Acts 15:1–21

The Council at Jerusalem

15Certain people^k came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers:^l “Unless you are circumcised,^m according to the custom taught by Moses,ⁿ you cannot be saved.” ²This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem^o to see the apostles and elders^p about this question. ³The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia^q and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted.^r This news made all the believers very glad. ⁴When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.^s

⁵Then some of the believers who belonged to the party^t of the Pharisees^u stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”^v

⁶The apostles and elders met to consider this question. ⁷After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe.^{w 8}God, who knows the heart,^x showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them,^y just as he did to us. ⁹He did not discriminate between us and them,^z for he purified their hearts by faith.^{a 10}Now then, why do you try to test God^b by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke^c that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? ¹¹No! We believe it is through the grace^d of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

¹²The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders^e God had done among the Gentiles through them.^{f 13}When they finished, James^g spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me. ¹⁴Simon^a has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles.^{h 15}The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written:

¹⁶“ ‘After this I will return

and rebuild David’s fallen tent.

Its ruins I will rebuild,

and I will restore it,

¹⁷that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,

even all the Gentiles who bear my name,

says the Lord, who does these things’^bi—

¹⁸things known from long ago.^cj

¹⁹“It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. ²⁰Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols,^k from sexual immorality,^l from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.^{m 21}For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”ⁿ