00a0Sabbath\u00a0in the synagogues<\/span><\/em> – Acts 15:21<\/span><\/p>\n

The restrictions suggested by James are found elsewhere in the Bible. They are found in the books of Moses, in the book of Leviticus in particular.<\/p>\n

\"moses\"<\/em><\/p>\n

In Chapter 17 of Leviticus we find\u00a0various laws set out concerning the conduct of the Gentiles living among the people of Israel. Do these look familiar?<\/p>\n

1. No Idols (Leviticus 17:7-9<\/a>)<\/strong>
\nThey must no longer offer any of their sacrifices to the goat idols<\/span> to whom they prostitute themselves…\u00a0<\/em>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

2. No Sexual immorality (Leviticus 18:6-23<\/a>)<\/strong>
\nNo one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations<\/span>…[or] your neighbor\u2019s wife…[or] with a man as one does with a woman…[or]\u00a0with an animal<\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

3. No drinking blood (Leviticus 17:10-12<\/a>)<\/strong>
\n… Any\u00a0Israelite\u00a0or any alien living among them who eats any blood<\/span> – I will set my face against that person who eats blood<\/span> and will cut him off from his people<\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

4. No eating strangled meat (Leviticus 17:13-14<\/a>)<\/strong>
\nAny Israelite or any foreigner residing among you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood<\/span> and cover it with earth, because the life of every creature is its blood<\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My Revised Standard Version (RSV) study Bible offers this commentary:<\/p>\n

“Though several such laws are enjoined on the foreigner in the\u00a0Torah only these four prohibitions are applied equally to\u00a0Israelites\u00a0and\u00a0sojourners<\/span>\u00a0and threaten to cut violators off from the covenant<\/span>“<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

So what James was doing was drawing upon the wisdom of the Old Testament and the familiar\u00a0history of Israel to provide some\u00a0guidelines for peaceful Jewish-Gentile fellowship within the Church of Christ. Clever, huh?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u00a0over at\u00a0The Rest of the Old, Old Story\u00a0was writing a series of posts working through books of the Bible (he was also recently recently kind enough to\u00a0advertise this blog). When my Acts of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1966,1965,2969,319,521,595,145,313,1967],"class_list":["post-12638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","tag-council-of-florence","tag-council-of-jerusalem","tag-featured","tag-gentile","tag-jew","tag-moses","tag-st-james","tag-st-peter","tag-the-rest-of-the-old-old-story"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12638"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60262,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12638\/revisions\/60262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}