The Church teaches that Acts Chapter Fifteen is when the Apostles decided that physical circumcision was no longer required. As we will see, this is not what Acts Chapter Fifteen says at all.

However, unless one understands that Acts Chapter Fifteen was written using first century Jewish religious terms, it would be very easy to misunderstand even the first verse:

 

 

 

The issue here is not circumcision according to the Torah of Moses, but the Custom. As we will see, the Torah of Moses and the Custom of Moses are not synonymous terms.

The term Custom of Moses refers to the set of rabbinical rulings governing circumcision as part of the process of Gentile conversion to Israelite worship. Therefore, when The Circumcision came to Antioch, they attempted to teach that the returning Hellenized Jews and Gentiles had to follow the traditional rabbinic rulings with regard to Gentile conversion. What they were saying, in other words, was that the rabbinic decrees were still ‘binding’ on these Gentile converts; and that these decrees had to be followed to the letter if the Gentile converts were to become ‘saved.’

Shaul and Bar Nabba, of course, knew that the Gentile converts had already been saved because they had seen the Spirit poured out on them. Yeshua also had said nothing about having to keep the rabbinic decrees, and so Shaul and Bar Nabba could see no good reason why the salvation of the Gentile converts was invalid.

 

 

 

The phrase ‘conversion of the Gentiles’ in verse 3 tells us that the Apostles considered that the Gentiles were (in fact) being ‘converted’ to Israelite worship. This, however, brings up another interesting point.

By the time of the first century, the rabbis had developed a highly involved procedure for Gentile conversion; and this process has continued to develop until this day. In the modern day, then, before the rabbis will officially accept a convert into the Jewish nation, one must become circumcised, be immersed (‘baptized’) and then attend official conversion classes, where one learns to obey the precepts of Orthodox Judaism (as described in the last chapter).

This conversion process had been established long before Yeshua’s arrival:

 

 

In contrast to this involved rabbinic procedure, the process outlined in the Torah is very simple. One puts away all foreign worship, becomes circumcised, and then learns the Torah. That is the extent of the ‘ritual conversion process’:

 

 

 

Here was the extent of Ruth’s ‘conversion’:

 

However, despite the simplicity of the procedure described in the Torah, the rabbis had other ideas. By the first century, then, the conversion process was already complex.

Shaul and Bar Nabba had seen the Spirit fall on those Gentiles and Hellenized Jews who had turned their hearts to Elohim; and based upon that material fact, they could no longer support the idea of a formal rabbinic ritual. Or, perhaps if there did have to be a ritual (for the sake of order), then the procedure would have to be modified, to reflect the present reality.

 

Christians often fail to appreciate that Judaism is run according to the military model; and despite widespread Christian opinion to the contrary, Shaul did not have the authority to issue precedent decisions, as neither he nor Bar Nabba were the official head (or even elders) of the Jerusalem Assembly.

Even though Shaul was the most religiously educated of all the Apostles, rather than simply making his own decision, Shaul took this matter to the Jerusalem Assembly. In Jerusalem, the elders and Apostles could discuss this matter, come to the correct consensus, and issue a precedent decision:

 

In verse 5 we see the phrase, ‘some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed.’ This is another name for The Circumcision, because it was the Circumcision that argued for the continuance of the rabbinic rituals. Also, remembering from verse 1 that the men called The Circumcision argued in favor of the Custom of Moses (i.e. the rabbinical decrees), here we see what the Custom of Moses was. 

One of the rules for interpreting Scripture is that order is very important. The procedure that The Circumcision advocated is very similar to today’s procedure, which calls for converts first to be physically circumcised, and then begin obeying the whole Law of Moses (immediately).

However, if strangers could partake of the Passover simply by becoming circumcised, and if Ruth could be accepted into the Nation simply because her heart was right, then why should the Gentile converts have to go to special classes, and learn to keep all the Commandments immediately in order to be saved, when they had already been given the gift of the Spirit?

 

Since Elohim gave the Gentiles the Spirit before they were physically circumcised, Kefa argues that the rabbinic procedure (of first becoming circumcised, and then going to special classes to learn how to keep the whole Torah immediately) is unnecessary. In fact, he likens the rabbinic injunctions to a yoke:

 

 

King David called the Commandments a delight, and John had said that the Commandments were not burdensome (1^st John 5:2-3). What Kefa is calling a ‘yoke’ in verse ten, therefore, is the idea that one must perform all the Commandments exactly according to the rabbinical decrees. The ‘yoke’ is the necessity of looking up to the rabbis as an authority higher than Elohim, when all the rabbinical rulings really did was to make things much harder than they had to be.

While believers today might take it for granted that the rabbinical rulings are unnecessary, to First Century Jews, this was really news. This was a major landmark decision that had to be recorded in the pages of Scripture:

 

 

Up to here, Ya’akov (or James) just says that YHWH is restoring Ephraim, just as He promised (so that the rest of fallen Adam can also inherit Salvation).  However, next he issues a landmark departure from the rabbinical conversion procedure, overturning The Circumcision’s belief (which was also held by the rest of the Pharisees) that the rabbinic writings are inspired:

 

 

Notice the language here very carefully. In verse 21, Ya’akov says that Moses has been preached in every city throughout the Dispersion for many generations. Why is this part of Ya’akov’s argument? Surely it is included for a specific reason.

If the Church is correct (and the Law of Moses and physical circumcision are no more) then there is no reason we would be told that Moses had been preached in every city throughout the Dispersion since ancient times. If the Church is correct, then Ya’akov’s statement is completely irrelevant. It is non-sequitur.  It is completely unrelated to what comes before it, or after it, which would make the Apostle Ya’akov a babbler.

If, on the other hand, we assume that Ya’akov is arguing that the rabbinic legal procedure for Gentile conversion is backwards, then his argument makes perfect sense. 

What Ya’akov is actually saying is that if the returning Ephraimites will abstain from these four necessities (see verse 28) at the start of their ritual conversion process, then they can be permitted to go into the synagogues, because they will not be defiling the fellowship (dining) table. Then, they can learn to keep the rest of the Torah over the course of a year; just as the Torah had been taught since ancient times.

Modern-day students of Judaism may notice a distinct similarity to the Jewish procedure for the conversion of so-called ‘Sons of Noah’ (B’nai Noach). Due to the similarity of the two procedures, it seems likely that the Apostles probably drew from the rabbinic literature with regards to the B’nai Noach, when they established their official procedure for returning Gentile Ephraimites.

The Bnai Noach procedure is that those Gentiles coming close to the Nation of Israel have one year to learn to keep all the Commandments found in the Torah. The reason this period of time was chosen is that almost all Jewish synagogues read the Torah on a one-year cycle. If the converts would simply abstain from these four necessities (verse 28, below) then they could be allowed to go into the synagogues, where they would hear the Torah read aloud over the course of the next year. Rather than having to go to special classes so that they could learn to keep all of the Commandments immediately, the converts would simply go into the synagogues, find good fellowship, and come up to speed in a year.

The Apostles merely tailored this procedure:

 

 

 

Notice the words necessary things in verse 28:

 

If the Gentile converts would abstain from blood, adultery, idolatry, and strangled meats, then they could be allowed into the synagogues that had existed in the Dispersion since ancient times (verse 21):

 

Based on this new information, then, we can see that these last two verses could well be paraphrased:

 

 

 

As we will explain in the next chapter, the Apostles expected that the returning Ephraimites would not just go into the synagogues and ‘hear’ the words of Moshe (in the Western Hellenic sense). Rather, in accordance with their modified B’nai Noach procedure, the Apostles expected that the returning Ephraimites would go into the synagogues to hear the Bridal Covenant read aloud every Sabbath; and through the Spirit would develop a burning desire to obey it.