Black Hole Sun

Dan McClellan Jonah gets upset when they repent and are forgiven because Jonah was like, "I knew you would do this to me."

Dan Beecher "You're always doing this. You're always making me look bad in front of my friends."

Dan McClellan "You're always forgiving people." Hey, everybody, I'm Dan McClellan.

Dan Beecher And I'm Dan Beecher.

Dan McClellan And you're listening to the Data Over Dogma podcast, where we increase public access to the academic study of the Bible and religion, and combat the spread of misinformation about the same. How are things today, Dan?

Dan Beecher Things are good, man.

Dan McClellan Woo.

Dan Beecher We're going to do some combating today.

Dan McClellan We're going to be woo-hoo- Got my combat socks on.

Dan Beecher That's right.

Dan McClellan Get- Yeah ...

Dan Beecher yourselves ready. That's the second half of the show. We are assuming at this moment that by the time this reaches you all, there's a world for this to go out into.

Dan McClellan Yes, there is an open question- ... about whether or not the Earth will crash into the sun, or the sun will expand to engulf the Earth on April 8th.

Dan Beecher You physics wonks.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher Yeah, April 8th, it's going to kill us all.

Dan McClellan Yeah. So, if you're listening to this, it's probably either the 15th or the 16th, or maybe later if you're just irresponsible. And we should know for sure whether or not the Earth has come to the end. Our money, the line was not very great that they gave us, but our money is on the Earth still being there.

Dan Beecher Yeah. That's our bet. I just got back from Philadelphia and I saw some of where they make our money.

Dan McClellan Oh, yeah, you went to a mint?

Dan Beecher I went to the mint, and I'll tell you what, there's something very funny about going to a mint right now because it just feels like you're watching a VHS factory or something. It feels like, does anyone still use this stuff?

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher The physical... You see them making pennies and nickels, which cost more to make than they are worth, and I just go- Yeah ... "What are we doing here, people?"

Dan McClellan I haven't touched a penny in years.

Dan Beecher Well, yeah.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher And then you're in Philadelphia, and you're surrounded by everything Benjamin Franklin.

Dan McClellan Right.

Dan Beecher And you're suddenly reminded of the volume of quotations from Benjamin Franklin about pennies specifically. And it just becomes a whole thing. He was a- Apparently, there's a tradition of throwing pennies onto his grave, which is weird.

Dan McClellan Really?

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan Like, "Take that, Franklin."

Dan Beecher "Save one of these."

Dan McClellan A sock full of nickels, just start wailing on his grave. Oh, man. There was an old video where Ben Franklin visits a kid- ... in the dead of night to try to teach him about... Was it a Mystery Science Theater 3000? I think it was a Mystery Science Theater 3000 thing.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan Where they watch this video. It's one of those educational videos from the '50s.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan Where it's like Ben Franklin shows up in this kid's bedroom and lectures him on saving money. Oh, man, it was bad.

Dan Beecher Oh, Ben.

Dan McClellan Yep.

Dan Beecher Ben is- He was a nut.

Dan McClellan They all had their issues- Yeah ... back then. But they also had eclipses back then, and that is what we're going to be talking about in the second segment.

Dan Beecher Ooh, segued, man. You brought it all back around. Nice going.

Dan McClellan But that's- That's where the money is made or lost.

Dan Beecher That's right.

Dan McClellan In our case, lost.

Dan Beecher Yeah. But- But before that- Yes ... we're going to do a chapter and verse that is actually just a chapter.

Dan McClellan Yep.

Dan Beecher So, let's get onto that.

Dan McClellan All right.

Dan Beecher This chapter and verse, we're going to Acts. You had suggested to me that we could do the council at Jerusalem, and I said to you- What's that?

Dan McClellan ...

Dan Beecher "I don't know what that is."

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher And you said, "Oh." You probably rolled your eyes. We were texting, so I didn't get to hear the exasperation in your voice. But you very kindly pointed me in the direction of Acts 15.

Dan McClellan Yes, Acts 15. The dead center of the Book of Acts.

Dan Beecher Ooh. And yeah- The Ides of the Book of Acts, if you will.

Dan McClellan And Peter's got to beware the Ides of the Book of Acts because he's mentioned in Acts 15, and then he drops out of the Acts of the Apostles entirely.

Dan Beecher Oh, really?

Dan McClellan Peter is not mentioned again after the Jerusalem Council. Paul then takes over as the main character. Paul's main character syndrome is fed by the Jerusalem Council, and then- Okay ... he takes over. And then additionally, the apostles and the elders at Jerusalem, who are mentioned a handful of times, and particularly in Acts 15, they're mentioned once again in Acts 16:4, and then they too disappear from the narrative- Just poof ... as we shift from a Jerusalem-focused ministry to the broader Gentile-focused ministry in Acts. So, a lot of scholars would suggest this is intentional craftsmanship on the part of the author of Acts, who is traditionally labeled Luke, but I'm not a fan of that theory, so I will just continue to refer to the author of Acts. That they wanted to set this up as two acts. Get it?

Dan Beecher Ha.

Dan McClellan Ta-da.

Dan Beecher Act one and act two.

Dan McClellan Ta-da. And yeah. And the pivot point is the Jerusalem Council or the Council at Jerusalem.

Dan Beecher Okay. And if we're pivoting from Peter to Paul- Mm-hmm ... I just want to know, because I read Acts 15 and Paul- Where's Mary in all of this? No, I'm going to say, where's Barnabas?

Dan McClellan Oh, yeah.

Dan Beecher Barnabas was a big deal. He's there right next to Paul. They're doing it together.

Dan McClellan Uh-huh.

Dan Beecher They're a team. They're a duo. They're an act.

Dan McClellan Mm-hmm.

Dan Beecher And then suddenly, Paul just gets all the credit from then on out.

Dan McClellan Yeah, and there's an argument to make. Some people think that the attribution of, or the assignment of authorship of Luke and Acts to Luke is based on the prominence of Luke in the Book of Acts, and in this way, it kind of functions as the gospel according to Paul. And so- Yeah ... Paul has got to take over control of the narrative, and you see at the end of Acts 15 verses 36 through 41, the two of them have a falling out and go their separate ways. And the author- Paul and Barnabas.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan And the author of Acts is like, "Sorry, man. I got to stick with Paul."

Dan Beecher Barnabas is just too onerous to write. It's too big a word. It sounds silly. We're just going to go with Paul.

Dan McClellan Yeah. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. Sail away, sail away, sail away. And Paul chose Silas, and they went their own way to Cilicia- All right ... strengthening the churches along the way.

Dan Beecher Well, there you go. Paul has a new sidekick, I guess- Yep ... in Silas.

Dan McClellan All right.

Dan Beecher Let's get into this council and what it's for and what they decided, because I think some of their decisions, I'm going to side with them. I'm going to say they made some good decisions. And then other ones, I'm a little sketchier on.

Dan McClellan Okay.

Dan Beecher But it definitely is a pivot point for Christianity as an idea- Yeah ... as its own church, as its own entity going forward.

Dan McClellan Yeah. And there are scholars who will argue that this kind of affects the break between Christianity and Judaism, and other scholars would argue against that. But certainly, this represents one of the main turning points. But even if you go back into the Gospel of Luke, you have Luke representing non-Israelites favorably. There's foreshadowing going on. Luke is leaning into this, "Hey, this is going to be for everybody," kind of storytelling. Whereas in Matthew, you have Jesus saying, "I am sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." And it's not until afterwards that we have this pivot. But we have something interesting. I want to start actually in Acts chapter 10 and 11.

Dan Beecher Oh, I was not prepared for this. Okay, fine.

Dan McClellan Go. So this is where you have this gentleman named Cornelius, who is a centurion of the Italian cohort, and he's a God-fearer, and he's interested in some literature basically about Christianity. And Peter is on his roof, taking a nap, passed out, doesn't know what's going on, but he's hungry. And he has this vision where this sheet is lowered down, and he sees all these different kinds of animals, clean and unclean, and he hears a voice that says, "Rise, kill, and eat." And he says, "Nay, my Lord, for I have never eaten any unclean thing." And God says, or this voice says, "What God has declared clean, you shouldn't call unclean." And Peter has this vision three times. And then he's just kind of left going, "What?" And doesn't know what's going on. And then there's the knock at the door, and they're like, "You have a gentleman caller." And he says, "I am not dressed to receive." Just kidding. That's not in the text. So he goes down and meets with Cornelius and suddenly kind of picks up on what this means. Oh, wait a minute. Maybe what this means is the Gentiles should have access to the gospel as well, not just Jewish folks. And so it's actually doing two things, this vision. One is the actual content of the vision. It's saying, guess what? No more distinction between clean and unclean foods. In other words, we're not going to do the unclean foods thing anymore.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan And the other thing is, and that figuratively we're going to extend to who can access the gospel. Gentiles can access the gospel. I made a video the other day where I said that one of the kind of eradication of this distinction of clean and unclean foods, part of it takes place in Acts 10, and a bunch of people are like, "No, that was just figurative for taking the gospel to the Gentiles." I didn't read the verse where it was like, "Oh, P.S.- ... the whole vision thing, that was all pretend. We're actually- Right ... not doing that." That's obviously also a part of it. They didn't come back and say, "This was all for illustration purposes."

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan "None of this is legally binding."

Dan Beecher So then we come to- Although, to be fair, that method of communicating, which is just sort of all weird esoteric metaphor- Uh-huh ... you can't hold it down to anything.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher It is tricky.

Dan McClellan It's squishy. It's very squishy, but that's what makes it enduring because it can be molded to fit all kinds of different circumstances.

Dan Beecher Oh, we're going to be looking at some enduring weird stuff later on in the show.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher Yeah, it's enduring, but that's because you can keep reapplying it in new and creative and really bizarre ways.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher And I would think that, frankly, I personally don't understand a God that doesn't want to communicate clearly. Maybe it's the neurodivergent in me- ... that just wants all of the language and communication to be clear and easily understood, but that's just me.

Dan McClellan Do you know what they call-- They have a word for the fact that the scriptures are clear and easy to understand. You know what that word is?

Dan Beecher What?

Dan McClellan Perspicuity.

Dan Beecher Oh, yeah.

Dan McClellan Okay. The perspicuity of scripture, the perspicuity of God. I was going to say fiction.

Dan Beecher It's not the fact that it's unclear and easy to understand?

Dan McClellan No. The Bible is perspicuous.

Dan Beecher It's conspicuously perspicuous.

Dan McClellan Yeah. Well, ideally. The reality is that the perspicuity is few and far between.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan But we're going to take our show to Antioch now in Syria, in the north, kind of right where the northeast corner of the Mediterranean Sea. And we have Paul there, and we have this story at the beginning of Acts 15. It says, "Then certain individuals," we're not going to say who, but just certain individuals.

Dan Beecher Not naming names.

Dan McClellan Yeah. Fulano de Tal, if you know what that means. "Came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, 'Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.' And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the..." Do I keep saying Barnabas? What the heck?

Dan Beecher I like it. I'm enjoying it. You say it however you want.

Dan McClellan Ah.

Dan Beecher That's why Paul chose to part from Barnabas. He couldn't say his name half the time.

Dan McClellan This is how Jacob became James, and I'm dead serious about this. Jacob was Iacobus in Latin.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan And then I just replaced that B with an M.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan And that happened in Latin, and it became Iacomus.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan And that became Iacomo, which became Tiago, which became Jaime, which became James, which became San Diego, St.

Dan Beecher James- Yeah ...

Dan McClellan Santiago, all of that. Okay, anyway. "Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to discuss this question with the apostles and the elders." So, we're setting the stage- Yeah ... by saying basically some people came into Paul's house and told his people what they had to do, and he wasn't having it. Interestingly, there is what many scholars believe to be a variant account of this.

Dan Beecher Oh.

Dan McClellan I don't know if you came across this. Paul in Galatians 2, the first dozen or so verses, is explaining the Jerusalem Council from his perspective.

Dan Beecher Oh.

Dan McClellan And it conflicts in- Okay ... some details with what's going on in Acts, because Paul says he went up to Jerusalem because of a revelation.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan Not because some no-names came down to his territory and started causing trouble in the neighborhood.

Dan Beecher Started arguing about everybody having to be circumcised.

Dan McClellan Yeah. It's like, hey, not everything is about your- Ding-dongs. So, they go up to Jerusalem. "They were sent on their way by the church, and as they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, they reported the conversion of the Gentiles and brought great joy to all the brothers and sisters." So, basically, bringing the gospel to the Gentiles without having the Gentiles have to go through Judaism to get there is a great thing, and the author is letting you know everybody is rejoicing about this. "When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. But some believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and said, 'It is necessary for them to be circumcised and ordered to keep the law of Moses.'" So, basically, this is going to be a big debate about whether or not the law of Moses is still in effect and whether or not Christians must hold to all of the rites and ordinances of Judaism, including, for men, the rite of circumcision.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan And again, when we look in Galatians 2, Paul talks about it in slightly different details. "The apostles and the elders met together to consider this matter. After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, 'My brothers, you know that in the early days, God made a choice among you, that I should be the one through whom the Gentiles would hear the message of the Good News and become believers. And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us, and in cleansing their hearts by faith, has made no distinction between them and us. Now therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?'" So, Peter is picking up the torch for bringing the gospel to the Gentiles.

Dan Beecher Yeah. That's a bold statement.

Dan McClellan Yeah. Just saying, "God made a choice among you."

Dan Beecher Yeah. Meaning, like, "None of you are the guy. I'm the guy."

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher "That's not you. So, listen to me."

Dan McClellan Yeah. It takes nerves to stand up and be like, "Look, you remember how God said I'm in charge?"

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan Anyway.

Dan Beecher Exactly. I'm- And it's been happening ever since ...

Dan McClellan the man.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus just as they will. In other words, Jewish folks, they have the law that they're following, but for Christians, salvation is in grace. It's not in the works of the law. And so, Jewish folks who are believers in Jesus can continue to keep the law for the sake of cultural reasons, but those who are not Jewish don't have to adopt those conventions in order to be saved, because salvation is through grace and faith.

Dan Beecher The whole assembly- And that didn't become a big problem point for anybody.

Dan McClellan No. Well, not for about 1,400 years, but yeah.

Dan Beecher And then suddenly things- And then something boiled over.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher Things went a little slaunchwise.

Dan McClellan The whole assembly kept silence and listened to Barnabas and Paul as they told of all the signs and wonders that God had done through them among the Gentiles. And then here's where we get to kind of the linchpin of the whole thing. After they finished speaking, James replied. Now, this is the brother of Jesus.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan Oh. This is Jesus' own flesh and blood who we hear about in... James likely has become the leader of the church in Jerusalem following the death of Jesus.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan And so when James stands up, everybody listens. Even Peter is like, "Hey, remember God put me in charge?" And James is like, "Sit down."

Dan Beecher "I got this.

Dan McClellan Don't worry." "My brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first looked favorably on the Gentiles to take from among them a people for his name. This agrees with the words of the prophets as it is written." And then we got Acts 15:16-17, which I think are fascinating because this is supposed to be a quotation from Amos 9:11-12.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan But it's not what you'll find if you look in your Old Testament at Amos 9:11-12. It's a little bit different, and the differences are, there are two things that are causing difference here. One is that it's going from the Greek translation, the Septuagint, and it changes a couple of words. So I'm going to read what he quotes, and then I'll talk about the difference between this and what we actually find in the Hebrew.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan So this is what the prophets wrote. "After this, I will return, and I will rebuild the dwelling of David, which has fallen. From its ruins, I will rebuild it, and I will set it up so that all other peoples may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles over whom my name has been called. Thus says the Lord, who has been making these things known from long ago." So it sounds like the prophets have prophesied of a time when the Lord's blessings would be extended to all the Gentiles- Right ... over whom God's name would be called.

Dan Beecher That's definitely what that sounds like.

Dan McClellan Yeah. It's not what is actually in Amos, and I'm just going to...

Dan Beecher I knew it. They're tricking me again. And this is Amos chapter which?

Dan McClellan This is Amos chapter 9.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan And here's verse 11 and 12. "On that day, I will raise up the booth of David that has fallen and repair its breaches and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old." So, we're doing okay.

Dan Beecher Yeah. Roughly similar.

Dan McClellan "In order that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name," says the Lord who does this.

Dan Beecher Oh.

Dan McClellan So yeah, here's where things go sideways. Or what did you say, slaunchwise or something like that?

Dan Beecher That's right. That's a Beecherism right there. Well, I was thinking squanch, but- There you go ...

Dan McClellan that's from another show. So here are the main differences. Amos says, "In order that they may possess the remnant of Edom," and Acts 15 says, "So that all other peoples may seek the Lord."

Dan Beecher And- Yeah, that feels different ...

Dan McClellan feels different. And the difference is in two words in the Hebrew. Edom is spelled according to one spelling, not the full spelling, but what we call the defective spelling. It's spelled exactly the same as the Hebrew word for humanity or man.

Dan Beecher Oh.

Dan McClellan Edom and Adam can be spelled the same way.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan And so the Greek translation doesn't understand that this is talking about Edom and thinks it's talking about Adam, and so has humanity or mankind or something like that.

Dan Beecher Oh. And Edom, to be clear, E-D-O-M is- Mm-hmm ...

Dan McClellan a place. It's a type of music.

Dan Beecher Electron...

Dan McClellan I'm just kidding.

Dan Beecher Stop it.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher Stop it. It is a place.

Dan McClellan It is southeast of Israel. And so Edom would become Idumea. And the Idumeans, just prior to Jesus's life, would all be forcibly converted to Judaism. So King Herod was actually an Idumean.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan So considered an outsider who also happens to be Jewish.

Dan Beecher So anyway.

Dan McClellan And then the other problem is we've got "possess the remnant of Edom." Possess is a verb, yarah, in Hebrew. That means to dispossess, to take over, something like that. It is misunderstood as darash by the Septuagint translators, or they have a variant text as a source text. Darash means to seek. So, the Septuagint translation here actually says, "So that the remnant of man may seek."

Dan Beecher Oh, wow.

Dan McClellan And then it stops. This is a transitive verb. That means that this is a verb that takes a direct object, but the text doesn't provide a direct object because it is a mistranslation that results in an incomplete sentence. And so when we pick it up in Acts, what is the remnant of humanity seeking? Well, obviously we're going to put the Lord in there.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan So, that's what the author of Acts puts into James' mouth. And then, "Even all the Gentiles over whom my name has been called," in the Hebrew, we have, "All the nations who are called by my name." So, Amos is actually a prophecy about the nation of Israel reconquering territories that they once held, but then lost. At the period of their largest expanse, they had hegemony in Edom and in other nations that they later lost. And so this is a prophecy about the nation of Israel taking back over the land of Edom and any other lands that at one point had been possessed by the people of Adonai, the people of the Lord. And it gets reinterpreted thanks to these words. Now, whether this is incidental, whether it is intentional, some people think it is inspired. Some people think that they were using testimonia, which is where you cobble together inspiring statements from fragments of different scriptures.

Dan Beecher Whatever the case- Good thing nobody does that anymore.

Dan McClellan Yeah. Whatever the case, what James ends up saying is not what the prophet says, and it's also in Greek.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan So, James was not speaking in Aramaic or Hebrew when this came out of his mouth, which means it didn't come out of his mouth. This means that the only way that this prophecy works in this context is if it is in Greek. And so this is- It's through multiple mistranslations. Or- And so this is a literary creation.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan In other words, it is the author of the Book of Acts who is putting these words into the mouth of James, the brother of the Lord.

Dan Beecher But- Sorry, let me make sure I understand what you're saying.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher Because James would've spoken Aramaic or Hebrew- Yeah ... as his primary spoken tongue.

Dan McClellan Yeah. This council in Jerusalem would've been going on in Aramaic or Hebrew.

Dan Beecher Okay. And those mistranslations would only have happened because of the way things work in Greek.

Dan McClellan Okay.

Dan Beecher Crazy.

Dan McClellan Specifically, it is the precise mistranslation that the Septuagint is responsible for.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan In other words, if James was actually quoting scripture, he had just peeked in the Greek Septuagint and was like, "Okay, I'm going to quote that."

Dan Beecher And- He was like, "Yeah, I could be reading this in its original Hebrew or whatever- ... but I feel like it's better to go with the Greek translation of it- Yeah ... and then translate it back." And- Do you remember there was an SNL sketch back in the '80s where they had taken a song, and it had been translated into French, and they were like, "And now we've translated it back." And it was just- ... a popular song, but the words were just slightly askew.

Dan McClellan Oh, gosh. Yeah, that was a long, long time ago.

Dan Beecher I don't remember which song it was.

Dan McClellan Anyway. They've done that with Google Translate now- Uh-huh ... where they translate it into Aramaic and then translate it back into English or something and- Yeah ... it's always goofy.

Dan Beecher It's not the best way to do it.

Dan McClellan Nothing beats, however, the song by that Italian singer that was all gibberish.

Dan Beecher Oh, that was pretend English?

Dan McClellan Yes, that was pretend English, because I was like- The song- ... "I can hear it."

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan It totally sounds- And if I didn't know English, this would fool me.

Dan Beecher You guys should Google that if you want to.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher Just pause the show for now and go Google, "Italian guy," "Italians..."

Dan McClellan It was in the '70s or something.

Dan Beecher Italian singer.

Dan McClellan Yeah. There's a great video. But holy cow, yeah. And then there's "Come Together," which is also just gibberish. But- So, this seems to be something that the author of the Book of Acts is putting into the mouth of James based on either their copy of the Greek translation of Amos or these testimonia. So, it's possible that they could have a text that was cobbling together a bunch of different sayings that are attributed to the prophets. Because these texts transmitted in different ways back then.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan The author of the Book of Acts could not just go down to the local Crossway and pick up a Bible and know that it was going to be the same as everyone else's. These were mostly on scrolls, and you had different scrolls produced by different folks, and so there were lots of differences. And then we have James, who immediately moves on to a peculiar alteration of the law. He says, "Therefore, I have reached the decision-" "... that we should not trouble those Gentiles who are turning to God, but we should write to them," and then here we get this list. "These are the things we're going to maintain-" Yeah.

Dan Beecher They- "...

Dan McClellan as part of the law. This is what's required of you."

Dan Beecher We're going to let them Leave their wee-wees alone. But here are the things that they do have to do.

Dan McClellan Right. So we go from 613 down to four, and here they are. We should write to them to abstain only from things polluted by idols, and this probably refers mainly to food, but other things that have been sullied by- How do you pollute a food by an idol? Offer the food to the idol.

Dan Beecher Oh, so if it was sacrificed to an idol.

Dan McClellan Yeah. So this is a big debate with Paul, is should we eat food that has been sacrificed to idols? Because a big part of participation in the Greco-Roman society at this time period would've been participating in feasts and house parties and things like that. And one of the things that they would've done is poured out a little for the homies, only the homies are the gods. And so if you are then going and partaking of that food, are you partaking in the worship of the deity?

Dan Beecher Okay. And so we have- So no, none of that. That's right out.

Dan McClellan Yeah. Although, well, we'll get to Paul. So that's thing one, things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and I'm pretty sure, let me pull up the Greek real quick. This probably is porneia.

Dan Beecher Yes, porneia.

Dan McClellan Porneia is where we get pornography, the word.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan And it is kind of a grab bag of illicit sexual activity. And as exciting as that sounds to a lot of people, you can't go to the store and say, "Give me the grab bag of illicit sexual activity." But so it's fundamentally related to adultery and sex work. So these were the things that were considered unseemly in the Greco-Roman world around this time period for the more conservative crowd.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan But it was broader than that as well. It basically included anything that a social group considered to be illicit sexual activity. And so for Christians around this time period, particularly the more philosophically oriented ones, the more conservative ones, it would've certainly included pretty much all sex outside of marriage. Although there is a question about things like masturbation and sex with slaves, because they were not considered fully people, and so there is an argument to make that perhaps that was considered unproblematic.

Dan Beecher They needed to spell out a lot more things.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher I'm just going to say, the fact that this book is still being followed means that there are a lot of questions that are still- Yeah ... hanging out there.

Dan McClellan Yeah. And at the time, the unwritten rules would've sat a lot closer to the surface. So if you were part of this community, you would have a much clearer idea of what they considered in, what they considered out.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan We would have fewer instances of George Costanza saying, "Was that wrong?" And so that's number two. And from whatever has been strangled. So within Judaism, there are prescribed ways of slaughtering animals that are going to be eaten. The blood has to be drained from them. And so this is probably related to the idea of things polluted by idols. In other words, there were probably ritual ways to slaughter animals that involved strangling them at the time, and this was- Interesting ... probably seen as unseemly.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan If you are interested in being disturbed, there is an interesting episode of "No Reservations" with Anthony Bourdain- Uh-huh ... where he participates in the slaughter of a very large pig for a, I forget what the name of it it's called, but a specific kind of feast, a Cajun-style feast.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan And yeah.

Dan Beecher They strangle it?

Dan McClellan They sure are. No, they don't strangle it.

Dan Beecher Oh, okay.

Dan McClellan But they drain its blood and- Yeah ... there's a large knife involved. Somebody's holding a pistol.

Dan Beecher All I'm going to say is strangulation is literally the weirdest possible way to slaughter an animal for food.

Dan McClellan Yeah. It's like, let's take the longest, least efficient, and most- Yeah ... disturbing way to do this.

Dan Beecher I just have this image of a guy with a pig in a headlock like, "Come on."

Dan McClellan Oh, man. My grandfather taught me a trick when I was growing up to hypnotize chickens. You grab them by the feet, you put them down on their backs so their head's on the ground. You put your finger in the dirt right by their eye, and then you draw a line going straight away from them, and it messes with their depth perception. And so they sit there just staring at the line. And so my grandfather, he put a chicken like that, drew the line, and then the chicken was just frozen.

Dan Beecher Just paused.

Dan McClellan And then he just chopped its head off while it was just laying on the ground.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher Sounds great.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher This is one of those helpful episodes where we have- ... useful tips for everybody for their lives.

Dan McClellan So I grew up on a farm. Folks who grew up on a farm are used to this kind of thing.

Dan Beecher Absolutely.

Dan McClellan So it's not a big surprise.

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan And then thing four is blood. So James basically rewrites the law of Moses.

Dan Beecher Meaning eating blood, right?

Dan McClellan Eating blood, right. We're going to do away with all of these other things. We got four rules, things polluted by idols, porneia, whatever we consider to be illicit sexual acts, things strangled, and blood. And so three of the four things have to do with- Ritual purity of food.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan Which is peculiar for this new Christian group that is being taken to the Gentiles.

Dan Beecher Why is that peculiar?

Dan McClellan Well, when you talk to Christians about why they don't follow certain Old Testament laws and why they do follow others, why certain of them should still be relevant, you generally get one of two different rationalizations. One is that anything that Jesus quoted as being relevant in the New Testament, that stays. Jesus endorses it, and so it stays. And then anything that wasn't quoted goes. That has fuzzy boundaries. That doesn't work. But that's one of the rationalizations. The other rationalization is that the law of Moses can be divided into two or three different categories. One is moral laws, and the other is ceremonial laws. And then the third category, which comes up by Aquinas around 1,000 years later, is civil laws. And so what they say is Christianity keeps the moral laws, does not keep the ceremonial and the civil laws.

Dan Beecher Right.

Dan McClellan However, three of these four things- Are ceremonial ... are ceremonial laws, and Paul rejects those three ceremonial laws because Paul says, "Hey, we know an idol is nothing in the world. Sacrificing food to an idol doesn't change anything about the food."

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan "It's meaningless."

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan "And so you're fine. Eat the food. Doesn't matter. Now, if you've got some weak brother who is there who's like, 'Oh, we can't eat the food,' then you don't want to scandalize him. You don't want to destroy his faith by you just chowing down." And so that's where we get the, a brother should not place a stumbling block before another brother, is basically the idea that you don't rejoice in your freedom right in front of these tender little snowflakes who are going to be ruined by this.

Dan Beecher Some poor Pharisee who's still trying to keep the laws the way they're supposed to.

Dan McClellan Or any Gentile who's just a little milk toast.

Dan Beecher Yeah, exactly.

Dan McClellan And so Paul is like, "Yeah, none of that matters."

Dan Beecher Okay.

Dan McClellan And there are large Christian populations in different parts of the world that have a long history of eating things like blood sausage- Yeah ... and other things like that. Obviously, James' four rules didn't stick.

Dan Beecher Nope. So basically, Peter's out. James is out. Basically, we can ignore all these guys at this point.

Dan McClellan Well, and this is one of the things I keep saying. Nobody derives their worldview from the scriptures, not these people who we're talking about in the scriptures, not the people who wrote them, not anyone who follows the Bible, because we all negotiate. We all pick and choose.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan And these things were not picked. So James is like, "Let's do this." And then in verse 22, it says, "Then the apostles and the elders, with the consent of the whole church, decided to choose men from among them and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leaders among the brethren, with the following letter." So Paul is taking this letter that says, "The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers and sisters of Gentile origin in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia.

Dan Beecher Greetings.

Dan McClellan Since we have heard that certain persons who have gone out from us, though with no instructions from us, have said things to disturb you and have unsettled your minds, we have decided unanimously to choose men and send them to you along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials, that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what is strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.

Dan Beecher Farewell."

Dan McClellan Wow.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan So they were like, "Can we get it in writing?" And they put it in writing. And so those are the four laws of Christianity according to the author of the Book of Acts, 25% of which stuck.

Dan Beecher Yeah. And didn't stick convincingly, was confusing and weird, the sexual immorality part. And then the part that this whole thing was about, or at least part of what it was all about, which was the circumcision- Mm-hmm ... somehow came back, and now I'm circumcised. How did that happen? That was the one thing that they said we didn't have to do anymore. And you know who it was? It was John Kellogg. Did you know that? Did you know that that's why I'm circumcised because the Corn Flakes guy?

Dan McClellan I had never worried about why you personally are circumcised, but- You should ... I am aware that Kellogg is responsible for some unseemly stuff.

Dan Beecher I'm very anti-circumcision. I'm just going to put that out there. I think it's a bad thing.

Dan McClellan I can tell. And yeah, they gathered the congregation together. They delivered the letter. When they read it, they rejoiced at the exhortation. So basically, everybody is having a great time because they just had- And they all lived happily ever after ... they just had 609 rules, regulations lifted.

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan And they were left with four, and they would be getting rid of three of those before too long anyway.

Dan Beecher Shortly. In short order.

Dan McClellan Okay. But isn't this bizarre though, that the only thing that stuck was this concern for sexual purity, which has become probably one of the central identity markers of Christianity today, even as it is flouted by an awful lot of people?

Dan Beecher Yeah.

Dan McClellan The people who push this note the hardest frequently are the people who are the worst at keeping it.

Dan Beecher At keeping it.

Dan McClellan Yeah. And if you haven't read Kristin Kobes Du Mez's book, "Jesus and John Wayne," you should definitely go do that. So yeah.

Dan Beecher Well, we have gone way over time on this, but it has been fascinating. Is there anything more, or should we just move on?

Dan McClellan From there, it goes into Paul and Barnabas separating, but we already talked about that. There's more we could say about the Jerusalem Council, but I think that's a pretty decent outline.

Dan Beecher Little primer for you.

Dan McClellan Yeah. And obviously, circumcision was one of those 609 things that was- Right ... done away with.

Dan Beecher Well, as Paul says goodbye to Barnabas, we will move on to Conspiracy Watch.

Dan McClellan Dun-dun-dun.

Dan Beecher Okay, so- Boing.

Dan McClellan Okay, sorry. That's a conspiracy sound.

Dan Beecher That's a good... Wamp, wamp, wamp, wamp. Look, as we said earlier, assuming there's still a Earth, and everyone is still there, and they're listening to this, we just had, here in these United States, in North America, and maybe... Nope, only North America, right?

Dan McClellan A- Yeah ...

Dan Beecher an eclipse. A total solar eclipse. I hope some of you got to see it. When I went to see the solar eclipse, it was a few years ago, it was a really wonderful experience, and I thought it was so cool. So I think if you get a chance to experience it, definitely do it. However, not everybody shares my enthusiasm for solar eclipses. I have a friend on Facebook who is a studier and practitioner of Ayurvedic medicine.

Dan McClellan Uh-huh.

Dan Beecher This would be the ancient Indian medicine. And she posted a whole thing about how you shouldn't look at the eclipse because it will cast a dark Ayurvedic shadow over your soul for 13 years or something like that. That has not been my experience.

Dan McClellan Interesting.

Dan Beecher To my knowledge, no noticeable shadow has been- ... cast over my soul. But Ayurvedic people are not the only people who are worried and have theories about what this eclipse portends.

Dan McClellan Mm-hmm.

Dan Beecher I love it because these eclipses happen almost yearly, I think, somewhere on this planet. But we only hear about the crazies, at least for us, only come out when they hit the United States.

Dan McClellan Yeah.

Dan Beecher So the crazies have come out. What are they saying, Dan?

Dan McClellan Oh, gosh. What are they not saying? When I first started seeing the conspiracy theories about the eclipse, it started with this claim that this eclipse will be passing over, at least the field of greatest totality- Mm-hmm ... will be passing over seven cities in the US, well, in North America, one of them is in Nova Scotia, called Nineveh.

Dan Beecher Ah.

Dan McClellan Yes. And so this- And that is the name of a thing in the Bible. It is a thing in the Bible. It is a place in the Bible. It, for a time, was the capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. And there is the famous prophetic Book of Jonah, where Jonah is sent to prophesy destruction in 40 days to the city of Nineveh. And then there's also in the Book of Matthew, well, it's in the gospels, but usually Matthew is quoted, where Jesus said there, "This adulterous generation seeks a sign, and there will be no sign given to it except for the sign of Jonah." And this is where the people who promote this conspiracy theory stop reading. And they say, "This eclipse passing over seven cities called Nineveh must be the sign of Jonah." And the reason they should keep reading is because Jesus then explains precisely what the sign of Jonah is, which is just as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so too the Son of Man will be in the heart of the Earth for three days and three nights.

Dan Beecher One of those- Okay, but what is that- ...

Dan McClellan typological interpretations ...

Dan Beecher couldn't possibly have anything to do with an eclipse.

Dan McClellan Right. Absolutely nothing to do with eclipse. I mean- Additionally, it's just not true that there are seven cities named Nineveh that the path of totality will cross over. It crosses over two.

Dan Beecher One- I'm so confused. I'm sorry. I'm still confused about how they're connecting this to the sign of Jonah. What are they saying it is?

Dan McClellan They're saying the eclipse is the sign of Jonah, and it is for this current adulterous and evil generation. I don't know who first came up with this, so I'm not saying this is rational. I'm just saying that- Yeah ... I started seeing these videos pointing this out, and I went and looked on- Google Maps, and I was like, "Okay, one, five of those cities are not under the path of totality. They are outside of it-" Right ...

Dan Beecher entirely.

Dan McClellan Only two of them are actually inside that path. And also, that doesn't mean anything. And that is only the beginning of these claims. So additionally, they misrepresent what Jonah was sent to Nineveh to do because they say Jonah said, "You have 40 days to repent, otherwise destruction."