The Relationship of Jewish and Gentile Believers to the Law Between A.D. 30 and 70 in the Scripture

83 Luke found the vision somewhere else (he did not construct it himself) and inserted it here .... The original intention of the vision does not conform with Luke ' s use of it. Its original point did not have to do with human relationships (Jews and Gentiles) , but with foods-that is, with the issue of clean and unclean (cf. vs 15b) . 85 Assuming, however, that Luke has recorded the facts accurately and that the application to people is appropriate from the vision of animals, how are we to understand the incident? Two proposals are offered: "a reference to food and then people" and "a reference just to people ." A Reference to Food and Then People Explanation and support of the view The first proposal actually sees two major issues unfolding in the Cornelius incident: the abrogation of the food laws of Israel and a consequent reaching out in the Gentile mission. Though these are two distinct issues they are combined here by Luke because, in this view, one is a natural consequence of the other . The view holds that God fir t announced the end of the food laws for Israel through the vision to Peter . Then, ince the food laws , which were a major barrier to Jew/Gentile relations had been broken down , the expansion of the mission to the Gentiles was a much smaller theological and practical tep . If the Jew no longer had to concern himself with avoiding pork then he could freely mingle with Gentiles who ate pork and could preach the go pel to them a well . Thu , the Gentile mi 10n a theological deduction based upon a literal under tanding of the vi ion . dr m lud upport for the literal under tanding of the vi ion i mar hall d b Dib liu h n