Sárospataki Füzetek 19. (2015)

2015 / 4. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Enghy Sándor: Ézsaiás és Jeruzsálem. Jeruzsálem jelene és jövője az Úr szava és az Úr napja tükrében (Ézs 2-4)

van Houwe/ingen, Rob

this last requires an orientation on the coming Kingdom as well. It seems that the ‘creation order’ argument was not decisive for Paul, because he writes in 1 Corinthians 7:7-8 that it is good to be unmarried, even though the Creator himself had considered that ‘it is not good that the man should be alone’ (Gen. 2:18). After all, the present form of this world is passing away (1 Cor. 7:31b).

2.3 The relevance of Scripture

One could ask: “How do we determine the relevance of Scripture? And if Scripture is relevant for us, how do we have to deal with it?” These are fundamental questions indeed. We have to listen carefully to what the Spirit says to the churches.

Let us take the example of the Apostolic Decree (Acts 15). The decision of the Jerusalem council concerning gentile believers - that they had to abstain, among other things, from meat with blood still in it and from sexual immorality - was officially recorded and spread further, in order to be obeyed in the early Christian communities (Acts 15:30-31; 16:4). It is echoed in Paul’s letters, for example when he writes: “For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you avoid sexual immorality” (1 Thess. 4:2-3; cf. 5:22).19 This apostolic instruction was intended for non-Jewish believers like us, it was by no means incidental, it is rooted in basic principles of created life (blood, the seat of life, belongs to God as the Creator)20, and it was generally observed during the first centuries. Yet, most Christians today do not feel bound by this Biblical rule. Nobody in the Reformed tradition seriously objects against eating blood pudding or rare steak.

Does this mean that Scripture has no relevance for us today? No, because we have to take into consideration the unique redemptive-historical situation in which the apostolic decree originated. Two Christian cultures — an older (represented by the mother church in Jerusalem) and a younger (represented by the daughter church at

19 Other echoes of the Apostolic Decree can be found in Acts 21:25; 1 Cor. 8-10; Gal. 5:19-21; 1 John 5:21; Rev. 2:14 and 20. Compare Bauckham, Richard :"James and the Jerusalem Church,"in (ed.) Bauckham, Richard: The Book of Acts in Its First-Century Setting. Volume 4: Palestinian Setting, Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1995, 415-480 [464-465]. For the redemptive-historical setting, see Van Houweungen, P.H.R. (ed.): Apostelen, Dragers van een spraakmakend evangelie (Commenta- ar op het Nieuwe Testament, Kämpen, Kok, third printing 2013, 54-60. For the setting in antiquity, see: Öhler, Markus (ed.), Aposteldekret und antikes Vereinswesen, Gemeinschaft und ihre Ordnung, Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2011. For the communal setting, see: Villiers, Pieter G.R. de: "Communal discernment in the early church," in (ed.) Villiers, Pieter G.R. de: The Spirit that Guides. Discernment in the Bible and Spirituality, Acta Theologica Supplementum 17, Bloemfontein, Sun Media, 2013,132-155.

20 "The Decree obliges Gentile Christians to live a life according to the most basic elements of God's order of creation," writes Deines, Roland: "The Apostolic Decree: Halakhah for Gentile Christians or Concession to Jewish Taboos?", in (ed.) Ochs, Christoph & Watts, Peter: Acfs of God in History, Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2013, 121-188 [186]. No wonder the Jews violently protested when Jesus, who had presented himself as the bread of life, said that the true and imperishable life is fed by eating his body and drinking his blood (John 6:52-59).

68 Sárospataki Füzetek 19. évfolyam 2015-4