The Jerusalem Council

The Point at Issue

The word council, an assembly, from Latin ‘consilium’, is a collection of people or persons for
the purpose of deliberation, consultation, or decision (Harrison, 1991, p. 141). In the New
Testament the word is commonly used to translate ‘synedrion’ meaning seated together.
Ecclesiastically, Councils and Synods are assemblies of Christian leaders for the purpose of
discussion and decision in matters of doctrine and administration.
]Council according to Hornby is a formal meeting to discuss what action to take in a particular
situation (Hornby 2000:120). The Council of Jerusalem is the name given to the meeting
convened between delegates from the Church of Antioch (led by Paul and Barnabas) and the
Apostles and Elders of the Church of Jerusalem, to discuss problems arising from the large
influx of Gentile converts into the Church. The preaching to the Gentiles and the influx of the
Gentiles into the church produced a problem which had to be solved. The whole mental
background of the Jews was founded on the fact that he belonged to the chosen people (Barchan
1964, p. 120). not only were the Jews the peculiar possession of God but also that God was the
peculiar possession of the Jews. The rapid progress of the gospel among Gentiles in Antioch
(Acts 11: 19-21) and in Cyprus and Asia Minor (Acts 13: 4-14:26) presented the conservative
Jewish believers in Judea with a serious problem. The Apostles had acquiesced in Peter’s
evangelization of the household in Caesarea because it was attended by evident marks of divine
approval (Acts 10: 1-11:18) but if the spread of the gospel among Gentiles continued on the
present scale there would soon be more Gentiles than Jews in the Church, with a consequent
threat to the maintenance of Christian moral standards. To this problem, many Jewish
Christians had a simple solution. Let the Gentiles converts be admitted to the church in the
same way as the Gentile proselytes were admitted into the Commonwealth of Israel: Let them
be circumcised and accept the obligation to keep the Jewish law. Thus far, these conditions had
not been imposed on Gentile converts. No word appears to have been said about circumcision
to Cornelius and his household, and when Titus, a Gentile Christian visited Jerusalem with
Paul and Barnabas on an earlier occasion the question of circumcising him was not even aired
(Gal.2:3). The crucial problem or question on circumcision was, Before a Gentile became a
Christian and a member of the Christian Church was it necessary that he should be circumcised
and take upon himself the law of Moses? In other words, must the Gentile before he became a
Christian first become a Jew? Or could a Gentile be received into the Church as such? Was he
eligible for acceptance simply as a man? But even were that question settled there even arose
another problem. He could not have him a guest nor yet be his guest. He would not, as far as
possible even do business with him so then arose another question, even if the Gentiles are
allowed into the Church, in how far can Jews and Gentiles associate in the ordinary social life
of the Church and of the world? If the Gentiles are allowed in, are the lines of demarcation to
continue even in the Church? Or were Gentiles and Jews to be on the same footing with no
difference at all? These were the problems which had to be solved. The solution was not easy.
But in the end the Church took the decision that there should be no difference between Jew and
Gentile at all. It is the 15th chapter of Acts which tells of the Council of Jerusalem which took
that decision. Its decision in the opinion of Barclay “was the charter of freedom to the Gentiles”
(Barclay 1964, p. 122).

Controversy: The Problem Becomes Acute 15: 1-5

The Gospel was being preached to Jews and to Gentiles alike; and Jews and Gentiles were
living together as brethren. There were narrow-minded Jews from Judea; the zealots for the
law, who were converts that belonged to the party of the Pharisees that came to the Church at
Antioch saying that the Gentiles, could only come into the Church on the condition that first
they became Jews. They decided to press upon the Gentile Christians of Antioch and her
daughter churched the necessity of taking upon themselves the yoke of the law. Their teaching
was: “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved”
Acts 15:1. Their pressure preved so persuasive in the recently founded Churches of Galatia that
Paul had to send these churches the urgent protest which we know as the epistles to the
Galatians. In Antioch itself, they caused such controversy that the leaders of the Church there
decided to have the whole question ventilated and settled at the highest level (Halley 1965, p.
573). If this attitude of the zealots had prevailed inevitably Christianity would have become
nothing other than a sect of Judaism. Some of these narrowminded Jews came down to Antioch
and tried to persuade the converts that they would lose everything unless they first accept
Judaism. Paul and Barnabas argued strongly against this move. Matters came to a deadlock.
The only way out was to make appeal to Jerusalem, the headquarter of the church where a final
decision in one way or another must be taken. The case which Paul and Barnabas put forward
was simply the story of what happened. They were prepared to let the facts speak for
themselves. The said there were certain of the Pharisees who had become Christians. The very
name Pharisee means the separated one. They had separated themselves from all men in one
lifelong attempt to keep the last detail of the law. They wanted that all converts must be
circumcised and must keep the law. The argument was on in all its sharp division.
Resolution and Implementation 15: 22-35

Once the main question of principle was settled in a way which must have given complete
satisfaction to the Antiochene delegation, a practical matter remained to be dealt with, affecting
the day –to-day fellowship between Jewish and Gentile converts where there were mixed
communities. It would be a sign of grace and courtesy if Gentile Christians respected certain
Jewish scruples. Hence, at James suggestion, the letter in which the Jerusalem leaders conveyed
their findings to the Gentile Churches included a request to them to abstain from certain kinds
of food which their brethren of Jewish stock would find offensive, and to conform to the Jewish
code of relations between the sexes. Without such concessions from Gentile Christians there
would have been grave practical difficulties in the way of their enjoying unrestrained table-
fellowship with Jewish Christians. Once the Church had come to its decision, it acted with both
efficiency and courtesy. The terms of the decision were embodied in a letter. The letter was
entrusted to Judas and Silas who went to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. Had Paul and
Barnabas come back alone their enemies might have doubted that they really did bring back a
correct message; but Judas and Silas were official emissaries and guarantors of the reality of
the decision. The Church was wise in sending a person as well as a letter. A letter could have
sounded coldly official; but the warm words and the wise teaching of Judas and Silas added,
friendly warmth that the bare reception of a letter could never have achieved. The Church by
sending a letter and two people took the wisest means of putting that decision into effective
action

Adamolekun, T (2006). The principle of conflict resolution and peace making in Christianity’
in M.T.