The portion of Amos quoted by James presented
the inclusion of Gentiles as a consequences of the rebuilding of "David's
tent." This has sometimes been correlated with Jesus' resurrection, since
Luke presents Jesus as a descendant of David (Luke 1:32; 2:4) and indicates
that Jesus' resurrection fulfilled the promise God made to David in the
scriptures (Acts 2:25-36; 13:34-37). Nevertheless, a christological
interpretation is highly unlikely, since Luke omitted both occurrences of the word
"raise" (ανιστημι) from the Greek version of Amos 9:11-12, although
the word would have provided a ready connection to Jesus' resurrection.
Instead, the rebuilding of David's tent
almost certainly refers to the establishment of the Jewish Christian church. Elsewhere
in Acts, Luke presents David as a father of Israel (2:29; 4:25) and uses the
term "build" (οιχοδεμεω) for the upbuilding of the church (9:31;
20:32). In Stephen's speech σχηνη and σχηνωμα designated the places of Israel's
worship, culminating with David's establishment of a tent sanctuary in
Jerusalem. Although Solomon built an idolatrous temple, God sent Jesus, the
"Righteous One," and the implication was that true worship took place
among those who accepted Jesus, as it had formerly taken place at David's tent.
James makes this explicit, by identifying the Jewish Christian community as the
restored tent of David. Peter insisted that both Jewish and Gentile Christians
depended on God's grace; James demonstrated that both represented the
fulfillment of the words of the prophets. (Craig Koester, The Dwelling of God: The Tabernacle in the Old Testament,
Intertestamental Jewish Literature, and the New Testament [Catholic Biblical
Quarterly Monograph Series 22; Washington, D.C.: Catholic Biblical Association
of America, 1989], 86-87)
