Acts 15:17

Acts 15:17. That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. The quotation from Amos 9:11-12 , contained in Acts 15:16-17, is made freely from the Septuagint, which differs here considerably from the Hebrew text as we now possess it. The main difference is in the quotation contained in Acts 15:17, where, instead of the words, ‘that the remnant of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called,' the Hebrew text has, ‘that they might possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the Gentiles that are called by my name.' The LXX. here, as not unfrequently, give a paraphrase rather than a literal translation of the original, and regard ‘Edom' (a common Rabbinical idea) as a general representative of those who were strangers to the God of Israel. No doubt the LXX. version was quoted by James on account of the many foreign Jews present at the Council; these would be familiar with the Greek Scriptures, not with the original Hebrew.

The grand words which closed the prophecy of Amos were here cited by James as foretelling the future calling of the Gentiles, and at the same time as containing no recognition of circumcision as a permanent rule, no mention of other Jewish ceremonies as binding upon these multitudes of redeemed strangers; indeed, in the various and repeated intimations by the Hebrew prophets that King Messiah should arise in coming days, and should gather into one fold Gentile as well as Jew, the Mosaic ceremonial law is completely ignored.