The statement in Acts 15, at the
first Church Council in Jerusalem, is a final verdict indicating that God has
confirmed in numerous ways (most powerfully through the giving of the Holy
Spirit), that Gentiles have equal share in the Kingdom of God.
James, who was perhaps the most
wedded to the traditional Jewish manner of keeping the law of God as a means to
sanctification, brought great apostolic insight into the prophecy of Amos
9:11-12.
Said James,
“Brothers, listen to me. Simeon
has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for
his name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written,
‘After this I will return . . . that the remnant of mankind may seek the
Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord,
who makes these things known from of old.’”
James quoted from the LXX not the
proto-Masoretic Text.
But the KJV (MT) again flips the
meaning. Instead of the Gentiles possessing the hope of God through Christ, the
KJV—following the MT—indicates that the rebuilding of the temple is for the
purpose that the Jews may possess the remnant of Edom (Edom being a
common Jewish synonym for the Gentiles), and all the heathen, since they
are called by God’s name. I believe this is a statement altering the meaning of
Gentiles who are called by God’s name—that is, Christ-ians).
This alternation argues that the
Jews will rule the world and the Gentiles will answer to them, flipping the
meaning of the passage. Certainly, there is a difference in being free to
seek the Lord instead of being possessed by the Jews at the time the
Temple is restored. Once again, we have a strong indication that the Hebrew
“proto-Masoretic” text was altered to conform to the new Judaism of the rabbis
to resist Christians who sought prophecies. Compare this to the passage in the
Septuagint, Isaiah 14:1-2. Here Gentiles are added to Jacob (Israel) and share
in the inheritance that those who made them captives will be captive to them in
the land:
And the Lord will have mercy on
Jacob, and yet choose Israel, and they shall rest on their land: and the
stranger shall be added to them, yea, shall be added to the house of
Jacob. [Twice emphasized] And the Gentiles shall take them and bring
them into their place: and they shall inherit them, and they that took them
captives shall become captives to them; and they that had lordship over them
shall be under their rule.” (S. Douglas Woodward, Rebooting the Bible,
Part 1: Exposing the Second Century Conspiracy to Corrupt the Scripture and
Alter Biblical Chronology [rev ed.; Oklahoma City: Faith Happens, 2020], 115-16, emphasis in original)
