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re: the decrees
see Acts 15 & first verses of 16.
word for decrees is "dogma"; but if you check the synonyms in the back of Berry's Interlinear, you will find "dogma" to mean "something that all can conclude is correct" (paraphrased), meaning it is pretty logical.
The weight of dogma was not in who issued it, but in its logic. This was those letters that read "It seems good to us and the Holy Spirit to lay no other burden than to give to the poor and refrain from eating meat sacrificed to idols (Paul later stated that the latter was nothing really)"; and that arose from the Acts 15 meeting where circumcision was discussed (vehemently, I might add).
Paul carried and disseminated the decrees as a validation of his own beliefs, using them as "authority" for such. The early band of Believers (hardly a "church") was at first of course primarily Jewish. They wanted, as did their brothers, the Pharisees, converts to adhere to Jewish laws.
They took the matter to Jerusalem; thus the assembly, thus the decrees.
posted by
Xeno-x
on October 13, 2009 at 9:49 AM
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