equally revered by devout Jews and Christians, as the "Rampart of the People" (Obliam), and the
intercessor of Israel who prayed in the temple without ceasing for its conversion and for the aversion
of the impending doom.^452 He had more the spirit of an ancient prophet or of John the Baptist than
the spirit of Jesus (in whom he did not believe till after the resurrection), but for this very reason
he had most authority over the Jewish Christians, and could reconcile the majority of them to the
progressive spirit of Paul.
The compromise of James was adopted and embodied in the following brief and fraternal
pastoral letter to the Gentile churches. It is the oldest literary document of the apostolic age and
bears the marks of the style of James:^453
"The apostles and the elder brethren^454 unto the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch,
Syria, and Cilicia, greeting: Forasmuch as we have heard, that some who went out from us have
troubled you with words, subverting your souls, to whom we gave no commandment, it seemed
good unto us, having come to be of one accord, to choose out men and send them unto you with
our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who themselves also shall tell you the same things
by word of mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater
burden than these necessary things: that ye abstain from meats sacrificed to idols, and from blood,
and from things strangled, and from fornication; from which if ye keep yourselves, it shall be well
with you. Farewell."^455
The decree was delivered by four special messengers, two representing the church at Antioch,
Barnabas and Paul, and two from Jerusalem, Judas Barsabbas and Silas (or Silvanus), and read to
the Syrian and Cilician churches which were agitated by the controversy.^456 The restrictions remained
in full force at least eight years, since James reminded Paul of them on his last visit to Jerusalem
in 58.^457 The Jewish Christians observed them no doubt with few exceptions till the downfall of
idolatry,^458 and the Oriental church even to this day abstains from blood and things strangled; but
the Western church never held itself bound to this part of the decree, or soon abandoned some of
its restrictions.
Thus by moderation and mutual concession in the spirit of peace and brotherly love a burning
controversy was settled, and a split happily avoided.(^452) Comp. Acts15:13-21; 21:18-25; James 1:25; 2:12; and the account of Hegesippus quoted in § 27, p. 274.
(^453) The Gentile form of greeting, χαίρειν, Acts 15:23, occurs again in James 1:1, but nowhere else in the New Testament,
except in the letter of the heathen, Claudius Lysias (Acts 23:26); the usual form being χάρις καὶ εἰρήνη. This is likewise one of
those incidental coincidences and verifications which are beyond the ken of a forger.
(^454) According to the oldest reading, οἱ ἀπόστολοι καὶ οἱ πρεσβύτεροι ἀδελφοί, which may also be rendered: "the apostles, and
the presbyters, brethren;" comp. Acts 15:22. The omission of ἀδελφοί in some MSS. may be due to the later practice, which
excluded the laity from synodical deliberations.
(^455) Acts 15:23-29.
(^456) Acts 16:4
(^457) Acts 21:15. Comp. also Rev. 2:14, 20. But why does Paul never refer to this synodical decree? Because he could take a
knowledge of it for granted, or more probably because he did not like altogether its restrictions, which were used by the illiberal
constructionists against him and against Peter at Antioch (Gal. 2:12). Weizsäcker and Grimm (l.c., p. 423) admit the historic
character of some such compromise, but transfer it to a later period (Acts 21:25), as a proposition made by James of a modus
vivendi with Gentile converts, and arbitrarily charge the Acts with an anachronism. But the consultation must have come to a
result, the result embodied in a formal action, and the action communicated to the disturbed churches.
(^458) Justin Martyr, about the middle of the second century, considered the eating of εἰδωλόθυτα as bad as idolatry. Dial. c.
Tryph.Jud. 35
A.D. 1-100.