The council at Jerusalem
- When
- 49 AD
- Where
- Jerusalem
- Kind
- Council
The apostles and elders settled that Gentile believers need not be circumcised or keep the whole law of Moses.
The first council, and the pattern for every later one: a disputed question, argument on both sides, and a decision issued as a letter to the churches affected. Acts 15 records Peter, Paul, Barnabas and James speaking, and James framing the finding. The ruling asked Gentile converts to abstain from blood, from what was strangled, from food offered to idols and from sexual immorality, but not to be circumcised. Everything that followed — a church that could be Gentile without becoming Jewish — turned on it, and Paul gives his own account of the same dispute in Galatians 2 in noticeably sharper terms.
Bodies it bears on
Began here
Either side of it
The whole timeline, from the apostolic communities to the present.