Jew and Gentile
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to pass, and the light of the gospel was shedding its glory upon the
Jewish religion, giving a new significance to its ancient rites.
The question of circumcision was warmly discussed in the assem-
bly. The Gentile converts lived in a community of idolaters. Sacrifices
and offerings were made to senseless idols, by these ignorant and
superstitious people. The priests of these gods carried on an extensive
merchandise with the offerings brought to them; and the Jews feared
that the Gentile converts would bring Christianity into disrepute by
purchasing those things which had been offered to idols, and thereby
sanctioning, in some measure, an idolatrous worship.
Also, the Gentiles were accustomed to eat the flesh of animals
that had been strangled; while the Jews had been divinely instructed
with regard to the food they should use. They were particular, in
killing beasts, that the blood should flow from the body, else it was
not regarded as healthful meat. God had given these injunctions to the
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Jews for the purpose of preserving their health and strength. The Jews
considered it sinful to use blood as an article of diet. They considered
that the blood was the life; and that the shedding of blood was in
consequence of sin.
The Gentiles, on the contrary, practiced catching the blood which
flowed from the victim of sacrifice, and drinking it, or using it in the
preparation of their food. The Jews could not change the customs
which they had so long observed, and which they had adopted under
the special direction of God. Therefore, as things then stood, if Jew
and Gentile came to eat at the same table, the former would be shocked
and outraged by the habits and manners of the latter.
The Gentiles, and especially the Greeks, were extremely licen-
tious; and many, in accepting Christianity, had united the truth to their
unsanctified natures, and continued to practice fornication. The Jewish
Christians could not tolerate such immorality, which was not even
regarded as criminal by the Greeks. The Jews, therefore, held it highly
proper that circumcision, and the observance of the ceremonial law,
should be brought to the Gentile converts as a test of their sincerity and
devotion. This they believed would prevent the accession to the church
of those who were carried away by mere feeling, or who adopted the
faith without a true conversion of heart, and who might afterward
disgrace the cause by immorality and excesses.