Acts 15:1-21 - The Jerusalem Council

¹ AND certain persons having come down from Judea taught the brothers, If you are not circumcised according to the custom of Moses you cannot be saved. ² There being therefore no little dissension and disputation of Paul and Barnabas with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to the apostles and elders at Jerusalem, concerning this question. ³ They, therefore, being sent forward by the church, went to Phenicia and Samaria, relating the conversion of the gentiles, and caused great joy to all the brothers.

⁴ And when they came to Jerusalem they were received by the church, and the apostles, and the elders, and related what things God had done with them. ⁵ But some of those of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed, rose and said, that it is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.

⁶ And the apostles and elders were assembled together to see about this matter. ⁷ And after there had been much debate, Peter rose and said to them, Men and brothers, you know that in former days God chose among you that the gentiles should hear by my mouth the word of the gospel and believe. ⁸ And the heart-searching God testified to them, giving to them the Holy Spirit even as to us, ⁹ and made no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by the faith. ¹⁰ Now, therefore, why do you try God, to put on the necks of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we could bear? ¹¹ But we believe that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same manner as they.

¹² And all the multitude was silent, and heard Barnabas and Paul relate what miracles and prodigies God performed among the gentiles through them. ¹³ And after they were silent, James answered, saying, Men and brothers, hear me. ¹⁴ Simeon has related how God first visited the gentiles to take a people for his name. ¹⁵ And with this agree the words of the prophets, as it is written,

¹⁶ After this will I return and build up the tabernacle of David which had fallen down, and rebuild its ruins, and set it up, ¹⁷ that the rest of men may seek the Lord, even all the nations on whom my name has been called, says the Lord who does these things, ¹⁸ known from eternity.

¹⁹ Wherefore I judge that we ought not to trouble those who turned to God from the gentiles, ²⁰ but to send to them to abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and fornication, and things strangled, and blood. ²¹ For Moses from ancient times has those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every sabbath.