The Yerushalayim Council ~ Part 2

We pick up the ongoing story of Sha’ul in Acts 15:6.

Note: To examine the graphics in this series, click on them for a pop-up version.

Gentile Evangelism Recounted

⁶ The emissaries and the elders met to look into this matter. ⁷ After a lengthy debate, Kefa got up and said to them, “Brothers, you yourselves know that a good while back, God chose me from among you to be the one by whose mouth the Goyim should hear the message of the Good News and come to trust. ⁸ And God, who knows the heart, bore them witness by giving the Ruach HaKodesh to them, just as he did to us; ⁹ that is, he made no distinction between us and them but cleansed their heart by trust.

Kefa recalls the incidents of Acts 10:1–11:18 (which I did not cover in this series). Though Sha’ul is known as the emissary to the Gentiles (Acts 22:21, Romans 11:13, Galatians 2:8), it was through Kefa that the Gentiles – Cornelius and his household – first heard the Gospel and received the Ruach. God knows the heart (like Yeshua in Yochanan 2:25). Kefa emphasizes that heart-religion (meaning not merely outward show but genuine inner turning to God) is true religion. The Tanakh, too, puts more emphasis on “circumcised hearts” than on literal circumcision (see references in Acts 7:51). Kefa’s version of the Gospel is the same as Sha’ul’s: cleansing of the heart by trust is the only condition for salvation.

 

 

¹⁰ So why are you putting God to the test now by placing a yoke on the neck of the talmidim, which neither our fathers nor we have had the strength to bear?

A yoke … which neither our fathers nor we have had the strength to bear. Much Christian teaching contrasts the supposedly onerous and oppressive “yoke of the Law” with the words of Yeshua, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Mattityahu 11:30). This is a mistake on two counts. First, observant and knowledgeable Jews do not consider the Torah a burden but a joy. If a person regards something as pleasant, you will not be able to convince him that it is unpleasant! (An entirely different question: how many observant and knowledgeable non-Messianic Jews experience and exhibit God’s joy?) Second, and much more importantly here, such teaching misidentifies the yoke that Kefa says has proved unbearable. ^[1]

¹¹ No, it is through the love and kindness of the Lord Yeshua that we trust and are delivered—and it’s the same with them.”

This verse sums up Kefa’s speech: equality of Jews and Gentiles before God. Did he fail to live up to his principles in Galatia (Galatians 2:11ff.)? If the Galatian incident occurred before the Jerusalem Council, Kefa’s speech here reflects his change after Sha’ul’s chastening. If the confrontation in Galatia occurred after the Jerusalem Council, it illustrates Kefa’s weakness in applying his doctrine to his personal life (compare Mark 14:27–31, 66–72).

 

 

¹² Then the whole assembly kept still as they listened to Bar-Nabba and Sha’ul tell what signs and miracles God had done through them among the Gentiles. ^[2]

The signs and wonders among the Gentiles demonstrated that they were included in God’s salvation.

In our next post, Sha’ul and Bar-Nabba continue to be in Yerushalayim.

 

 

^[1] David H. Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary.

^[2] Acts 15:6–12.