INTRODUCTION
In Acts 15 we find that James/Yaakov makes a reverence to the seven universal laws, sometimes called the Noahide laws, although their true source can be found in the commandment that G-d gave to Adam in the garden. At the Jerusalem Council James/Yaakov condenses his reference to these laws into the statement of four laws, or if read in a certain way into three laws. In order to understand all of this it is essential to be completely clear about the context, the whole picture of how and why this occurred. A brief overview of key points concerning this subject follows.
on Acts 15:1
Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: "Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved."
This ought not be understood retroactively from the point of view of Christian theology 1500 to 2000 years later. What it meant for gentiles to be saved to Jews who believed in Moses and Mashiach must be understood in distinction from its meaning during centuries of the development of christian theology. The most important aspect of this issue is that salvation first and foremost to the Jewish people has always meant salvation of the nation, of all Israel, not primarily salvation of the individual. Therefore, for a gentile to be saved they had to be grafted into the nation of Israel and included in the salvation of the nation.
It seemed completely clear from Moses that this meant that gentile men would have to be circumcised. Had something changed? Paul and Barnabas were insisting that something had changed, not in the fact that individual gentiles had to be included in the salvation of Israel in order to be saved, but in how this was now accomplished. If the reader sees these certain people who came down from Judea as being evil decievers (reading the text with the eyes of later gentile christian theology), the whole story of what was taking place here will be confusing and hardly credible.
In fact, the Jerusalem council took both sides of this question very seriously and did not resolve the issue easily or superficially. In truth, the profound nature of the resolution that the council came to will go unappreciated by all those who choose to simply think of Paul's side as the good christian side and the side of those who came down from Judea as the bad Judaizing side. Only when it is fully understood how both sides represented distinct understandings and visions of Judaism will it be possible for the reader to clearly see the pivotal story for all ages taking place here in Acts 15.
The Contribution of The Messianic Pharisees
In verse 5 we are being told that representatives in Jerusalem itself of the same party, (though they were different people), as were referred to in verse 1began to engage in the debate with Paul and Barnabas about how gentiles who had come to faith in Yehoshua as the Messiah of Israel were to be included within the nation of Israel and the salvation of Israel. When these Yehoshua-believing Pharisees stated that the gentiles who believed and were being converted needed to be circumcised and to begin to keep the whole Torah, they understood this to be because they were being saved through their faith in the Messiah Yehoshua.
This was so because they believed the nation of Israel was saved and being saved through the Messiah Yehoshua. Only when this is clear will Peter's answer to them, culminating here in verse11, be clear.
Peter is speaking directly to these Yehoshua-believing Pharisees, and to everyone else only indirectly, (verse 7). His argument is that Israel, itself, is being saved and has been given the Spirit of Mashiach only through the unmerited grace of Adonu Yehoshua. This point is the premise of Peter's argument and it is essential to understand clearly what this means in order to be able to understand clearly the conclusion of the argument he makes about the salvation of the gentiles based on this premise. Salvation in this narrative of Acts 15 is represented by the gift and Presence of the Holy Ruach, the Holy Spirit as conveyed to Israel through the promise of Mashiach.
Peter is saying that this Holy Presence is come to Israel through G-d's grace and not through Israel's success in perfectly observing the Torah. In no way does Peter diminish the importance of observance of the Torah in Israel. His argument is that since the Holy Presence is come to Israel through the promise of Mashiach through unmerited grace and not through success in perfect observance of the Torah, this same salvation of the gift of the Holy Presence is come to those gentiles seeking and believing in the salvation of Israel through the same grace. It cannot be put upon the gentiles that they should seek to attain what is already given to Israel and to them by the mercy of grace through seeking to become perfect in Torah observance.
Peter is implying that there is a great mystery here and that there is a great revelation to be understood through this mystery. He is not demonizing one side or the other in this controversy. For it is the argument on one side and on the other that creates the articulation of this wonderful mystery. In the following verses the council of the Emissaries of Yehoshua the Mashiach will point the way toward the full revelation of this mystery of G-d's grace toward all the nations in the salvation of Israel.
It is essential to understand that James/Yaacov and all of those whom he spoke to were in agreement about the meaning of this prophecy from Amos — that it referred to the salvation of Israel that they were witnessing in their day, which would develop more and more, until All Israel was saved. The vision of this salvation which was given to them has been somewhat concealed to us through history, but this concealment is also an aspect of the Divine Promise of Israel's redemption.
The Gospel as Both Revelation and Concealment
This concealment of the orignial vision of the salvation of Israel given to the Emissaries of Mashiach was and is one of the keys of the Malchut/Kingdom which was given to Kefa/Peter and to the twelve talmudim/diciples of Yehoshua. This key, this concealment of the "Apostolic" vision of Israel's salvation, is one of the keys to the fulfillment of the later part of this very prophecy of Amos: "that the rest of humankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name…"
Understand: "the rest of humankind," that is, after and through the rebuilding of the fallen succah/tabernacle/tent of David, the kingdom of David, through the promised Son of David, the Mashiach, over the House of Judah and the House of Israel, then "the rest of humankind," the Gentiles who bear my name, who are converted to faith in his name, may, as a result of hearing of this Good News of Israel and her Messiah, turn to seek the Lord.
Therefore, since the first measure of this salvation of Israel, the gift of the Holy Ruach/Spirit was come through grace, the first measure of the blessing of all the families of the earth must also be understood to be already come through grace. On the basis of this understanding, James/Yaacov will go on to give the full decision as to how to go forward toward the full revelation of the redemption of Israel and the salvation of all the world.
on Acts 15:13
The conclusion that James/Yaacov comes to must be studied with great care. What was the understanding among those present about what the teachers of the Torah call the Noahide, or universal commandments? This statement by James/Yaacov is undisputedly a reference to these Torah requirements, as understood by the Torah teachers, for righteous gentiles. Gentiles who were thieves, murders, sexually immoral, propagators of idolatry, etc. were not sanctioned by the Torah as being welcome strangers and pilgrims in the Holy Land of Israel.
For such iniquity G-d had removed the Canaanites from His Holy Land. For gentiles who were dwelling in the Land who committed such crimes there also had to be some legal rulings for justice which was distinct from those by which the Torah ruled over the lives of the Jews. The same applied to those gentiles who desired to live among the Jews in their communities in exile. It is not about judging an individual's standing before G-d. It is about the testimony of the word of G-d in Israel to the truth of the One true G-d, for the purpose of the salvation of the world. This in itself is very significant, as it is the basis upon which Paul built his mission to the nations. However, the way in which James/Yaakov chose to refer t the commandments required of the righteous gentiles was equally, if not even more significant.
The commandment not to commit blaspheme against the Name of the Creator of heaven and earth, the G-d of Israel, usually heads, and is always included, in any list of the Noahide laws. James/Yaakov, however, does not mention this commandment. It cannot be that the Apostles/Emissaries of Yehoshua did not consider it to be essential. Paul, in fact, requires obedience to this commandment explicitly in the congregations among the nations that he establishes, even turning certain individuals over to the satan in order that they might learn not to blaspheme.
The Revelation entrusted to Yochanan/John also explicitly mentions blaspheme as one of the sins that G-d requires the gentiles to repent of. In chapter 9 of the Revelation of Jesus/Yehoshua the Messiah we read:
And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
Here a fuller list of the seven universal laws is given, as follows:
- Idolatry — "the work of their hands...," through which they worshipped devils, and idols of gold and silver, etc.
- Murder
- Sorcery — This involves the use of curses and associates directly with using the name of G-d in vain and therefore with blaspheme.
- Sexual Immorality
- Theft
- They did not repent. This means that they did not seek righteousness and justice in their societies in the matters listed here.
- Every one of the seven universal, or Noahide, laws is referenced or stated here except the dietary prohibition of not eating a living limb. The direct narrative of judgment that we read about in this chapter is not resumed until chapter 16, and then it finally comes to a conclusion in chapter 19, where we read that, measure for measure the final remnant of the nations will be slain by the sword of the mouth of the Word of God and will be devoured by the creatures.
That James/Yaacov does not mention the prohibition of blasphemy here in the context of the question of circumcision and conversion of the gentiles could be understood as being because he intended to say that there was no need to require the gentiles coming to faith in the Messiah of Israel and his salvation of Israel to abstain from blasphemy, as these were people who, individually and together, all called upon the name of the Lord. In the same way, they would not be suspected at all of being thieves and robbers, nor of being rapists and murderers. Even though this is so, because of his choice of words and the context within the Oral Torah, James'/Yaakov's reference to abstaining from "blood" can be seen as a possible allusion to abstaining from murder, or revenge killings, etc., even if it should be read more literally as a dietary rule and in association with the prohibition of eating things strangled.
on The Dietary Element in the Seven Universal Laws
This overlap between prohibition agains violence and eating blood can already be seen at the source prohibition or commandment that James/Yaakov is pointing to. This source commandment is the Noahide commandment not to eat a living limb torn from an animal. Understood as a commandment against cruelty it is also a commandment against predatory violence. In Torah mitzvot/commandments for Israel, the commandments regarding kosher slaughter go deeper and broader in speaking to this same concern.
It is important to remember that after the Great Flood the specific reason for the giving of the dietary commandment to abstain from eating a limb torn from an animal was that it was only at that point that the eating of the flesh of animals became permitted. The narrative at that point in Scripture draws a direct association between the law prohibiting murder and the law requiring courts of justice, on the one hand, and the dietary relation between human beings and animals, with people now being allowed to eat animal flesh, on the other hand.
The language that James/Yaakov chooses to use in framing the prohibitions he states suggests that he is concerned with there being a bridge and a dialogue between the Noahide expression of the commandments about regard for the soul being in the blood and the Torah commandments about this. The Noahide commandment to establish courts of law is also not mentioned by James/Yaakov, as this commandment is being transposed into the Messianic community by this very council in Jerusalem at which he is giving the final word on these issues.
