6 So the apostles and the elders gathered together to look into this matter. 7 After much intense discussion had taken place, Peter rose and said to them: “Men, brothers, you well know that from early days God made the choice among you that through my mouth people of the nations should hear the word of the good news and believe.+ 8 And God, who knows the heart,+ bore witness by giving them the holy spirit,+ just as he did to us also. 9 And he made no distinction at all between us and them,+ but purified their hearts by faith.+ 10 So why are you now making a test of God by imposing on the neck of the disciples a yoke+ that neither our forefathers nor we were capable of bearing?+ 11 On the contrary, we have faith that we are saved through the undeserved kindness of the Lord Jesus+ in the same way that they are.”+
12 At that the entire group became silent, and they began to listen to Barʹna·bas and Paul relate the many signs and wonders that God had done through them among the nations. 13 After they finished speaking, James+ replied: “Men, brothers, hear me.+ 14 Symʹe·on+ has related thoroughly how God for the first time turned his attention to the nations to take out of them a people for his name.+ 15 And with this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written: 16 ‘After these things I will return and raise up again the tent of David that is fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins and restore it, 17 so that the men who remain may earnestly seek Jehovah, together with people of all the nations, people who are called by my name, says Jehovah, who is doing these things,+ 18 known from of old.’+ 19 Therefore, my decision is not to trouble those from the nations who are turning to God,+ 20 but to write them to abstain from things polluted by idols,+ from sexual immorality,+ from what is strangled, and from blood.+