Ruy Dias de Bivar,
That's a very interesting post. It's clear, as you point out, that many Jews continued to keep the Law, while the gentiles were not required to do so. One could infer that there was, in a sense, a dichotomy of practice between many of the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians.
"Good points except for the following. The Apostles in Jerusalem were still preaching a Jewish form of Chrisitanity."
Just to be clear, the Apostle James is preaching Christianity, pure and simple. While it is clear that many Hebrew Christians are still observing the Jewish Law, as you noted in your post, the Apostle James says to St. Paul: "As touching the Gentiles which believe WE HAVE WRITTEN AND CONCLUDED THAT THEY observe no such thing." James clearly recognizes the importance of not imposing Jewish Law upon the Gentiles, both here and at the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15.
My assumption regarding Acts 21: 18-20 was that the Apostles Paul and James were following the precepts St. Paul described in 1 Corinthians 9: 19,20
" For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews; to those under the law I became as one under the law--though not being myself under the law--that I might win those under the law."
This policy was underscored by St. Paul himself, when he had Timothy circumcised so that he might accompany Paul among the Jews,
after the Council of Jerusalem.
St. James is not instructing the Apostle Paul to take the Nazarite vow as some sort of misguided works salvation(!), any more than St. Paul was trying to impose a "works salvation" on Timothy. St. James rejoiced to hear about the conversion of the Gentiles, and makes it clear that they are not to be forced to follow the Law. Rather, the point of St. Paul's going up to the temple and taking a Nazirite vow was to dispel a false rumor about St. Paul.
"Now, when you run the book through THESE verses you can see that James was written as a legalistic tract "To the 12 tribes scattered abroad." No wonder it took almost 300 years for this small letter to be accepted by believers as scripture, as Martin Luther said, "An epistle of straw."
Ruy Dias de Bivar, Do you not believe that the Letter of James is Scriptural?
****Ruy Dias de Bivar, Do you not believe that the Letter of James is Scriptural?****
I believe it is scriptual, written by James to the 12 tribes.
We must keep it in it's pro-Jewish setting to understand why it is so different from Paul's letters the same way we put Christ's words in context during the Temple period. One cannot go and show himself to the priest as there is no temple today.
It is the same way that HEBREWS is more understandable if we remember that the writer is alluding to the time of Moses and Israel at Kadesh Barnea when they drew back from entering the Holy Land.