St. Barnabas 28. How the Jerusalem Council Decree Was Understood.       The “beloved” ( Ac 15:25 ) St. Barnabas and St. Paul left Jerusalem, accompanied by Judas Barsabbas and Silas, and bearing the letter for the Church in Gentile lands from the Apostles and Elders in Jerusalem ( Ac 15:22-29 ). Arriving in Antioch of Syria, they gathered the Church, read the letter, and the congregation “rejoiced at the exhortation” ( Ac15:30-31 ).       Recall that the issue was whether the Gentiles who became believers in Jesus the Messiah, the Christ, had to accept the entire Jewish law, including its ceremonial and dietary provisions. This was an enormous question which Barnabas and Paul had dealt with over and over again.       Now the decision of the Apostles and Elders in Jerusalem, as written in the letter, was: “It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us” – note the authority: God the Holy Spirit (consistent with the do...

St. Barnabas 27. The Jerusalem Council. It is now April of 49 AD. St. Barnabas, St. Paul, and “some others were appointed” by the church at Antioch “to go up to Jerusalem to the Apostles and the Elders” about the question of whether Gentiles who became Christians had to keep the entire Jewish Law ( Ac 15:2 ). You may recall that Barnabas, Paul (then Saul), and Titus had also gone to Jerusalem a few years previous at the time of the famine in Judea. They had discussed their preaching the Gospel among the Gentiles with the Apostles Peter, James, and John, and had received the “right hand of fellowship” to continue evangelization of the Gentiles. ( Ac 11:29-30 ; Gal 2:1-10 .) Precisely because their missionary work was bearing so much fruit, some Jewish Christian sensibilities were aroused to insist that Gentile converts had to keep the entire Jewish Law. We saw last week that Paul and Barnabas strongly countered that assertion ( Ac 15:2 ). So now Barnabas, Paul, and company were ...