Die Wet specificeerde dat, niet alleen de Israëlieten, maar ook de "inwonende vreemdelingen" onder hen zich zouden moeten onthouden van offers aan afgoden (Leviticus 17:7-9), van het eten van bloed, waaronder onuitgebloede dode dieren (Leviticus 17:10-16), en van praktijken die seksueel immoreel waren (waaronder incest en homoseksuele praktijken) - Leviticus 18:6-26.

Terwijl nu het land van Israël zelf onder heidense controle was, met grote getale joden die in verschillende landen buiten Israël leefden, wist Jakobus dat in vele steden van het Romeinse Rijk de Joodse gemeenschap als een microscosmos was die de toestand in Palestina weerspiegelde uit de oudheid.  Het was heel gewoon dat Heidenen synagoge bijeenkomsten bijwoonden en zich tussen hen mengden. ³⁴

De vroege christenen zelf, zowel joodse als heidense christenen, gingen er mee door deze synagoge bijeenkomsten bij te wonen, we weten zelfs dat Paulus en anderen veel van hun predikingswerk en onderwijzingwerk daar volbrachten. ^{35 xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />}

Jakobus’ verwijzing naar het lezen van Mozes in de synagoge in stad na stad is de basis om te geloven, dat wanneer hij de dingen opsomde die hij onmiddellijk daarvoor had genoemd, hij in gedachte had de onthoudingen die Mozes had uiteengezet voor de heidenen binnenin de Joodse gemeenschap in de oude tijden. Zoals we gezien hebben, somde Jakobus niet enkel dezelfde dingen op die wij vinden in het boek van Leviticus, maar zelfs in dezelfde volgorde: onthouding van dingen aan afgoden ten slachtoffer gebracht en van bloed en van al wat verstikt is (en dus onuitgebloed) en van seksuele immoraliteit.  Deze aanmaning was het gevolg van de omstandigheden die zich dan voordeden, namelijk de mengeling van joden en heidenen in de christelijke bijeenkomsten en de behoefte om vrede en harmonie binnenin die omstandigheden te behouden.  Als de heidense christenen werd aangespoord ‘zich te onthouden van bloed’, werd dit niet begrepen in een allesomvattende zin, maar in de specifieke zin zich te onthouden van het eten van bloed, iets walgelijks in de ogen der joden.
Om de zaak verder uit te breiden en bloed zelf een soort van "taboe"-status te geven, is de zaak uit zijn schriftuurlijke en historische context sleuren en een betekenis opleggen die er in werkelijkheid niet is. ³⁶

Opmerkenswaardig is dat Jakobus niet zulke dingen opsomde als moord of diefstal als noodzakelijke dingen om zich van te onthouden.  Die dingen werden reeds veroordeeld zowel onder heidenen als onder de joden.  Maar de heidenen zagen afgoderij en het eten van bloed en het eten van niet uit gebloede dieren en seksuele immoraliteit door de vingers, zij hadden zelfs "tempel prostituees" verbonden met hun plaatsen van aanbidding.  De aanbevolen onthoudingen focusten zich op de terreinen waar heidenen praktijken tolereerden die zeer waarschijnlijk de Joden zouden verstoren en wrijvingen zouden veroorzaken. ³⁷

De Mozaïsche wet had niet vereist dat vreemde inwoners werden besneden als een vereiste om in vrede binnen Israël te leven en dus zette Jakobus daar ook niet toe aan.

De brief als gevolg van Jakobus’ aanbeveling werd specifiek gericht aan heidense christenen, mensen "uit de natiën", in Antiochië, Syrië en Cilicië en zoals we hebben gezien, handelde het specifiek over een poging om van de heidense gelovigen te vereisen dat zij de wet van Mozes gehoorzaamden. ³⁸ 

Zoals later wordt aangetoond is er niets dat erop wijst dat deze brief bedoeld is om te worden gezien als een "wet", alsof de Decaloog (de Tien Geboden) werd vervangen door vier onthoudingen, de Quadriloog.  Het was specifieke raad voor een specifieke omstandigheid die zich voordeed in die periode van de geschiedenis.
 

Voetnoten:

1 Romans 14:22, 23, JB.
2 These positions are spelled out in the Awake! magazine of June 22, 1982, which carries a reprint of an article published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (November 1981 issue). The article was prepared by the Watch Tower Society and sets forth Jehovah's Witnesses' position on blood.
3 Comment made by Dr. Lowell Dixon, former staff physician and author or co-author of various articles on the subject of blood published in Watch Tower publications.
4 An inquiry to the Atlanta Red Cross on January 22, 1990, revealed that only about 6 percent of all blood donated there goes out to hospitals as whole blood, the other 94 percent being divided into component parts.
5 The Encyclopoedia Britannica, Vol. 3 (1969), page 795; The Encyclopedia Americana, International Edition, Vol. 4, 1989, page 91.
6 Interestingly, the water, composing most of the plasma, freely "moves in and out of the bloodstream with great rapidity" and exchanges with water of the body cells and extracellular fluids. So it is never a constant component of the blood stream. Encyclopoedia Britannica, Macropoedia, Vol. 15,1987, pages 129, 131.)
7 The New Encyclopoedia Britannica, Macropoedia, Vol. 15 ( 1987), page 135, points out that "Most of the leukocytes are outside of the circulation, and the few in the bloodstream are in transit from one site to another." To categorize them as a "major blood component" is somewhat like saying that passengers riding on a train are a constituent or integral part of the railroad system personnel. Dr. C. Guyton, in The Textbook of Medical Physiology (7th ed., Saunders Company, Philadelphia), page 52, explains that the main reason leukocytes are present in the blood "is simply to be transported from the bone marrow or Iymphoid tissue to the areas of the body where they are needed."
8 There is evidence that the figure shown in the Awake! chart is inaccurate and that the percentage of leukocytes may approach as much as 1% of the total volume of the blood. At any rate, the fraction is so small that Awake! makes no attempt to show it in the chart's test tube, and it is included with the platelets which, it may be noted, themselves constitute only about 2/l0 of 1 percent of the total of the blood. They are also on the prohibited list.
9 The New Encyclopoedia Britannica, Macropoedia, Vol. 15 ( 1987), page 135; J. H. Green, An Introduction to Human Physiology, 4th ed. (oxford: oxford University Press, 1976), page 16). on the amount of leukocytes in human milk, see Armond S. Goldman, Anthony J. Ham Pong, and Randall M. Goldblum, "Host Defenses: Development and Maternal Contributions," Year Book of Pediatrics (Chicago: Year Book Medical Publishers, Inc., 1985), page 87.
10 Genesis 9:3, 4; Leviticus 7:26, 27; 17:11-14; Deuteronomy 12:22-24.
11 There are about 50 grams of albumin in one liter of blood. To get 600 grams of albumin, therefore, some 12 liters of blood are needed.
12 This figure has been arrived at by dividing the amount of gamma globulin in one syringe with the amount found in one liter of blood.
13 In 1900 it was only 11 years.
14 This estimate is very conservative. The true figure is probably much higher in most cases. The June 15, 1985, Watchtower (page 30) states that "each batch of Factor VIII is made from plasma that is pooled from as many as 2,500 blood donors."
15 The organization's position on this is spelled out, with much technical detail and reasoning, in the Watchtower of March 1, 1989, pages 30 and 31.
16 See Awake!, June 22, 1982, page 25; the Watchtower, June l5, 1978, page 30. This ruling was made during the time that the risk of AIDS—though then not —was high; since that time, screening tests and heat treatment have greatly reduced risk of this blood-related infection.
17 See Awake! June 22, 1982, page 25.
18 Elisabeth Rosenthal, article titled "Blinded by the Light," Discover magazine, August, 1988, page 28-30.
19 My wife nearly bled to death in 1970 when her platelet count dropped from the normal range of 200,000 to 400,000 per cubic millimeter down to about l5,000 per cubic millimeter. After days of severe hemorraghing, she was hospitalized at a Brooklyn hospital and both she and I made clear our rejection of platelets or any other blood- derived products (including those that have since been organizationally decreed "allowable"). Fortunately, after a two-week stay and continuing prednisone therapy, she recovered basic health. What I state in this book, then, is not evidence of any personal reluctance to face loss if I believed that adherence to God's will called for it.
20 Roman 6:14; 10:4; Hebrews 8:6, 13.
21 Contrary to the Watch Tower's claims, in the Scriptures blood, by itself, consistently represents—not life—but death, figuratively standing for the life lost or sacrificed. Compare Genesis 4:l0, 11; 37:26; 42:22; Exodus 12:5-7 (compare this with 1 Peter 1:18, 19); Exodus 24:5-8; Matthew 23:35; 26:28; 27:24, 25, and so forth. When it is functioning as part of a living creature then blood can be said to stand for life or the living "soul."
22 Leviticus 17:13,14; Deuteronomy 12:15, 16, 24, 25.
23 As a friend pointed out, to place the importance of blood as a symbol over that of life itself is somewhat like a man's placing more importance on his wedding ring (symbolic of his wedded state) than on his marriage itself, or on his wife. It is as if, faced with either the sacrifice of his wife or the sacrifice of his wedding ring, he would opt in favor of saving the wedding ring. It may also be noted that Christ made clear that the law was made for man, not man for the law.

(Mark 2:27) Thus, if life was at stake, Israelites were not obliged to hold to Sabbatical rules if doing so would work against their saving a life, even though that life was the life of a sheep or bull. (Luke 14:5; Matthew 12:11,12) It seems logical to conclude that the same principles would also apply as regards Mosaic laws on blood.
24 Romans 3:27; 6:14; l0:4; Galatians 3:10, 11, 23-25; James 2:8, 12.
25 The Watchtower of Sepember 15, 1958 (page 575), states that "Each time the prohibition of blood is mentioned in the Scriptures it is in connection with taking it as food, and so it is as a nutrient that we are concerned with in its being forbidden." This still seems to be the basic position and so the Society still argues that a blood transfusion is the same as eating blood, taking it into the body as food.
26 Awake! October 22, l990, page 9. In endeavoring to claim medical support for their view of transplanted blood as a "feeding" of the body, Watch Tower publications have always resorted to quotations from some medical source of an earlier century, such as the Frenchman Denys of the 17th century. (See, for example, the Watchtower, April l5, 1985, page 13.) They cannot quote a single modern authority in support of this view.
27 The Watch Tower Society has at times compared a transfusion with infusing alcohol into the veins. But alcohol is a very different liquid, already in a form that body cells can absorb as a nutrient. Alcohol and blood are completely different in this respect.
28 See, for example, the Watchtower, March 1, 1989, page 30; April 15, 1985, page 12.
29 See, for example, the Watchtower, June 1, 1990, pages 30, 31. The apostle Peter states that Christ "bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed." (1 Peter 2:24; NRSV; compare Isaiah 53:4, 5; Acts 28:27.) But this certainly does not justify implying that one's seeking to heal wounds or other physical ailments by medical means is tantamount to showing a lack of appreciation for Christ's healing power in these vital spiritual respects..
30 Acts l5:20, 29.
31 Acts l5:5.
32 Acts l5:10.
33 Acts 15:19-21.
34 Compare Acts 13:44-48;14:1; 17:1-5, l0-12, l5-17; 18:4.
35 Compare Acts 18:1-4, 24-28.
36 Here, again, if one assigned an absolute sense to the expression to 'abstain from blood, ' viewing it as a some kind of blanket prohibition, this would mean that one could not submit to blood tests of any kind, could not undergo surgery unless it were of a bloodless kind, and in other ways would have to "stay away from" blood in every respect. The context gives no indication that such a blanket prohibition was intended and indicates instead that the injunction was directed specifically to the actual eating of blood.
37 As far back as April l5, l909, the Watch Tower recognized this as the intent of the letter, saying (page 117): "The things here recommended were necessary to a preservation of the fellowship of the 'body' composed of Jews and Gentiles with their different education and sentiments."

38 Acts 15:5, 23-29.
 

  De bovenstaande tekst is vertaald uit het tweede boek van Raymond Franz: "In search of christian freedom"