Acts 15 CJB: Peter asserts humankind's salvation through Yeshua’s love and kindness

 Acts 15 CJB: Peter asserts salvation through Yeshua’s love and kindness

Guide: CJB emphasis in bold (CJB online), text I emphasize in green; NIV in magenta; footnotes to CJB in superscript sky blue; Nomads* discussion in yellow; and my comments in gray. I may use endnotes to cite outside literature or extensive comment.  

*Participative Sunday-school-class at UBC led by Ken Tipton. My continually improved statement about Genesis 1:26-28 is at the end of this post.

Chief concerns and possible insights:

1.     Acts 15’s council may have happened 16-17 years after Judaism had Rome (church had state) execute Yeshua.

a.      In the council, “God” was arguably YHWH. I advocate humility to The God, whatever it is, perhaps Yeshua.

b.     Peter described Yeshua’s execution as “bloody sacrificial” 31 years after the Jerusalem council.

c.      From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity, “The first of the early Church Fathers to be recorded using the word "Trinity" was Theophilus of Antioch writing in the late 2nd century. He defines the Trinity as God, his Word (Logos) and his Wisdom (Sophia).”

2.     Acts 15’s message seems to be: Judeo-Christianity is grounded in divisive doctrine. Representatives at the Jerusalem council included The God, Yeshua in apparent opposition, John and Messianic elders including some Pharisees, Peter, James, and Paul, excluding the Jews.

3.     Objection to circumcision and the Torah was resolved by instruction to avoid idolatry, blood-borne pathogens and fornication.

4.     Peter promotes Yeshua’s love and kindness.

5.     James affirmed Peter rather than Paul the apostle to the Gentiles.

6.     The council does not trust Paul to deliver their resolution.

7.     The council’s accommodation of church division contributed to more than 4 thousand religions and 45 thousand Christian sects today.

8.     Recall, Genesis 1:26-28 instructs female and male humankind to individually and collaboratively rule to necessary goodness on earth rather than construct mysterious exclusions.

Working considerations:

1.     V1-2 some Judeans came to Turkey and claimed that believers must be circumcised, so Paul went to Jerusalem to negotiate relief.

2.     V4 the Messianic community (church) in Jerusalem must have been small; today, of 14.8 million Jews, 0.2 million are Messianic.

3.     V4 I wonder if apostles and elders included John.

4.     V5 I wonder if Yeshua was a Pharisee: he was circumcised and improved the Torah – said he claimed he came to fulfill it.

5.     V7 Peter claims God chose him as apostle to the Gentiles, a role Paul boasted.

6.     V9 attributes both cleaning and trust to acts of the Holy Spirit, leaving nothing to the believer.

7.     V11 Peter cites Israel’s hypocrisy and attributes salvation to Yeshua’s love and kindness.

8.     V14 James, Yeshua’s brother, affirms Peter’s role as apostle to the Gentiles, lessening Paul’s arbitrary power.

9.     V20 James, after invoking the house of David, collapses the Torah’s 613 commandments to 3 abstentions: idolatry, fornication, and blood-borne pathogens, whether coagulated or not.

10. V22 the Messianic church, not trusting Paul, sent Judas and Silas to carry the message to the Gentiles.

11. V31 the people (including Jews) who received the message were delighted to what they suspected: blood carries poisons and fornication invites trouble.

12. V35 but the Paul continued to promote his church.

13. V38 Paul accommodated church division rather than collaborate with humankind to accept Genesis 1:26-28.

The CJB text:

^15:1 But some men came down from Y’hudah to Antioch [actually a trip to the north] and began teaching the brothers believers, “You can’t be saved unless you undergo b’rit-milah circumcision in the manner prescribed by Moshe.” [“Saved” refers to association with G-d, referring to Synagogue opinion, rather than salvation of the soul, according to Church opinion or not repeating error according to Yeshua’s civic influence.] ² This brought them [the Judeans] into no small measure of sharp discord and dispute with Sha’ul and Bar-Nabba. So the congregation church assigned Sha’ul, Bar-Nabba and some of themselves to go and put this sh’eilah petition before the emissaries and the elders up in Yerushalayim.

³ After being sent off by the congregation church, they made their way through Phoenicia and Shomron Samaria, recounting in detail how the Gentiles had turned to God; and this news brought great joy to all the brothers believers.

⁴ On arrival in Yerushalayim, they were welcomed by the Messianic community church, including the emissaries and the elders apostles and elders; and they reported what God had done through them. ⁵ But some of those who had come to trust believers were from the party of the P’rushim Pharisees; and they stood up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and direct them to observe the Torah of Moshe.”

⁶ The emissaries and the elders met to look into this matter. ⁷ After 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 believe. ⁸ And God, who knows the heart, bore them witness by giving the Ruach HaKodesh Holy Spirit 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 faith. [God purified them by giving them faith?] 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? ¹¹ No, it is through the love and kindness of the Lord Yeshua Lord Jesus that we trust believe and are delivered saved— and it’s the same with them.” [Peter professes Jesus rather than Christ. It seems Peter was a Messianic Jew rather than a Christian Jew.]

¹² Then the whole assembly kept still as they listened to Bar-Nabba and Sha’ul tell what signs and miracles wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. ¹³ Ya‘akov James broke the silence to reply. “Brothers,” he said, “hear what I have to say. ¹⁴ Shim‘on has told in detail what God did when he first began to show his concern for taking from among the Goyim Gentiles a people to bear his name. ¹⁵ And the words of the Prophets are in complete harmony with this for it is written,

¹⁶ ‘“After this, I will return;
and I will rebuild the fallen tent of David.
I will rebuild its ruins,
I will restore it,
¹⁷ so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,
that is, all the Goyim who have been called by my name,”
¹⁸ says Adonai, who is doing these things.’ [Note: the name here is Adonai, not Yeshua.] ^{Amos 9:11–12, “When that day comes, I will raise up the fallen sukkah of David. I will close up its gaps, raise up its ruins and rebuild it as it used to be, so that Isra’el can possess what is left of Edom and of all the nations bearing my name,” says Adonai, who is doing this.’}

All this has been known for ages.

¹⁹ “Therefore, my opinion judgement is that we should not put obstacles in the way of the Goyim who are turning to God. ²⁰ Instead, we should write them a letter telling them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from fornication, from what is strangled and from blood. [“Christ” expresses body and blood sacrifice and thereby lessens Jesus and Yeshua. It seems James compromised the requirement of circumcision.] ²¹ For from the earliest times, Moshe has had in every city those who proclaim him, with his words being read in the synagogues every Shabbat.”

²² Then the emissaries and the elders, together with the whole Messianic community church, decided to select men from among themselves to send to Antioch with Sha’ul and Bar-Nabba. They sent Y’hudah, called Bar-Sabba, and Sila  Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, both leading men among the brothers, ²³ with the following letter:

From: The emissaries and the elders, your brothers

To: The brothers from among the Gentiles throughout Antioch, Syria and Cilicia

Greetings!

²⁴ We have heard that some people went out from among us without our authorization, and that they have upset disturbed you with their talk, unsettling your minds. ²⁵ So we have decided unanimously to select men and send them to you with our dear friends Bar-Nabba and Sha’ul, ²⁶ who have dedicated their lives to upholding the name of our Lord, Yeshua the Messiah Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁷ So we have sent Y’hudah and Sila, and they will confirm in person by word of mouth what we are writing.

²⁸ For it seemed good to the Ruach HaKodesh and to us not to lay any heavier burden on you than the following requirements: ²⁹ to abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from fornication sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will be doing the right thing.

Shalom! Farewell. [It seems the meeting accepted James’ and Peter’s leadership and compromise. I’m not sure Saul did.]

³⁰ The messengers were sent off and went to Antioch, where they gathered the group church together and delivered the letter. ³¹ After reading it, the people were delighted glad by its encouragement. [The Gentiles seemed to accept exclusion from the circumcision requirement. Yet sex dominates entertainment even now.] ³² Y’hudah and Sila, who were also prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the brothers. ³³ After they had spent some time there, they were sent off with a greeting of “Shalom!” from the brothers to those who had sent them. ^{34 Some manuscripts include verse 34: But it seemed good to Sila to stay there. 35} But Sha’ul and Bar-Nabba stayed in Antioch, where they and many others taught and proclaimed the Good News of the message about the Lord.

³⁶ After some time, Sha’ul said to Bar-Nabba, “Let’s go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we proclaimed the message about the Lord, and see how they’re doing.” ³⁷ Now Bar-Nabba wanted to take with them Yochanan, the one called Mark. ³⁸ But Sha’ul thought it would be unwise to take this man with them, since he had gone off and left them in Pamphylia to do the work by themselves. ³⁹ There was such sharp disagreement over this that they separated from each other, with Bar-Nabba taking Mark and sailing off to Cyprus.

⁴⁰ However, Sha’ul chose Sila and left, after the brothers had committed him to the love and kindness grace of the Lord. ⁴¹ He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the congregations churches.

[Genesis 1:26-28 introduction

I read to consider and apply perhaps 5500 year old Sumerian political philosophy. The polytheistic Sumerians are religiously referenced by Semite scribes of 3900 years ago, in Genesis 1:26-28; in my paraphrase:  Female-and-male-human-being may and can choose to independently and collaboratively constrain political democracy on earth: on earth, civic humankind has the power and authority to pursue necessary goodness and constrain the bad. Civic citizens may and can use the rule of law to develop statutory justice. 

Political philosopher Yeshua* affirmed Genesis 1:26-28, contributing ideas in each Matthew 18:18 (no peace-power above humankind), Matthew 19:3-8 (spousal loyalty), Matthew 5:48 (pursue your personal perfection), 19:4-6 (don’t divide/lessen goodness), and in other direct dialogue, such as “go and sin no more”.

The next Bible canon could and should include the law codes of Sumer and competing civilizations. Resulting insights would take the heat off Judeo-Christianity, a Christ vs Messiah** vs The God competition vs Yeshua’s civic influence.***

Notes:

*In 4 BC, Yosef and Myriam of Nazareth begot Yeshua. And 250 years beforehand, Greek translation of the Torah provided Ἰησοῦς and χριστός, both of which competed with “Yeshua”, the former during Yeshua’s life and the latter in afterdeath. Rome affirmed a triune God, The Trinity, in 325 CE. Christians don’t publicly profess The Trinity. By the 16^th century CE, Christianity used “Jesus Christ” and “Christ” to repress Yeshua’s civic influence, intentionally or not. 

The person, Yeshua, said, in my paraphrase: if people don’t speak my name they can neither consider my civic influence nor share my open-heartedness. Competitive monotheism hides Yeshua’s civic influence. Churches hide Yeshua. Churches claim the Holy Bible is the word of the God yet do everything they can to negate Genesis 1:26-28: humankind has the power, authority, and responsibility to rule to necessary goodness on earth.

Obviously, The God is a mystery. However, civic citizens may, can, and a few do discern Yeshua’s civic influence. Accepting Genesis 1:26-28 empowers and does not exclude the open-minded and open-hearted fellow citizen who has not discovered Yeshua and his civic influence. In other words, human-beings may and can mimic Yeshua without knowing his home town, his beginning, or his name.

**In addition to prophecy of an anointed king for Israel, Cyrus, 600 BC, is called a messiah; see Isaiah 45:1.

***Competitive monotheism survives on war rather than on necessary goodness.

Discussion

Personal and institutional monotheistic competition egregiously deludes Yeshua’s influence to necessary goodness. The collaborative view could accelerate mutual pursuit of human being (verb) and lessen habitual baby killings, like those happening in Israel, in Ukraine, and in the U.S. in the year 2025.

I think Genesis 1:26-28 informs humankind to flourish in necessary goodness rather than accommodate badness and allow evil. Quoting below,

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. See notes, below.

Acceptance of the power, authority, and responsibility to rule on earth is human being (verb). Reliable human-beings pursue necessary goodness to actual reality.

The rest of the Bible, OT and NT discloses the chaos that ensues if most individuals choose wanton behavior -- neglect the laws of physics and progeny, e.g., biology and psychology. Physics prevails even when humankind’s research has not discovered its laws. Both rationalization and speculation fail the test of time.

The civic collective cannot rule if most fellow citizens practice/accommodate badness and allow evil. Civilizations can and do exist without civic integrity. Yet the pursuit of necessary goodness is essential to humankind’s survival.

Today there are more than 4,000 religions and 45,000 Christian sects on earth. Today is the time for individuals to accept the power, the authority, and the responsibility to practice civic integrity in personal living. “Ourselves” may either continue to leave reliable responsibility to “our Posterity”, referring to the preamble to the US Constitution, or practice necessary goodness.

Notes re modern perspective:

1.     Since monotheism is a human construct, I use the phrase, “The God, whatever it may be”, to express objection to any doctrinal God yet reserve humility to ineluctable evidence.

a.      Blue highlight is to emphasize Genesis 1:26-28 pronoun usages, “our” and “we”.

b.     Perhaps the “we” infers the psychologically androgynous pair -- a couple in monogamy more than in sexual intimacy.

c.      It seems human choice may and can conform to the discovered laws of physics.

d.     Yet human inspiration and motivation are driven by goodness.

e.      When goodness is uncertain, humility seems an option.

2.      Scholars understand that humankind in its present mutation is Homo sapiens (HS)

a.      Distinguished by brains with synapses and neurons continuously developing speed and capacity to handle exponential complexities

b.     Indeed HS is the dominant species on earth and its extensions

c.      Yet HS, so far, is challenged-to, perhaps will-not, order life on earth as much as possible

d.  Unfortunately, after 200,000 years, sexual-promiscuity rather than necessary goodness dominates society if not civilization.

3.      The rest of the Holy Bible expresses the validity of Genesis 1:26-28:  Humankind may and can choose to rule on earth.

a.      Genesis 1 predates the existence of Israel by at least 1500 years.

b.     About 2000 years have passed since Yeshua lived.

c.      Yet war in the Middle East, Yeshua’s part of the world, threatens humankind’s opportunity.

d.     It seems time to pay more attention to primitive thought – psychological and civic discovery -- during the period 8000 years ago to 4000 years ago.]