The Scope of the Jerusalem Council Decision

Here is a quote from an older work as part of my ongoing study in Acts in general and the Jerusalem Council in particular.

“The Fact the decree is addressed to the Churches of Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia by name, seems to show that it was drawn up to meet a special difficulty affecting special Churches, and was not meant to be of universal obligation. With this agrees the fact that St. Paul in writing to other Churches never alludes to it ; and further, in his letter to the Corinthians (I Cor. X.27) and in that to the Romans xiv. 2), he speaks of one of its rules (about eating things offered to idols) as an open question, to be answered by each man’s conscience on principles of evangelical expediency.”

John Pilkington Norris, A Key to the Narrative of the Acts of the Apostles (London: Rivingtons, 1871), 74.

I am not sure that Norris is right given Acts 21:25, but the issue of 1 Corinthians is problematic. See this earlier post.