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Part 2) Acts 15 Re-Examined

Part Two, continued from "The Tipping Point."

What was the original question in Acts 15? The council of the apostles in Jerusalem met to determine whether or not Gentile believers should be compelled to be circumcised (legally convert to become Jewish) and therefore placed under full obligation to the Torah of Moses in order to attain legal status within the community of Israel. The theological consideration at hand was a question of whether or not an individual without legal status in Israel had a place in the kingdom and the world to come. In other words, can Gentiles be "saved," or do they need to become Jewish to be saved. Or, alternatively, do they need to become Jewish after they get saved?

A Pre-requisite to Salvation: Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. (Acts 15:1)

A Required Result of Salvation: It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the Torah of Moses. (Acts 15:5)

Vive La Difference!
The fact this was even a question demonstrates that the apostles acknowledged a difference between Jewish and Gentile believers. If the apostles already considered Gentile believers as having the same legal status as Jewish believers and the same obligations to Torah as Jewish believers, then Acts 15 and the council in Jerusalem would have been completely unnecessary.

Why would the Pharisees have insisted that Gentile believers should be obligated to keep the whole Torah of Moses if the apostles had already placed Gentile believers under that obligation? Besides, keeping the whole Torah includes circumcision. If the apostles did "order them to keep the [whole] Torah of Moses," then it was indeed necessary to "circumcise them."

Simply stated, if the apostles expected the Gentile believers to be completely Torah-observant like Jewish believers, then there would have been no reason to provide special direction for the Gentile believers regarding Torah or to accord them any special consideration. The existence of Acts 15 insists that the apostles recognized a legal differentiation between Jewish and Gentile believers.

On the other hand, Acts 15 contains no discussion about whether or not Jewish believers are obligated to keep the Torah. That much is simply assumed. Instead, the question placed before the apostles is one of whether or not the Gentile believers are obligated to undergo circumcision (as a legal conversion) and keep the whole Torah with the same legal obligation as Jewish believers.

A Legal Question
The question was not limited to the discussion of "how do you get saved." It was also a question about the legal obligations incumbent upon the Gentile believers after salvation.

Like the Sanhedrin deliberating a question of Torah observance, the council of elders deliberated these questions to determine the halachah for the Gentile believers.

The debate over the question illustrates that the apostolic community was divided on this issue. Some of the Jewish believers followed the Pauline camp. The Pauline theology gave Gentile believers a position within the kingdom and a spiritual adoption into the people of Israel (as sons of Abraham)--citizenship in the nation of Israel--without insisting on a legal conversion. Other Jewish believers taught a stricter interpretation which insisted on conversion and full Torah observance for Gentile believers as either the prerequisite to participation in the kingdom or the required result of accepting the Gospel.

In Acts 15, the apostles and elders, under the leadership of Peter and James, sided with the Pauline camp by exempting the Gentiles from circumcision (conversion) and full Jewish obligation. (Jewish believers were obligated to keep the whole Torah.) Instead of requiring the Gentiles to become Jewish and adopt a Jewish observance, the apostles mandated four decrees for Gentile believers:

1. Abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols

2. Abstain from blood

3. Abstain from strangled meat

4. Abstain from sexual immorality

Aside from these four "essentials," the apostles felt led of the Holy Spirit to lay upon the Gentiles "no greater burden."

The apostles did not place the Gentiles under full obligation to the aspects of Torah specifically associated with Jewish identity such as circumcision. Neither did their ruling offer a definitive solution to the question of Gentile obligation to the Torah. It left open questions about observance and intergenerational continuity. By not requiring Gentiles to take on the legal status of Jews, the apostles created a new category, so to speak. Neither Jew nor proselyte, the Gentile believer can best be described as a God-fearer: a monotheist non-Jew worshipping in a Jewish context.(1)

In the Synagogues Every Sabbath
At First Fruits of Zion, we are fond of pointing out that the apostle James justified the decision to exempt Gentiles from circumcision and full Torah obligation by noting that the Gentile believers were already meeting in the synagogue every Sabbath where they would hear further instruction in the Torah:

For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath. (Acts 15:21)

This verse proves that the apostolic-age believers were congregating weekly in Jewish synagogues. James the brother of the Master seems to suggest that the Gentiles would learn Torah in the synagogues. Therefore, it is fair to say that the Gentiles under discussion in Acts 15 were already on the trajectory of Torah. Their presence in the synagogue on Sabbaths indicates that they were already worshipping on the Sabbath. Their participation in the Jewish community indicates that they were already engaged in Torah life on some level and could be expected to continue to mature in it as they learned.

However, James did not make learning Torah in the synagogue or taking on additional observances a prerequisite for the Gentile believers. The apostles omitted the matter about hearing Moses in the synagogues in the letter that they sent out to the believing communities.

Does this mean that the apostles did not want the Gentiles to learn and keep the whole Torah? It seems that they intended for the Gentiles to learn the scriptures in the synagogue, and they naturally anticipated that learning would be followed by doing.

As for their own halachic authority over the Gentile believers, the apostles refused to lay anything on them beyond the four "essentials" of Acts 15. Anything beyond those four essentials they left up to the leadership of the synagogues where the Gentile believers attended.

If the apostles intended for the Gentiles to eventually learn the Jewish particulars of Torah (such as circumcision, Sabbath, festivals, and levitical dietary laws) and practice them, they never stated that expectation. Nor did they offer a timeframe for a Gentile in a believing synagogue to make the transition from non-observant to fully Torah-observant (i.e. Jewish). They were silent regarding any specific plan for Gentile believers to eventually become obligated to the circumcision, the Sabbath, the festivals, and the dietary laws. They neither forbade the Gentiles from practicing the Jewish aspects of Torah; nor did they require them to do so.

The Proof is in the Prophets
James and the apostles based their decision upon a proof-text from Amos:

With this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written [in Amos 9], "After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old." (Acts 15:15-18 )

How does this passage legitimize the decision of James and the Jerusalem Council? In what way does this passage justify a Gentile exemption from circumcision, conversion to Judaism, and full liability to the laws of the Torah?

To James and the believers in Jerusalem, David's restored sukkah is Yeshua. He is the Davidic king who has come to rebuild the monarchy of Israel. Yeshua is the repairer of the broken places, the restorer of the ruins, who rebuilds the legitimate throne of Israel. According to the Amos passage, the restored Davidic kingdom will include Gentiles who bear God's Name.

Paul's Gentile believers fit the prophet's description well. They were Gentiles from the nations who identified themselves with God's Name and sought after God because of the kingship of Yeshua. However, if the Gentiles who seek the LORD through Yeshua must be circumcised to become legally Jewish, they cease to be Gentiles. By virtue of the fact that Amos calls them "Gentiles" who bear God's Name, they cannot be Jews, nor can they be proselytes to Judaism. The moment that such a Gentile legally converted to Judaism, he would become legally (halachically) Jewish and no longer be a Gentile who bore God's Name. In that case, the believing Gentiles would fail to fulfill the prophecy because the prophecy clearly speaks of these God-seekers as Gentiles. For the prophecy to be literally fulfilled, both Jews and Gentiles must exist in the days of Messiah--an impossibility if all Gentiles were forced to become legally Jewish.

Amos's Gentiles are to be vassals of the Jewish king. As such, they are to be part of the commonwealth of Israel, with rights as citizens of Israel. They are to be bound to the laws of the king of Israel, but they are to be regarded as Gentiles. They have a legitimate place in the kingdom and citizenship in Israel, but they still maintain their own non-Jewish, legal identity.

This understanding of the Acts 15 decision meant that we at FFOZ had to abandon the One Law position because we no longer felt that we could support it from the Bible. Keep reading to see how other Jewish roots scholars in the academic community interpreted Acts 15 in the next blog:

Part Three: The Lone Voice of FFOZ

References
1. Acts 10:22, 13:16, 26, 43, and 17:4, 17. See Louis H. Feldmen, "The Omnipresence of the God Fearers," Biblical Archeological Review 12:5 (September/October 1986), 58-63.

Links to Related Blog Articles:
Reasoning Together
One Simple Verse: Galatians 5:3
Moral vs. Ceremonial
The Unbearable Yoke
Q&A: Divine Invitation
The Tipping Point
Acts 15 Re-Examined

About the Author: D. Thomas Lancaster is Director of Education at First Fruits of Zion, and regular contributor to Messiah Journal. He is the author of the Torah Club programs, and the books Grafted In, Restoration and King of the Jews