The Jerusalem Council and the Lukan perspective of the law in Acts

Luke's view of the relationship of the Mosaic Law to the church in general, and Christians in particular, continues to be a matter of ongoing debate among New Testament scholars. Opinions concerning the continuity and discontinuity of the Mosaic Law to the New Testament Christian range from great continuity, a movement toward discontinuity, significant discontinuity, to both continuity and discontinuity depending on whether one is a Jewish or Gentile Christian. The existence of this ongoing debate suggests that a fresh examination of the scriptural evidence and a reevaluation of the prior examinations of this evidence is in order.;The thesis of this dissertation is that the Jerusalem Council episode in Acts 15:1-35 provides the literary and theological key for understanding Luke's view of the Mosaic Law, a view that will ultimately prove to be discontinuous regarding the relationship of the Mosaic Law to the Christian. The demonstration of this thesis will consist of five chapters. The first chapter introduces the dissertation. Chapter 2 undertakes a survey of the Law in the Gospel of Luke by outlining the state of the question and surveying the relevant literature, examining Luke's legal terminology and the Law-related passages, and categorizing and summarizing the findings. This survey of the Law in the Gospel of Luke is followed by chapter 3 that surveys Luke's presentation of the Law in Acts by following the same method as in the previous chapter. Chapter 4 consists of an extended analysis of Acts 15:1-35 and argues for the key role of Acts 15 and the Jerusalem Council for understanding Luke's view of the Law in Acts. Having examined Luke's presentation of the Law in Luke-Acts generally, and in Acts 15 particularly, a summary of Luke's view of the Law is offered and the implications of this view for the issue of continuity and discontinuity of the Mosaic Law to believers is given specific attention in chapter 5.