¹⁵ The voice said to him again, a second time, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”^(A)

Gentiles Hear the Good News

³⁴ Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality,^{(A) 35} but in every people anyone who fears him and practices righteousness^[a] is acceptable to him.^(B)

Peter’s Report to the Church at Jerusalem

11 Now the apostles and the brothers and sisters who were in Judea heard that the gentiles had also accepted the word of God. ² So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers^[a] criticized him,^{(A) 3} saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?”^{(B) 4} Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying,

¹⁸ When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, “Then God has given even to the gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”^(A)

Paul Rebukes Peter at Antioch

¹¹ But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood self-condemned,^{(A) 12} for until certain people came from James, he used to eat with the gentiles. But after they came, he drew back and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction.^{(B) 13} And the other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. ¹⁴ But when I saw that they were not acting consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the gentiles to live like Jews?”^[a](C)

The Council at Jerusalem

15 Then certain individuals came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”^{(A) 2} And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to discuss this question with the apostles and the elders.^{(B) 3} So they were sent on their way by the church, and as they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, they reported the conversion of the gentiles and brought great joy to all the brothers and sisters.^{(C) 4} When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them.^{(D) 5} But some believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and said, “It is necessary for them to be circumcised and ordered to keep the law of Moses.”

¹⁹ “Therefore I have reached the decision that we should not trouble those gentiles who are turning to God, ²⁰ but we should write to them to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from sexual immorality and from whatever has been strangled^[a] and from blood.^(A)

¹⁴ For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us,^{(A) 15} abolishing the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace,^{(B) 16} and might reconcile both to God in one body^[a] through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.^{[b](C) 17} So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, ¹⁸ for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.^(D)