180 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



while James and Peter and John should deal in their own fashion 

 with Jewish converts. Afterward he complains bitterly of Peter, 

 because, when on a visit to Antioch, he at first inclined to Paul's 

 view, and ate with the Gentile converts ; but when " certain came 

 from James," "drew back, and separated himself, fearing them 

 that were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews dissem- 

 bled likewise with him ; insomuch that even Barnabas was carried 

 away with their dissimulation " (Galatians ii, 12, 13). 



There is but one conclusion to be drawn from Paul's account 

 of this famous dispute, the settlement of which determined the 

 fortunes of the nascent religion. It is that the disciples at Jeru- 

 salem, headed by " James, the Lord's brother," and by the leading 

 apostles, Peter and John, were strict Jews, who objected to admit 

 any converts to their body, unless these, either by birth or by be- 

 coming proselytes, were also strict Jews. In fact, the sole differ- 

 ence between James and Peter and John, with the body of disci- 

 ples whom they led, and the Jews by whom they were surrounded, 

 and with whom they for many years shared the religious observ- 

 ances of the Temple, was that they believed that the Messiah, 

 whom the leaders of the nation yet looked for, had already come 

 in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. 



The Acts of the Apostles is hardly a very trustworthy history ; 

 it is certainly of later date than the Pauline epistles, supposing 

 them to be genuine. And the writer's version of the conference 

 of which Paul gives so graphic a description, if that is correct, is 

 unmistakably colored with all the art of a reconciler, anxious to 

 cover up a scandal. But it is none the less instructive on this 

 account. The judgment of the " council " delivered by James is 

 that the Gentile converts shall merely " abstain from things sacri- 

 ficed to idols, and from blood and from things strangled, and from 

 fornication." But notwithstanding the accommodation in which 

 the writer of the Acts would have us believe, the Jerusalem 

 church held to its endeavor to retain the observance of the law. 

 Long after the conference, some time after the writing of the 

 Epistles to the Galatians and Corinthians, and immediately after 

 the dispatch of that to the Romans, Paul makes his last visit to 

 Jerusalem, and presents himself to James and all the elders. And 

 this is what the Acts tells us of the interview : 



And they said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands (or myri- 

 ads) there are among the Jews of them which have believed; and they are all 

 zealous for the law : and they have been informed concerning thee, that thou 

 teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling 

 them not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs (Acts 

 xxi, 20, 21). 



They therefore request that he should perform a certain public re- 

 ligious act in the Temple, in order that 



