The Council of Jerusalem
The question was whether Gentile converts had to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses — in practice, whether the movement was a reform within Judaism or something open to everyone on equal terms. Acts says there was much debate.
Peter argues from the case of Cornelius that God made no distinction. Barnabas and Paul report what has happened among the Gentiles. James, the brother of Jesus and the leading figure in the Jerusalem church, gives the judgment: do not make it difficult for those turning to God.
The letter sent out asks Gentile believers to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from strangled meat and from sexual immorality — a short list aimed at making shared table fellowship workable. Paul's account in Galatians is sharper about the tensions, and records that he later confronted Peter at Antioch for backing away from eating with Gentiles.
Where in scripture
[1] Some men came down from Judea and taught the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised after the custom of Moses, you can’t be saved.” [2] Therefore when Paul and Barnabas had no small discord and discussion with them, they appointed Paul and Barnabas, and some others of them, to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this question. [3] They, being sent on their way by the assembly, passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles. They caused great joy to all the brothers. [4] When they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the assembly and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all things that God had done with them. …
Acts 15:1–35 — opening verses
[1] Then after a period of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus also with me. [2] I went up by revelation, and I laid before them the Good News which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately before those who were respected, for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain. [3] But not even Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. [4] This was because of the false brothers secretly brought in, who stole in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage; [5] to whom we gave no place in the way of subjection, not for an hour, that the truth of the Good News might continue with you. …
Galatians 2:1–10 — opening verses
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, a public-domain translation.
