The Acts of the Apostles

THE APOSTOLIC DECREE 257
these points (prohibition of meats !) are described as
absolutely essential (ravTa to. ewdvayKe^), and how it
could be regarded as a necessary condition of the ev
irpaa-G-eiv of Christians that they should observe them
(e^ wv SiaTtjpovvTe^ eaurovg ev irpd^ere)} On the con-
trary, there is here no difficulty if the Decree deaLs
with moral precepts ; these are, in fact, the necessary
presupposition of ev irpaaareiv.
(5) The meaning of the word " elSwXoOvTOv " is to
be derived from the first passage in which the Decree
appears (xv. 20). Here, however, we read " aire^ea-Qcu
Twv oXicryrjjuLaTcov T(tiv eiScoXojv.^^ Accordingly, elocoXo-
OvTOv does not specially refer to the sacrificial flesh
that was on sale in the markets, nor indeed even
exclusively to the flesh of the sacrificial feasts, but
simply to Idolatry in general. Participation in the
idolatrous feasts is especially emphasised, simply
because this was the crassest form of idolatry.^
(6) The objection that the prohibition of murder
is in such a document strange and superfluous has
no force ; ^ for, in the first place, the combination oi
the three elements of the Decree is formal, depend-
ing upon the Decalogue and the " Two Ways "
^ It would be otherwise if we read— " on these conditions we wiU
enter into fellowship with yon " ; but we do not read this, nor ii
this idea introduced. Nothing at all is said about fellowship and
intercommunion.
2 In the first passage where the Decree occurs in the Acts we
may assume with some probability that there is absolutely no
intention to prohibit meats. But the other passages must be
interpreted by the first, i.e. eidwXodvTov is accordingly to be under-
stood as pars pro toto.
3 Wellhausen writes: " This for Christian Gentiles seems surely
too self-evident."
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