ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 (pp. 62-69) permitted us to see the extraordinary power of James within the presentation of Acts. His position, requiring that non-Jewish Christians accept basic requirements of purity, was first articulated on his own authority, and then accepted by those present at the meeting in Jerusalem. The result is a letter sent by the meeting, as from the apostles and elders with the congregation as a whole, and under the express authority of the Holy Spirit, to the effect that baptized gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia are to be required to abstain from food sacrificed to gods, from blood and strangled animals, and from fornication (so Acts 15:22-9).
