128
The Acts of the Apostles
the Gentiles. They then gave a clear outline of the confusion that
had resulted because certain converted Pharisees had gone to Antioch
declaring that, in order to be saved, the Gentile converts must be
circumcised and keep the law of Moses.
This question was warmly discussed in the assembly. Intimately
connected with the question of circumcision were several others de-
manding careful study. One was the problem as to what attitude should
be taken toward the use of meats offered to idols. Many of the Gentile
converts were living among ignorant and superstitious people who
made frequent sacrifices and offerings to idols. The priests of this
heathen worship carried on an extensive merchandise with the offer-
ings brought to them, and the Jews feared that the Gentile converts
would bring Christianity into disrepute by purchasing that which had
been offered to idols, thereby sanctioning, in some measure, idolatrous
customs.
Again, the Gentiles were accustomed to eat the flesh of animals
that has been strangled, while the Jews had been divinely instructed
that when beasts were killed for food, particular care was to be taken
that the blood should flow from the body; otherwise the meat would
not be regarded as wholesome. God had given these injunctions to the
Jews for the purpose of preserving their health. The Jews regarded it
as sinful to use blood as an article of diet. They held that the blood
was the life, and that the shedding of blood was in consequence of sin.
[192]
The Gentiles, on the contrary, practiced catching the blood that
flowed from the sacrificial victim and using it in the preparation of
food. The Jews could not believe that they ought to change the customs
they had adopted under the special direction of God. Therefore, as
things then stood, if Jew and Gentile should attempt to eat at the same
table, the former would be shocked and outraged by the latter.
The Gentiles, and especially the Greeks, were extremely licentious,
and there was danger that some, unconverted in heart, would make a
profession of faith without renouncing their evil practices. The Jewish
Christians could not tolerate the immorality that was not even regarded
as criminal by the heathen. The Jews therefore held it as highly proper
that circumcision and the observance of the ceremonial law should
be enjoined on the Gentile converts as a test of their sincerity and
devotion. This, they believed, would prevent the addition to the church