person of Jesus of Nazareth.

The Acts of the Apostles is hardly a very trustworthy history; it is
certainly of later date than the Pauline Epistles, supposing them to be
genuine. And the writer's version of the conference of which Paul gives
so graphic a description, if that is correct, is unmistakably coloured
with all the art of a reconciler, anxious to cover up a scandal. But it
is none the less instructive on this account. The judgment of the
"council" delivered by James is that the Gentile converts shall merely
"abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood and from things
strangled, and from fornication." But notwithstanding the accommodation
in which the writer of the Acts would have us believe, the Jerusalem
Church held to its endeavour to retain the observance of the Law. Long
after the conference, some time after the writing of the Epistles to the
Galatians and Corinthians, and immediately after the despatch of that to
the Romans, Paul makes his last visit to Jerusalem, and presents himself
to James and all the elders. And this is what the Acts tells us of the
interview:--

And they said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands [or
myriads] there are among the Jews of them which have believed; and
they are all zealous for the law; and they have been informed
concerning thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among
the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their
children, neither to walk after the customs. (Acts xxi. 20, 21.)

They therefore request that he should perform a certain public religious
act in the Temple, in order that

all shall know that there is no truth in the things whereof they
have been informed concerning thee; but that thou thyself walkest
orderly, keeping the law (_ibid._ 24).[50]

How far Paul could do what he is here requested to do, and which the
writer of the Acts goes on to say he did, with a clear conscience, if he
wrote the Epistles to the Galatians and Corinthians I may leave any
candid reader of these epistles to decide. The point to which I wish to
direct attention is the declaration that the Jerusalem Church, led by
the brother of Jesus and by his personal disciples and friends, twenty
years and more after his death, consisted of strict and zealous Jews.

Tertullus, the orator, caring very little about the internal dissensions
of the followers of Jesus, speaks of Paul as a "ringlead