Question:  Dear Greg,

            Please explain Acts 15:20 and 29.

            M. P.

Answer:  Dear M. P.,

            You did not specify your specific question, so I am left to assume why you request clarification of these verses.

            This chapter relates the decision of the council of Jerusalem, called to deliberate the challenge to the faith of Jewish-Christians posed by gentiles who were not becoming part of the body of Christ.  Heretofore all members of the church were Jewish—and therefore many cultural and even religious traditions were assumed, unchanged and unchallenged.  The Christianity that was practiced in the first two decades before Acts 15 was the subject, along with overt Judaising, as discussed in the Pauline epistles.

            The issue was probably not in clear focus for any of the conference attendees the way we view it, benefiting from our perspective of hindsight.  The issue for us is old covenant of the Jews vs. new covenant of Christianity.  For early Jewish Christians, it was both—with the vast majority of the old covenant “in force” and “required”—including Hebrew sabbath, holy days, kosher food laws, temple sacrifices, etc.  When gentiles began to desire to be Christians, the Jewish Christians believed that they needed to become Jews first, then they could become Christians.

            Circumcision was the primary issue of this chapter because of the distinction between Jews and gentiles, because of its longevity—to Abraham—and because non-Jewish adult males would naturally wish to avoid the pain of such an operation.  The impact of Jewishness on Christianity, even after this council at Jerusalem , was demonstrated by a higher number of non-Jewish women becoming Christians than non-Jewish men.

            The decision, of course, was not to require circumcision.  However, other matters remained—not in terms of all old covenant restrictions, but in practical terms.  How could Jewish and gentile Christians get along—socialize?  Galatians 2 relates the issue, as does Acts 10, when Peter visited the household of Cornelius.  Table fellowship, eating food with a gentile, was forbidden.  Staying in a gentile household was forbidden.  So, not only did this conference discuss that circumcision was not required for the new minority of members who were gentiles (all leaders of the church were Jewish Christians at this time), but also how Jewish Christians and gentile Christians could “get along” socially.

            The verses about which you inquire stipulate what gentiles would be asked to abstain from, practices that were common in their culture, but would not be accepted within the new fellowship of believers they were now a part of.  Two of the restrictions were dietary, and one moral—but all three were practical issues that would be, and perhaps already were, problems when two cultures collided and attempted to integrate.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht