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Acts 15:1-21
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1 Then some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
2 And after engaging these men in sharp debate, Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question.
3 Sent on their way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, recounting the conversion of the Gentiles and bringing great joy to all the brothers.
4 On their arrival in Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and apostles and elders, to whom they reported all that God had done through them.
5 But some believers from the party of the Pharisees stood up and declared, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses.”
6 So the apostles and elders met to look into this matter.
7 After much discussion, Peter got up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you that the Gentiles would hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe.
8 And God, who knows the heart, showed His approval by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as He did to us.
9 He made no distinction between us and them, for He cleansed their hearts by faith.
10 Now then, why do you test God by placing on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear?
11 On the contrary, we believe it is through the grace of the Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”
12 The whole assembly fell silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul describing the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them.
13 When they had finished speaking, James declared, “Brothers, listen to me!
14 Simon has told us how God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people to be His own.
15 The words of the prophets agree with this, as it is written:
16 ‘After this I will return and rebuild the fallen tent of David. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it,
17 so that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord who does these things
18 that have been known for ages.’
19 It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not cause trouble for the Gentiles who are turning to God.
20 Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood.
21 For Moses has been proclaimed in every city from ancient times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.” -
Acts 7:1-8
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1 Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these charges true?”
2 And Stephen declared: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,
3 and told him, ‘Leave your country and your kindred and go to the land I will show you.’
4 So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God brought him out of that place and into this land where you are now living.
5 He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised to give possession of the land to Abraham and his descendants, even though he did not yet have a child.
6 God told him that his descendants would be foreigners in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
7 ‘But I will punish the nation that enslaves them,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come forth and worship Me in this place.’
8 Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision, and Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs. -
Genesis 34:13-31
/RSS FeedGenesis 34:13-31
13 But because Shechem had defiled their sister Dinah, Jacob’s sons answered him and his father Hamor deceitfully.
14 “We cannot do such a thing,” they said. “To give our sister to an uncircumcised man would be a disgrace to us.
15 We will consent to this on one condition, that you become circumcised like us—every one of your males.
16 Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves. We will dwell among you and become one people.
17 But if you will not agree to be circumcised, then we will take our sister and go.”
18 Their offer seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem.
19 The young man, who was the most respected of all his father’s household, did not hesitate to fulfill this request, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter.
20 So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city and addressed the men of their city:
21 “These men are at peace with us. Let them live and trade in our land; indeed, it is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters in marriage and give our daughters to them.
22 But only on this condition will the men agree to dwell with us and be one people: if all our men are circumcised as they are.
23 Will not their livestock, their possessions, and all their animals become ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will dwell among us.”
24 All the men who went out of the city gate listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male of the city was circumcised.
25 Three days later, while they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons (Dinah’s brothers Simeon and Levi) took their swords, went into the unsuspecting city, and slaughtered every male.
26 They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with their swords, took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went away.
27 Jacob’s other sons came upon the slaughter and looted the city, because their sister had been defiled.
28 They took their flocks and herds and donkeys, and everything else in the city or in the field.
29 They carried off all their possessions and women and children, and they plundered everything in their houses.
30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble upon me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people of this land. We are few in number; if they unite against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”
31 But they replied, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?” -
Genesis 21:1-8
/RSS FeedGenesis 21:1-8
1 Now the LORD attended to Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what He had promised.
2 So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised.
3 And Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore to him.
4 When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him.
5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
6 Then Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears of this will laugh with me.”
7 She added, “Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
8 So the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned. -
Genesis 17:9-27
/RSS FeedGenesis 17:9-27
9 God also said to Abraham, “You must keep My covenant—you and your descendants in the generations after you.
10 This is My covenant with you and your descendants after you, which you are to keep: Every male among you must be circumcised.
11 You are to circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and this will be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.
12 Generation after generation, every male must be circumcised when he is eight days old, including those born in your household and those purchased from a foreigner—even those who are not your offspring.
13 Whether they are born in your household or purchased, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh will be an everlasting covenant.
14 But if any male is not circumcised, he will be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”
15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, do not call her Sarai, for her name is to be Sarah.
16 And I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will descend from her.”
17 Abraham fell facedown. Then he laughed and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth at the age of ninety?”
18 And Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live under Your blessing!”
19 But God replied, “Your wife Sarah will indeed bear you a son, and you are to name him Isaac. I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.
20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you, and I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He will become the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.
21 But I will establish My covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this time next year.”
22 When He had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.
23 On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or purchased with his money—every male among the members of Abraham’s household—and he circumcised them, just as God had told him.
24 So Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised,
25 and his son Ishmael was thirteen;
26 Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised on the same day.
27 And all the men of Abraham’s household—both servants born in his household and those purchased from foreigners—were circumcised with him.
