Acts 15:23-29

[Christian2]

Hello everyone,

I'm having trouble with an issue that I can't solve.

Acts 15:23-29
23They wrote this letter by them:

The apostles, the elders, and the brethren,

To the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia:

Greetings.

24Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, "You must be circumcised and keep the law"[a]--to whom we gave no such commandment-- 25it seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who will also report the same things by word of mouth. 28For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: 29that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.

Here comes the problem:

Galatians 2:9-10
9and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do.

Here, Paul, in Galations obviously referring to the letter in Acts, says nothing of abstaining from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality.

But, he says only that "we should remember the poor" which is something that is not said in Acts 15:23-29.

Can anyone reconcile this for me?

Thank you.

[Jac3510]

Yeah . . . actually, this is a really, really, really, really, really hot issue for theologians. In fact, it's foundational to our understanding of Pauline chronology.

Here's the long and short of it: in one scenario, Paul wrote Galatians first between 48 and 49 AD. Following this would have been his letters to the Thessalonians, and from there we have a good picture. Under this view, Paul would have written to the churches in southern Galatia. On the other side, many argue that Paul wrote Galatians after AD 56, between his epistles to the Romans and Corinthians.

This is important because Paul mentions two trips to Jerusalem in Galatians. The first, we know for a fact, corresponds with his conversion visit as recorded in Acts 10 or 11 (I don't have my notes on this in front of me, and I don't have much time tonight . . . I'll clarify later, sorry ). The big question is, does the second visit correspond with the Famine Visit of Acts (when he and Barnabas were sent by the church at Antioch to help the poor in Jerusalem), or does it correspond with the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15?

Now,the Acts letter you cited comes from the Jerusalem Council. Look, now, at the mention of his second visit in Galatians:

• Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in--who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery--to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)--those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. (ESV, emphasis added)

Now, I ask, does this refer to the Jerusalem Council, or to the Famine Visit of Acts 11:27-30?

For more reasons than I have time to list now, I argue this is a reference to the latter. Primarily, I point to the bolded words above, that those who "seemed important" did nothing to add to Paul's message. Now, you'll notice that the Jerusalem Council DID add to Paul's message, because it confirmed his position. I have an entire paper on this subject . . . I'll post a few snippets from it tomorrow.

I don't feel much need to defend a north Galatian theory that holds to the second visit in Galatians coinciding with the Jerusalem Council of Acts. So, for me, there is no contradiction, as I do not believe Paul is referring to the letter of the JC, but rather, just as the text implies, the caring for the poor saints, which is what that particular trip was about.

I'll get some deeper details tomorrow night or so.

God bless

P.S., I'm not proof-reading this, so please forgive any badly constructed sentences, grammatical errors, etc. :p

[Christian2]

Dear Jac,

Thank you for your quick reply. I really appreciate it.

I will look forward to your "deeper details." Meanwhile, I will go back and reread the relevant scriptures.

God bless