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Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

JERUSALEM COUNCIL*

Meeting described in Acts 15:6-29, held about AD 50. Acts records that the conference was held to deal with the question of the requirement for gentile salvation raised by Jews first in Antioch (14:26–15:1) and later in Jerusalem (15:3-5). The matter was subjected to lengthy consideration by the apostles and the elders (v 6), with Peter (vv 7-11), Paul and Barnabas (vv 12, 22-26), and James the brother of Jesus (vv 13-21), who seems to have been the moderator.

The major points agreed upon by the council were the following: (1) God makes no distinction between believers, Jewish or Gentile (15:9); (2) salvation is by grace through faith (vv 9-11); (3) God confirmed his acceptance of Gentiles through signs and wonders (vv 8, 12); (4) inclusion of the Gentiles among his people was part of the divine intention revealed in the OT (vv 15-18; quoting Am 9:11-12). The assembly also issued a list (sometimes called “the decree”) instructing gentile Christians to abstain from (1) idolatry, (2) fornication, (3) eating animals that had been strangled, and (4) consuming blood. (The last two items pertained to dietary matters that greatly separated Jews from Gentiles.) The decision was circulated by letter to churches in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia (Acts 15:23; cf. 16:4).

The account, when viewed within its place in the book of Acts as a whole, forms the culmination of the struggle by the early church to understand itself. The Judaism from which Christianity arose was a legalistic religion wherein people sought to earn God’s favor by observing ceremonies and keeping laws. It also held to an exclusive nationalistic outlook that regarded Israel alone as “the people of God” and that required non-Jews desiring to be identified with God to submit to circumcision and the Mosaic law as well as offer prescribed sacrifices. The earliest Christians in Jerusalem seem to have held at least some of these views even after recognizing Jesus as the Messiah.

Acts portrays a series of events through which the fallacy of the Jewish legalistic and exclusivistic attitudes were exposed. Stephen questioned the narrow religious view that restricted God’s presence, activity, and concern to Jerusalem (ch 7). Philip led Samaritans and an Ethiopian official, representatives of groups with only loose traditional connections to Judaism, to faith in Jesus (ch 8). At the direct command of God, Peter proclaimed Jesus as Messiah and Lord to Cornelius, a good God-fearing but uncircumcised Gentile (ch 10). Through this incident Peter came to recognize that God does not discriminate between peoples (10:34-35). The undeniable coming of the Holy Spirit upon Cornelius and his household (v 44) provided surprising proof of God’s acceptance of the Gentiles, which could not be doubted even by members of the scrupulously Jewish, pro-circumcision group who witnessed the event (vv 45-48) or to whom it was later reported (11:1-18). The conversion of Cornelius became a precedent later cited by Peter at the council (15:7-11).

God’s acceptance of Cornelius might have been regarded as an exceptional case by strict Jewish Christians. This was made impossible by the conversion of Greeks at Antioch (11:20, NLT mg), the establishment of a racially and culturally mixed church in that city (as implied by the diverse backgrounds of the leaders mentioned in Acts 13:1), and the large number of Gentiles converted during Paul’s missionary journey into south-central Asia Minor (chs 13–14).

Acts records that at this juncture Jewish Christians from Jerusalem came to Antioch and precipitated the crisis that made necessary the convening of the council. Their insistence that gentile believers be circumcised and submit to the Mosaic law was tantamount to requiring them to become Jews nationally, socially, and religiously in order to become Christians. The early church was thus faced with the necessity of clarifying its relation to Judaism (was it a part of or separate from it?) and the nature of the salvation it proclaimed (nationalistic and legalistic or by grace through faith?).

The Jerusalem Council established the truth that salvation is a free gift to be received by faith; it rejected human effort as a means of or contributor to salvation. By implication it also dissociated Christianity from any attempt to restrict it to a particular racial, national, cultural, or social group. The council affirmed Christians to be free from the obligation to earn salvation through ceremonies or law-keeping. At the same time it recognized the practical necessity of responsible and appropriate conduct, which takes into account the moral nature of God and the sensitivities and concerns of other Christians.