This thesis is an exegetical and redactional study of the requirements for membership in the people of God stated in Acts 15: 1-29 primarily and other passages in Acts by way of reference. It argues that membership, i. e. salvation, for both Jews and Gentiles depends without distinction on a personal commitment to Jesus and a faithfulness to God expressed in terms of the Old Testament covenants. It posits as well, given the pericope's structural and theological centrality in Acts, that for Luke the people of God manifest, on the one hand, a continuity with the Israel established by the Old Testament covenants which is interpreted in terms of the disjunctive effect of God's salvation in Jesus and, on the other, a diversity of belief and practice which is governed by a unity expressed uncompromisingly in terms of faith in Jesus and faithfulness to God's covenants. The study is divided into six chapters, following the order of the events and speeches in Acts 15. In the Introduction the debate is related to the event initiating the council (Acts 15: 1-5), i. e. the Judaizers' demand that circumcision and keeping the law were necessary for salvation, and to the earliest apostolic proclamation (Acts 2-5). Peter's response (Acts 15: 7-1 l)--that faith in Jesus had determined the Gentiles' salvation just as faith, not the law, had brought the Jewish Christians the experience of salvation--is discussed, in Chapter I, in light of Cornelius's conversion (Acts 10: 1- 11: 18). Chapter II deals with Barnabas's and Paul's relation to the Hellenists and Paul's exhortation that justification is by faith (13: 38-39). It examines the purpose of the conciseness of Barnabas's and Paul's contribution to the debate (15: 12) and proposes that the comment serves not only to depict the missionaries' presence at the council but more importantly to highlight the Jerusalem apostles' approval of uncircumcised believers. James's speech (15: 13-21), Chapter III, argues from Amos 9: 11-12 that the inclusion of the Gentiles is related to God's act of re-establishing Israel but in no way signifies Israel's possession of the Gentiles; thereby is developed the somewhat paradoxical thesis of freedom from the law and responsibility to Judaism. Chapter IV concerns the consensus reached (15: 23-29)--the Gentiles' freedom from the law and the need for the four prohibitions--and it suggests, on the basis of the textual variant in 15: 20; 15: 29; and 21: 25, the legal background of the four injunctions, and Luke's description of the decree elsewhere (15: 31; 16: 4; 21: 25), that the four prohibitions are ecclesiastical halakhoth based on the Jewish law and are to be obeyed as law is to be obeyed. The study concludes with an examination of how, as the Pauline mission carried the gospel further away from Jerusalem, the church welcomed Jewi ;h and Gentiles converts. Particular attention is given to Paul's message of salvation and the stories in Acts 15: 36-41; 16: 1-3; 18: 24-19: 7; and 21: 17-26. There are also discussions of James's position in the Jerusalem church (Chapter III), of the relation between Acts 15 and Acts 11: 1-18 (Chapter IV), and of the significance cc Luke's use cc of ýoßoüýEVOL 1' 6e' ' and. of of1ß j- evoý Töv ()e' for the class of people. termert "Godfedrers" (Appendix).
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:365540 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Armstrong, Steven John |
| Publisher | University of Leeds |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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