Acts of the Apostles 15

¹ Then some men came down from Judaea and taught the brothers, 'Unless you have yourselvescircumcised in the tradition of Moses you cannot be saved.'

² This led to disagreement, and after Paul and Barnabas had had a long argument with these men it wasdecided that Paul and Barnabas and others of the church should go up to Jerusalem and discuss the questionwith the apostles and elders.

³ The members of the church saw them off, and as they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria theytold how the gentiles had been converted, and this news was received with the greatest satisfaction by al thebrothers.

⁴ When they arrived in Jerusalem they were welcomed by the church and by the apostles and elders,and gave an account of al that God had done through them.

⁵ But certain members of the Pharisees' party who had become believers objected, insisting that gentilesshould be circumcised and instructed to keep the Law of Moses.

⁶ The apostles and elders met to look into the matter,

⁷ and after a long discussion, Peter stood up and addressed them. 'My brothers,' he said, 'you knowperfectly wel that in the early days God made his choice among you: the gentiles were to learn the good newsfrom me and so become believers.

⁸ And God, who can read everyone's heart, showed his approval of them by giving the Holy Spirit tothem just as he had to us.

⁹ God made no distinction between them and us, since he purified their hearts by faith.

¹⁰ Why do you put God to the test now by imposing on the disciples the very burden that neither ourancestors nor we ourselves were strong enough to support?

¹¹ But we believe that we are saved in the same way as they are: through the grace of the Lord Jesus.'

¹² The entire assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul describing al the signs andwonders God had worked through them among the gentiles.

¹³ When they had finished it was James who spoke. 'My brothers,' he said, 'listen to me.

¹⁴ Simeon has described how God first arranged to enlist a people for his name out of the gentiles.

¹⁵ This is entirely in harmony with the words of the prophets, since the scriptures say:

¹⁶ After that I shal return and rebuild the fal en hut of David; I shal make good the gaps in it and restoreit.

¹⁷ Then the rest of humanity, and of al the nations once cal ed mine, will look for the Lord, says the Lordwho made this

¹⁸ known so long ago.

¹⁹ 'My verdict is, then, that instead of making things more difficult for gentiles who turn to God,

²⁰ we should send them a letter tel ing them merely to abstain from anything polluted by idols, from il icitmarriages, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.

²¹ For Moses has always had his preachers in every town and is read aloud in the synagogues everySabbath.'

²² Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose delegates from amongthemselves to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas, known as Barsabbas, and Silas, bothleading men in the brotherhood,

²³ and gave them this letter to take with them: 'The apostles and elders, your brothers, send greetings tothe brothers of gentile birth in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia.

²⁴ We hear that some people coming from here, but acting without any authority from ourselves, havedisturbed you with their demands and have unsettled your minds;

²⁵ and so we have decided unanimously to elect delegates and to send them to you with our wel -beloved Barnabas and Paul,

²⁶ who have committed their lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²⁷ Accordingly we are sending you Judas and Silas, who wil confirm by word of mouth what we havewritten.

²⁸ It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves not to impose on you any burden beyondthese essentials:

²⁹ you are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals andfrom illicit marriages. Avoid these, and you wil do what is right. Farewel .'

³⁰ The party left and went down to Antioch, where they summoned the whole community and deliveredthe letter.

³¹ The community read it and were delighted with the encouragement it gave them.

³² Judas and Silas, being themselves prophets, spoke for a long time, encouraging and strengtheningthe brothers.

³³ These two spent some time there, and then the brothers wished them peace andwent back to thosewho had sent them.

³⁴

³⁵ Paul and Barnabas, however, stayed on in Antioch, and there with many others they taught andproclaimed the good news, the word of the Lord.

³⁶ On a later occasion Paul said to Barnabas, 'Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the townswhere we preached the word of the Lord, so that we can see how they are doing.'

³⁷ Barnabas suggested taking John Mark,

³⁸ but Paul was not in favour of taking along the man who had deserted them in Pamphylia and hadrefused to share in their work.

³⁹ There was sharp disagreement so that they parted company, and Barnabas sailed off with Mark toCyprus.

⁴⁰ Before Paul left, he chose Silas to accompany him and was commended by the brothers to the graceof God.

⁴¹ He travel ed through Syria and Cilicia, consolidating the churches.