Genesis 50 illustrates Jesus' forgiveness process before Jesus' birth (Note: Yeshua)

 Genesis 50, NIV emphasis in blue and green, my comments in yellow

Note: In early 2024 I learned his mom and dad in Nazareth named and called him "Yeshua", and "Jesus" is a consequence of translations from Aramaic/Hebrew to Greek, to Latin, to old English then to Protestant English. "Christ" supports Paul, and some people believe Paul without civic objection. This discovery is wonderful and to be shared.

[I read the Bible to consider the perhaps 5500 year old Sumerian political philosophy. It’s partially expressed by Hebrew scholars 3000 years ago in Genesis 1:26-28:  Female& male-human-being may and can, independent of other entities, choose to constrain political chaos on earth. In other words, on earth, humankind has the power to pursue the good. Jesus affirmed this idea in Matthew 19:3-8, in Matthew 5:48, and in other dialogue. I think the next Bible canon should include the law codes of Sumer and competing civilizations. Resulting insights would take the heat off Judeo-Christianity, a Messiah vs Christ conflict that egregiously deludes Jesus’ civic influence. The broader view could accelerate collaborative pursuit of human being (verb) and lessen baby killing.]

^50:1 Joseph threw himself on his father and wept over him and kissed him. ² Then Joseph directed the physicians in his service to embalm his father Israel. So the physicians embalmed him, ³ taking a full forty days, for that was the time required for embalming. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.

⁴ When the days of mourning had passed, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s court, “If I have found favor in your eyes, speak to Pharaoh for me. Tell him, ⁵ ‘My father made me swear an oath and said, “I am about to die; bury me in the tomb I dug for myself in the land of Canaan.” Now let me go up and bury my father; then I will return.’”

⁶ Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear to do.”

⁷ So Joseph went up to bury his father. All Pharaoh’s officials accompanied him—the dignitaries of his court and all the dignitaries of Egypt— ⁸ besides all the members of Joseph’s household and his brothers  [See Note 1, below.] and those belonging to his father’s household. Only their children and their flocks and herds were left in Goshen [land south of Alexandria, Egypt, where the Israelites settled]. [I oppose this ancient disregard for children upon the passing of their grandparent.] ⁹ Chariots and horsemen also went up with him. It was a very large company.

¹⁰ When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, near the Jordan, they lamented loudly and bitterly; and there Joseph observed a seven-day period of mourning for his father. ¹¹ When the Canaanites who lived there saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “The Egyptians are holding a solemn ceremony of mourning.” That is why that place near the Jordan is called Abel Mizraim [mourning of the Egyptians],

¹² So Jacob’s sons [They were sons of 4 wives.] did as he had commanded them: ¹³ They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre, which Abraham had bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite [the Hittites were Indo-European speaking people rather than Semitic speaking people. I guess they could have been early anti-Semites.]. ¹⁴ After burying his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, together with his brothers and all the others who had gone with him to bury his father.

Joseph Reassures His Brothers

¹⁵ When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” ¹⁶ So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: ¹⁷ ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father. [Because they expressed humility to Jacob and his God, I would accept the apology and in the future alert them if I noticed any subsequent bad behavior. I think this is Jesus’ formula for civic forgiveness: opine a wrong, discuss it, reach an assessment, the offender makes amends and reforms. One party can make a mistake and start the process over.]” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.

¹⁸ His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said.

¹⁹ But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? [Genesis 1:26-28 does not suggest fearing God, unless the person does not want to pursue human being (verb)] ²⁰ You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. ²¹ So then, don’t be afraid [Jesus might say:  You, like Joseph, are gods facing death (John 10:34) but you have not accepted your power to pursue the good]. I will provide for you and your children.” [An opportunity-usurpation I do not think Jesus would propose.] And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

The Death of Joseph

²² Joseph stayed in Egypt, along with all his father’s family. He lived a hundred and ten years ²³ and saw the third generation of Ephraim’s children. Also the children of Makir son of Manasseh were placed at birth on Joseph’s knees. [No tribe of Israel is named for Joseph, but both his sons founded tribes.]

²⁴ Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. [This ancient Israeli claim cannot be held as ineluctable truth: No one, ancient, old, current, or future knows either theGod’s will or plan or the ultimate good humankind may and can attain.]” ²⁵ And Joseph made the Israelites swear an oath and said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.” [James 5:12 advises against taking oaths.]

²⁶ So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.

[Note 1: I asked Nomads Sunday school class if Jacob’s 12 sons headed the 12 tribes of Israel, and heard a casual “Yes”. I studied the question and found a sticky red-ant-hill. My study goes from Genesis 29 and 30 to Ezekiel 47 and 48 and more.

Wikipedia’s article “Documentary Hypothesis” informs us “the Pentateuch is a compilation of four originally independent documents: the Jahwist (J), Elohist (E), Deuteronomist (D), and Priestly (P) sources”, from 10^th, 9^th, 7^th, and 5^th centuries BCE, respectively. The story of the tribes is built on these revisions of text.]

Genesis 29 and 30: Israeli tribes' literary emergence from Ur

 

Genesis 29 and 30, NIV emphasis in blue and green, [CJB quotes in magenta], my comments in yellow

[I read the Bible to consider the perhaps 5500 year old Sumerian political philosophy. It’s partially expressed by Hebrew scholars 3000 years ago in Genesis 1:26-28:  Female& male-human-being may and can, independent of other entities, choose to constrain political chaos on earth. In other words, on earth, humankind has the power to pursue the good. Jesus affirmed this idea in Matthew 19:3-8, in Matthew 5:48, and in other dialogue. I think the next Bible canon should include the law codes of Sumer and competing civilizations. Resulting insights would take the heat off Judeo-Christianity, a Messiah vs Christ conflict. The broader view could accelerate collaborative pursuit of human being (verb) and lessen baby killing.]

 

^29:1 Then Jacob [the son of Isaac and Rebekah. Isaac was the son of Abraham and Sarah.] continued on his journey and came to the land of the eastern peoples [the area containing Haran, in upper Syria, where Abram settled after leaving Ur, perhaps with his elder brother, Nahor. Nahor begot Bethuel, who begot Rebekah and Laban. Haran is far-north-west of Ur.]. ² There he saw a well in the open country, with three flocks of sheep lying near it because the flocks were watered from that well. The stone over the mouth of the well was large. ³ When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well’s mouth and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the mouth of the well.

⁴ Jacob asked the shepherds, “My brothers, where are you from?”

“We’re from Harran [So the shepherds were descendants of Terah],” they replied.

⁵ He said to them, “Do you know Laban, Nahor’s grandson?”

“Yes, we know him,” they answered.

⁶ Then Jacob asked them, “Is he well?”

“Yes, he is,” they said, “and here comes [Laban’s] daughter Rachel with the sheep.”

⁷ “Look,” he said, “the sun is still high; it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. Water the sheep and take them back to pasture.”

⁸ “We can’t,” they replied, “until all the flocks are gathered and the stone has been rolled away from the mouth of the well. Then we will water the sheep.”

⁹ While he was still talking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherd. ¹⁰ When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of his uncle Laban, and Laban’s sheep, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep. ¹¹ Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud. ¹² He had told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and a son of Rebekah. So she ran and told her father.

¹³ As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son [also Rebekah’s son], he hurried to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, and there Jacob told him all these things. ¹⁴ Then Laban said to him, “You are my own flesh and blood.” [Laban and Jacob were each 3 generations from Tehrah and cousins through both mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosomes, female and male genes, respectively.]

After Jacob had stayed with [Laban] for a whole month, ¹⁵ Laban said to him, “Just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”

¹⁶ Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. ¹⁷ Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel had a lovely figure and was beautiful. ¹⁸ Jacob was in love with Rachel and said [to Laban], “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.” [Since Laban’s sister Rebekah married Isaac, Jacob was, from Tehrah, 3^rd cousin through both Rebekah and Isaac – not genetically promising to Rachel’s ova.
I am attracted to one of my first cousins but as a child knew better than to pursue intimacy with her:  I let her be and silently appreciate from a distance. We have the advantage of 3,700 years’ since the days of Jacob and humankind’s discovery of physics and progeny.]

¹⁹ Laban said, “It’s better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me.” ²⁰ So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.

²¹ Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to make love to her [To promote the-ineluctable-truth, rather than gender dominance, a civic culture develops mutual civic appreciation -- “make love with her”.].”

²² So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. ²³ But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah [A bait-and-switch rip-off!] and brought her to Jacob, and Jacob made love to her. ²⁴ And Laban gave his servant Zilpah to his daughter as her attendant.

²⁵ When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?”

²⁶ Laban replied, “It is not our custom here [This is kin, addressing his cousin! It reminds me of a Protestant kin fostering enmity with a Catholic cousin, claiming, “Your children will burn in hell because they were not baptized by emersion.” When the Catholic objects, his kin arrogantly responds, “That’s what-we-believe”, as though theGod has no say. Lucky is the civic person, who decides to remain humble to the-ineluctable-truth, including theGod, whatever it may be, rather than self-subjugate to beliefs.] to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one. ²⁷ Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.”

²⁸ And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. ²⁹ Laban gave his servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her attendant. ³⁰ Jacob made love to Rachel also, and his love for Rachel was greater than his love for Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years. [So, for 7 years, Jacob had 2 wives who each had a slave. Four women knew he slept with 3 others they were aware of. I don’t think this behavior conforms to Genesis 1:26-28.]

Jacob’s Children

³¹ When the Lord saw [This is the first citation of deity in this story.] that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless. [And, the power is typically reactionary. That is, it is not an art of control but of consequence.] ³² Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, “It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.”

³³ She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too.” So she named him Simeon.

³⁴ Again she conceived, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” So he was named Levi.

³⁵ She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” So she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children. [Only after the 4^th son did Leah praise the Lord. Did she stop “making love”?]

[I want to reduce my ignorance about the 12 tribes of Israel, so conducted a study to produce the table below: Chronology of mothers of Israeli tribe-patriarchs who were granted 12 lands, 2 to Joseph’s sons. Levites were administrators rather than property holders; see Deuteronomy 18:1, which conflicts with Ezekiel 48:13.

Leah    Reuben           the Lord has seen my misery                                              Ezekiel 48:6

Leah    Simeon           he gave me this one too                                                      Ezekiel 48:24

Leah    Levi                 I have borne him three sons            Deuteronomy 18:1   Ezekiel 48:13

Leah    Judah              I will praise the Lord                                                            Ezekiel 48:7   

Bilhah Dan                 he was vindicated                                                                 Ezekiel 48:1

Bilhah Naphtali         my struggle                                                                           Ezekiel 48:3

Zilpah Gad                 What good fortune.                                                              Ezekiel 48:28

Zilpah Asher              the women will call me happy                                             Ezekiel 48:2

Leah    Issachar          God rewarded me for adultery                                            Ezekiel 48:25

Leah    Zebulun          God gave me honor                                                              Ezekiel 48:26

Leah    Dinah              (no gratitude for daughters)

Rachel Joseph            May the Lord add a son; 2 lands to 2 sons Ezekiel 47:13

Rachel Benjamin       son of my right hand            16 yrs later, Genesis 35:18  Ezekiel 48:23

Asenath          Ephraim          doubly fruitful                                                           Ezekiel 48:5

Hephzibah      Manasseh       God made me forget                                                Ezekiel 48:4]

30:1 When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!”

² Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God [Jacob says “God” rather than “the Lord”. Are the words of his question used elsewhere in the Bible? According to Genesis 1:26-28, on earth theGod leaves it to female and male human being to rule to the good.], who has kept you from having children?”

³ Then she said, “Here is Bilhah, my servant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and I too can build a family through her.”

⁴ So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her, ⁵ and she became pregnant and bore him a son. ⁶ Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son.” Because of this she named him Dan.

⁷ Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. ⁸ Then Rachel said, “I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.” So she named him Naphtali.^[b]

⁹ When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. ¹⁰ Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. ¹¹ Then Leah said, “What good fortune!” So she named him Gad.

¹² Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. ¹³ Then Leah said, “How happy I am! The women will call me happy.” So she named him Asher.

¹⁴ During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants [fertility enhancement], which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

¹⁵ But she said to her, “Wasn’t it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son’s mandrakes too?” [Personal division is inevitable when a man does not unite to his wife as suggested in Genesis 1:26-28 and spoken by Jesus in Matthew 19:3-8.]

“Very well,” Rachel said, “he can sleep with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.”

¹⁶ So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. “You must sleep with me,” she said. “I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night. [A bigamist seems at the mercy of his mates’ competition between themselves and with him.]

¹⁷ God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son. ¹⁸ Then Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar.

¹⁹ Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. ²⁰ Then Leah said, “God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honor, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun.

²¹ Some time later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.

²² Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive. ²³ She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” ²⁴ She named him Joseph, and said, “May the Lord add to me another son.”

Jacob’s Flocks Increase

²⁵ After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so I can go back to my own homeland. ²⁶ Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I’ve done for you.”

²⁷ But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.” ²⁸ He added, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”

²⁹ Jacob said to him, “You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock has fared under my care. ³⁰ The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household?”

³¹ “What shall I give you?” he asked.

“Don’t give me anything,” Jacob replied. “But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them: ³² Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages. ³³ And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen.”

³⁴ “Agreed,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.” ³⁵ That same day he removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-colored lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons. ³⁶ Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban’s flocks.

³⁷ Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches. ³⁸ Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink, ³⁹ they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted. ⁴⁰ Jacob set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put them with Laban’s animals. ⁴¹ Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so they would mate near the branches, ⁴² but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob. ⁴³ In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

 

In the Complete Jewish Bible (CJB), “Adonai” is used when referring to God’s sovereignty and authority, while “God” is used when referring to God’s power and might”. Perhaps the text was revised over the centuries.

 

[Concluding, Genesis 29 and 30 reflect non-acceptance of the commission to male and female humankind in Genesis 1:26-28: rule to the good on earth. Through many expressions, the writers influence attributing constraint on theGod, whatever that entity may be.]

Acts 15: Paul rejected James' and Peter's compromise

 

Acts 15, NIV emphasis in blue and green, [CJB], my comments in yellow

[I read the Bible to consider the perhaps 5500 year old Sumerian political philosophy. It’s partially expressed by Hebrew scholars 3000 years ago in Genesis 1:26-28:  Female& male-human-being may and can, independent of other entities, choose to constrain political chaos on earth. In other words, on earth, humankind has the power to pursue the good. Jesus affirmed this idea in Matthew 19:3-8, in Matthew 5:48, and in other dialogue. I think the next Bible canon should include the law codes of Sumer and competing civilizations Resulting insights would take the heat off Judeo-Christianity, a Messiah vs Christ conflict. The broader view could accelerate collaborative pursuit of human being (verb) and lessen baby killing.]

15:1 Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch [actually a trip to the north] and were teaching the believers [Imposing beliefs on people who do not accept the power to them that is cited in Genesis 1:26-28. A god facing death cannot be persuaded. This reality holds true in every generation.]: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” [“Saved” refers to association with G-d, referring to Synagogue opinion, rather than salvation of the soul, according to Church opinion.] ² This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with [the Judeans]. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up [south] to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. ³ The church [the congregation] sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. ⁴ When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders [the Messianic community, including the emissaries and the elders], to whom they reported everything God had done through them [No one can express mystery, so listeners don’t accept what is said.].

⁵ Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees [P’rushim, strict Torah advocates] stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses [the Torah of Moshe].”

⁶ The apostles and elders met to consider this question. ⁷ After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. ⁸ God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. ⁹ He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. ¹⁰ Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? ¹¹ No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.” [Peter professes Jesus rather than Christ. It seems Peter was a Messianic Jew rather than a Christian Jew.]

¹² The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. ¹³ When they finished, James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me. ¹⁴ Simon has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles. ¹⁵ The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written:

¹⁶ “‘After this I will return
    and rebuild David’s fallen tent.
Its ruins I will rebuild,
    and I will restore it,
¹⁷ that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,
    even all the Gentiles who bear my name,
says the Lord, who does these things’ [Amos 9:11-12]’—
¹⁸     things known from long ago.

¹⁹ “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. ²⁰ Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. [“Christ” expresses body and blood sacrifice and thereby lessens Jesus. It seems James compromised the requirement of circumcision.] ²¹ For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”

²² Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, men who were leaders among the believers. ²³ With them they sent the following letter:

The apostles and elders, your brothers,

To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia:

Greetings.

²⁴ We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. ²⁵ So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul— ²⁶ men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ [our Lord, Yeshua the Messiah]. ²⁷ Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. ²⁸ It seemed good to the Holy Spirit [Ruach HaKodesh] and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: ²⁹ You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. [It seems the meeting accepted James’ and Peter’s leadership and compromise.] You will do well to avoid these things.

Farewell.

³⁰ So the men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church [group] together and delivered the letter. ³¹ The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message. [The Gentiles seemed to accept exclusion from the circumcision requirement.] ³² Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the believers. ³³ After spending some time there, they were sent off by the believers with the blessing of peace to return to those who had sent them.  ³⁵ But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord.

³⁶ Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.” ³⁷ Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, ³⁸ but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. ³⁹ They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, ⁴⁰ but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord. ⁴¹ He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

[Summary:  Apparently, political activists Paul and Barnabas traveled to Jerusalem, where James and Peter, representing Israel, worked out a compromise: Gentiles may and can observe a limited Torah, specifically excepting circumcision, yet requiring 4 practices: no food sacrificed to idols, no blood, no strangled meat, and no sexual immorality. I don't know much about the consumption of food issues, yet sexual immorality seems evident. It entails adult actions that abuse ova and children.
 
Perhaps the James-Paul negotiation in Jerusalem some 1900 years ago is the origin of "Judeo-Christianity". Now, all private believers may and can know to publicly pursue “that the rest of mankind may seek [the good]” (Verse 17). But Pauline Christianity does not seem to embrace the compromise.
 
Christianity seems to accommodate antinomianism in broad application: spiritual, civil, civic, and especially sexual. Also, that Judeo-Christian believers accommodate killing children for the sake of temporal adult satisfactions may and can be reformed by the civic people.
 
I prefer to accept the mystery of theGod as the good, Israel’s hope for a Messiah, and Christianity's hope for favor in the afterdeath (that indefinite time after body, mind, and person stop functioning), yet pursue Jesus’ civic influence to the good on earth. We observe Jesus' influence in choices to the good versus consequences of dissidence and rebellion. This generation collaborates to colonize a planet: there seems no excuse for rejecting Jesus' civic peace (not to limit Jesus' urge to perfection).]