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WHAT WAS THE SUBJECT OF THE ACTS 15 COUNCIL?

Acts 15:29 29 That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well. (KJV)

Acts 15:29

29 That ye abstain from:

• meats offered to idols,
• and from blood,
• and from things strangled,
• and from fornication:

from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.

Answer for yourself: In addressing the Gentile question as so many non-Jews were coming to faith in God through the outreach of the Jesus Movement in first century Judaism (Second Temple), what are the implications in the above verse that today's Christian needs to be made aware?

In order to find the meaning, both historically and culturally, we need to look at the original words as taken from the Thayer's Greek Lexicon:

The Greek word for "meat":

1494 eidolothuton-

• sacrificed to idols, the flesh left over from the heathen sacrifices it was either eaten at the feasts or sold (by the poor and the miserly) in the market

The Greek word for "blood":

129 haima-

• 1) blood
  • a) used of man or animals
  • b) refers to the seat of life (the soul is in the animal's blood)
  • c) used of those things that resemble blood, grapejuice
• 2) bloodshed, to be shed by violence, slay, murder

The Greek word for "strangled":

4156 pniktos- suffocated, strangled

• a) what is strangled, that is, an animal deprived of life without the shedding of blood
• b) used of cooking: our "smothered" as a culinary term

The Greek word for "fornication":

4202 porneia-

• 1) illicit sexual intercourse
  • a) adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with animals, etc.
  • b) sexual intercourse with close relatives; Lev. 18
  • c) sexual intercourse with a divorced man or woman; Mk. 10:11,12
• 2) metaphorically, the worship of idols; used of the defilement of idolatry, as incurred by eating the sacrifices offered to idols

Answer for yourself: What is the common theme among these four “admonitions”?

These admonitions which James called "necessary" and "which seemed good to the Holy Spirit" all involved "eating" and "tablefellowship" where the Jew and non-Jew were to be "one" as God's people. By being one not only in dietary concerns the Gentile could come and learn from the Jew and thereby both would have the same witness of the same truth through a unified message where both Gentile and Jew come together as the two sticks in Joseph's hand with a united message for the world (Judah and Ephraim).

THE ANTIOCH PROBLEM

Simply said these 4 items referred to the prior problem Paul and his teachings that led up to the Antioch Incident and the problem of table-fellowship; Jews with non-Jews. This was not meant to be a treatise upon the 7 Noahide Laws or the Noahide Covenant although these items are contained within them. This was concerned only about the “Paul problem” at Antioch and the violation of the Covenant of Noah and Moses to whom both Jews and non-Jew had fallen victim because of Paul's laxity and teachings which were opposed to the Torah in places. This might be hard for you to hear but Paul was teaching a form of "idolatry" according to the Covenant of Noah and Moses and this will be proved in the following articles.

In other words one can see that the Acts 15 Council was to deal with the violation of Covenant Stipulations of both Jew and non-Jew [Moses and Noah] due to incorrect teaching and laxity in keeping the Commandments of God as taught by Paul; both for the Jew and the non-Jew. Let us not forget that these "believers" were the first followers of Jesus and the accurate understanding of the dynamics of Acts 15 has a message to you if you consider yourself a follower of Jesus!

It is to the Antioch Problem to which we must now turn to understand thoroughly the reason for the Acts 15 Council and the implications for all non-Jews who desire to be followers of Jesus.