Teaching Team

Part 1) The Tipping Point: Acts 15; 21

Since the release of our article, "One Law, and the Messianic Gentile," in Messiah Journal 101, we have heard from lots of our readers who are confused about the apostolic decision in Acts 15. What did the apostles mean by exempting the Gentile believers from circumcision and burdening them with nothing more than the four essentials? In the following three blog posts, beginning with this one, I will attempt to clarify our understanding about that decision and explain how we have arrived at our conclusions.

Torah for Gentiles
At First Fruits of Zion, we believe that the Torah is a source of spiritual blessing for Jewish and Gentile believers. We encourage Gentile believers to take hold of the uniquely Jewish aspects of Torah observance such as Sabbath, the festivals, and the biblical dietary laws as part of their walk of discipleship. However, we also acknowledge that the apostles did not require the Gentile believers to do so. They wrote to the Gentiles as follows:

For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell. (Acts 15:28-29)

Obviously the Gentile believers have more obligations to Torah than just these four commandments. We believe that the Gentile believers kept the commandments of Torah like their fellow God-fearing Gentiles in the synagogues. They kept as much as they could, but were not legally liable for certain Jewish distinctive: the commandments of circumcision, Sabbath, festivals, and Levitical dietary laws. That means that the God-fearing Gentiles could not be punished by the leadership of the Jewish community for failure to keep those particular commandments because they were not legally "under the law" in the same way that Jewish people were.

They'll Learn the Rest Later
The apostles were simply offering the Gentiles four minimum standards for the sake of establishing fellowship within the Jewish community. After accepting those four standards, the Gentiles would learn about the rest of the Torah in the synagogue every Sabbath and start observing more of it:

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)

David Stern offers the following explanation:

Let the Gentiles enter the Messianic Community without becoming Jews, and don't be troubled over it, because, no matter where these Gentile believers live, they will continue visiting the local synagogue and hearing what Judaism teaches about living a godly life.(1)

That explanation makes good sense. As God-fearers in the synagogue, the Gentile believers were learning Torah every week. But I used to take this simple explanation a step further. I used to teach that after the Gentile believers had time to learn the commandments in the synagogue, then they would be sinning if they broke the Sabbath or any of the commandments that apply specifically to Jewish people. So in other words, Acts 15 was just a gentle entry point for the Gentiles, but the final goal was for them to become completely Torah observant and obligated to Torah just like a Jewish believer. But this is wrong. David Stern paraphrases that erroneous position as follows:

"Don't worry about converting Gentile believers to Judaism, because as they keep going to synagogues they will eventually become Jews anyway." But this contradicts other New Testament teachings.(2)

The Rubber Meets the Road
In Acts 21 we see the practical halachic application of the decision made in Acts 15. You could say that Acts 21 is where the rubber of Acts 15 meets the road.

In Acts 21 Paul came to Jerusalem after years of teaching in the Diaspora. The elders of the apostles met with Paul. They rejoiced to hear of his efforts with the Gentiles, and they testified to Paul about the success of their efforts among the Jewish people of Jerusalem. They observed that myriads of Jews in Jerusalem had become believers and all of them were zealous for the Torah. They rejoiced together to see how God was calling both Jews and Gentiles into the kingdom.

For the apostles, there was no question about whether or not Jewish believers were obligated to keep the whole Torah. Yeshua himself had taught them to keep even the least of the commandments.

But the apostles had heard false rumors about Paul's work in the Diaspora: that Paul had been "teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs" (Acts 21:20). They were concerned about three allegations:

1. Teaching Jews to forsake Torah

2. Teaching Jews not to circumcise their children

3. Teaching Jews not to keep Jewish customs

If these things were true, it would have been a problem for the apostles and utterly discrediting for Paul. Their angst over the matter makes it clear that the apostles expected the Jewish believers to (1) cling to the Torah, (2) circumcise their children, and (3) keep Jewish customs. If Paul was teaching Jews not to do those things, the apostles needed to reprimand him. The credibility of the Gospel was at stake.

Instead, the elders knew that the allegations were false. They knew that Paul was not teaching Jewish believers to forsake Torah, leave their sons uncircumcised, or break the customs. They knew that these were false rumors--rumors that were based upon misunderstandings about his teachings to the Gentile believers. Paul had been fighting against the imposing circumcision and Jewish status on the God-fearing Gentile believers. His polemics had led some to believe that Paul was opposed to Torah in general.

The apostles were concerned about exonerating Paul in the eyes of other Jewish believers and proving that he was "walk[ing] orderly, keeping the Torah" (Acts 21:24). They told him to prove that he was walking orderly, "keeping the Torah." But as for what he was teaching the Gentiles, they simply restated the four essentials:

But concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we wrote, having decided that they should abstain from meat sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication (Acts 21:24-25).

In other words, they told Paul, "If you are teaching Jewish believers to forsake Torah, leave their children uncircumcised, or forsake the customs, then you are in a lot of trouble. For the Gentile believers, though, as long as you are teaching them to observe the four essentials we agreed upon, we are not worried."

What does Acts 21:25 imply about how the Apostles understood their own ruling in Acts 15?

As long as Paul himself was keeping Torah and not dissuading Jews from keeping Torah, they were unconcerned about what he might have been telling Gentiles about their obligation to Torah. Even if Paul was teaching that Gentiles were not liable to certain aspects of Torah such as circumcision or other Jewish particulars, it was of no concern to the apostles, so long as the Gentiles were keeping the four essentials they had given in Acts 15.

In reality, Paul probably was teaching Gentile believers to keep some of the uniquely Jewish aspects of Torah such as the Sabbath and the festivals, but we do know with absolute certainty (from his own writings) that he was teaching Gentile believers to forgo circumcision. Circumcision--which represented conversion to Jewish legal status--is at least one commandment that the apostles did not feel the Gentiles needed to keep.

In summary, Acts 21:24-25 demonstrates that the apostles did not give the Gentiles a mandate to keep the Torah in the same manner as the Jewish people. The four essentials were more than just an introduction to Torah enabling the Gentiles to learn the rest later. Instead, the apostles viewed the four essentials as a minimum standard for the Gentiles. The apostles and elders were unconcerned with what aspects of Torah Paul might have taught Gentile believers to omit beyond those four standards.

This realization was a tipping point for me. It forced me to re-examine my assumptions about Acts 15.

Keep reading on the next blog, Acts 15 Re-Examined.

References:
1. David Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary, (Clarksville, MD: Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc., 1999), 279.
2. Ibid.

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