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Acts 15 is the fifteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament of the Christian Bible.It records "the first great controversy in the records of the Christian Church", [1] concerning the necessity of circumcision, Paul and Barnabas traveling to Jerusalem to attend the Council of Jerusalem and the beginning of Paul's second missionary journey. [2]
The circumcision controversy in early Christianity played an important role in Christian theology. [1] [2] [3] [4]The circumcision of Jesus is celebrated as a feast day in the liturgical calendar of many Christian denominations, while the teachings of the Apostle Paul asserted that physical circumcision was unnecessary for the salvation of Gentiles and their membership in the New Covenant.
Paul and Luke describe its course and results differently. According to Acts 15, there was a plenary meeting of the early church at which the Judaizers initially argued that the circumcision of the Gentile Christians was necessary. This was followed by an internal debate between Peter, Barnabas, Paul, James and probably others.
[129] Paul also mentions that even Barnabas, his traveling companion and fellow apostle until that time, sided with Peter. [123] The outcome of the incident remains uncertain. The Catholic Encyclopedia suggests that Paul won the argument, because "Paul's account of the incident leaves no doubt that Peter saw the justice of the rebuke". [123]
Of those with Paul, Justus, Aristarchus, and Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, are said in the letter to be "of the circumcision", that is, Jewish and to have "proved a comfort to me." The name Jesus was common among Jews in the time of Jesus of Nazareth , being a form of the Old Testament name Joshua ( Yeshua ישוע).
Jesus bestows peace on the disciples and commands them to love one another. The expression of the unity of love between Jesus and his Father, in the Spirit, as it applies to his disciples in the love of Christ, is a key theme in the discourse, manifested by several reiterations of the New Commandment: "love one another as I have loved you". [3]
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It is authored by Paul the Apostle for the churches in Galatia, written between 49 and 58 AD. [1] This chapter contains the meeting account of Paul, Barnabas and Christians in Jerusalem, considered "one of the most momentous events in the earliest Christianity", [2] and the dispute between Paul and Peter. [3]