Quote of the Day

“In a debate over Gentiles in Acts 15, Peter makes their inclusion in his ministry God’s choice. Because faith eliminates distinctions between Jews and Gentiles in God’s eyes, to make Gentile believers become proselytes is to defy God. Peter inverts readers’ expectations by comparing believing Jews with believing Gentiles: so with Gentiles so also with Jews (15:7–11). But the inversion is temporary. James characterizes God as taking Gentiles under divine care in accord with Amos 9:11–12 LXX, and Amos confirms God’s inclusion of the Gentiles in fulfillment of the Davidic promise. In contrast to peter’s inversion, God adds the Gentiles to the Jews: as with Jews so also with Gentiles.”

Robert L. Brawley, “The God of Promises and the Jews in Luke-Acts,” in Literary Studies in Luke-Acts: Essays in Honor of Joseph B. Tyson, ed. Richard P. Thompson and Thomas E. Phillips (Macon, GA: Mercer, 1998), 291-2.