Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Acts 15:1-21, The council in Jerusalem
Teachers from Judea insist that Gentile believers must be circumcised to be saved. The apostles and elders meet in Jerusalem; Peter and James argue that God has accepted Gentiles as they are, and James proposes a few rules for them to keep.
Acts 15:1-21, in every translation this tool compares.
Teachers from Judea tell the Antioch believers that Gentiles must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses to be saved, and the sharp dispute is taken up to Jerusalem for the apostles and elders to settle. Peter reminds them that God gave Gentiles the Spirit without circumcision and purified them through faith, so no heavier load should be imposed. James adds a reading of Amos about God rebuilding David's house so the nations can seek him. He proposes that Gentile believers be spared circumcision but asked to avoid a short list of practices tied to idol worship and blood, things that synagogue communities everywhere would notice.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/circumcision\/","n":"Circumcision and becoming a Jew","s":"Circumcision was the sign of God's covenant with Abraham and the mark of a Jewish man. A Gentile man who joined Israel was circumcised; the first great quarrel in the church was over whether Gentile believers had to be.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/proselytes-and-god-fearers\/","n":"Converts and God-fearers","s":"Gentiles drawn to Israel's God stood at two distances. Converts took on the whole law, circumcision included, and became Jews. God-fearers worshiped Israel's God, gave to the synagogue and kept some customs, but did not convert.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/food-laws\/","n":"Clean and unclean food","s":"The law of Moses sorted animals into clean and unclean, and keeping kosher marked Jews off from their neighbors. Strict Jews also avoided Gentile food, Gentile wine and Gentile tables.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/synagogue\/","n":"The synagogue","s":"The local gathering place where Jews met on the Sabbath to pray and study Scripture. It was also a community center, run by people of standing.","r":""}
Many Jews thought righteous Gentiles could be saved by keeping the laws given to Noah, while others demanded conversion, and even the lenient did not count an uncircumcised Gentile part of Israel (Keener and his notes). The Greek Old Testament read Edom in Amos 9:12 as Adam, humankind (Keener and his notes), and Wright notes that the passage follows Amos 9:7, which sets Israel among the nations. What the four rules were for is disputed. The cultural backgrounds notes and Keener read them as the rules Jewish tradition applied to righteous Gentiles, later called the Noahide laws; the ESV Study Bible reads them as making fellowship with law-keeping Jewish believers possible, with the ban on sexual immorality permanent; the CSB Study Bible and Wright think they targeted pagan temple rites, which Wright takes to include drinking blood and ritual prostitution. Wright sums up the outcome as "no needful circumcision on the one hand and no needless offence on the other." On verse 21, Keener and Wright read it as avoiding offense to the many who hear Moses read in every city; the CSB Study Bible also offers that synagogue reading had already made Moses known to Gentiles.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Acts 15:1, 15:5, 15:15-16, 15:17-18, 15:19-20 and 15:21
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Acts 15:1, 15:5, 15:17, 15:20 and 15:21
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Acts 15:19-21
- CSB Study Bible, notes on Acts 15:20 and 15:21
- N. T. Wright, Acts for Everyone, Part Two, comment on Acts 15:12-21
