The council of Jerusalem is a name applied retrospectively to a meeting described in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, fifteenth chapter. The events which are described there are generally dated from the surroundings of the year 50, ten years before the death of Jacques the Juste, the brother of Jesus.

The debate

The point of debate was this one: the Foi in was Jesus sufficient to be saved or was one moreover to observe the traditional rules of the Judaïsme?

The case was brought to Jerusalem which was the Church-Mother. In this Church, Pierre represented the chief of the Apôtre S and Jacques the Juste the chief of Old.

Even Jacques the Juste, hébraïsant it par excellence, was of agreement with Pierre, Paul and Barnabé to say that Jesus was the Saver of all and that one did not have to impose the traditional judaïques rules to the Christians resulting from the Paganisme. The Église had known to overcome this first difficulty and to adapt to a new situation.

Jacques, chief of the Church of Jerusalem, gave its decision, known later on under the name of apostolic Lettre (or apostolic Décret) (Acts 15,23-29):.

“the Apostle S and the old ones, your brothers, with the brothers of the Gentilité who are with Antioche, in Syria, and Cilicie, hello! Having learned that, without mandate of our share, certain people come from on our premises have, by their matter, jeté the disorder among you and to upset your spirits, we decided to choose delegates by mutual agreement and to send them to you with our beloveds Barnabé and Paul, these men who dedicated their life in the name of our Seigneur Jesus-Christ. We thus sent you Jude and Silas, which transmits to you of sharp voice the same message. The the Holy Spirit and ourselves decided to impose other loads to you only those which are essential: to abstain from the meats immolées with the Idol S, blood, the choked flesh and the illegitimate unions. You will make well keep you. Good-bye. ”

The great consequence of this council was the massive entry of the pagan in the Église.