The portion of Amos quoted by James
presented the inclusion of Gentiles as a consequence of the rebuilding of “David’s
tent.” This has sometimes been correlated with Jesus’ resurrection, since Luke
presents Jesus as a descendent 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” (οικοδομεω) for the
upbuilding of the Church (9:31; 20:32). In Stephen’s speech σκηνη and σκηνωμα 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 R. Koester, The Dwelling of
God: The Tabernacle in the Old Testament, Intertestamental Jewish Literature,
and the New Testament [The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 22;
Eugene, Oreg.: Pickwick Publications, 1989], 86-87)
