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but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood.
Acts 15:20 · New King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB but that we write to them that they abstain from the pollution of idols, from sexual immorality, from what is strangled, and from blood.
  • KJV But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
  • BSB Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood.
  • NASB but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols, from acts of sexual immorality, from what has been strangled, and from blood.
  • NLT Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from eating food offered to idols, from sexual immorality, from eating the meat of strangled animals, and from consuming blood.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

He proposes asking Gentiles to abstain from idol pollution, sexual immorality, strangled meat, and blood. The few requested abstentions promote holiness and fellowship, not salvation by law.

Overview

These guidelines were not conditions for salvation but practical concerns, largely tied to idolatrous worship and table fellowship with Jewish believers. Abstaining from immorality reflects God's abiding moral will, while the food-related items eased relations between Jewish and Gentile Christians. Faithful interpreters debate the precise rationale, but all agree the council upheld grace, not law-keeping, as the basis of salvation.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 40

  • Acts 15:29that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality, from which if you keep yourselves, it will be well with you. Farewell.”
  • Rev 2:20But I have this against you, that you tolerate your woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. She teaches and seduces my servants to commit sexual immorality, and to eat things sacrificed to idols.
  • Rev 2:14But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to throw a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.
  • Lev 3:17“‘It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings, that you shall eat neither fat nor blood.’”
  • Gen 9:4But flesh with its life, that is, its blood, you shall not eat.
  • Acts 21:25But concerning the Gentiles who believe, we have written our decision that they should observe no such thing, except that they should keep themselves from food offered to idols, from blood, from strangled things, and from sexual immorality.”
  • 1 Cor 8:4–13Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one.
  • Lev 17:10–14“‘Any man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who live as foreigners among them, who eats any kind of blood, I will set my face against that soul who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people.
  • 1 Cor 6:9Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals,
  • 1 Cor 10:7–8Don’t be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”
  • 1 Cor 6:18Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin that a man does is outside the body,” but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
  • 1 Th 4:3For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality,
  • Rev 9:20The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, didn’t repent of the works of their hands, that they wouldn’t worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood; which can’t see, hear, or walk.
  • Deut 12:16Only you shall not eat the blood. You shall pour it out on the earth like water.
  • 1 Cor 7:2But, because of sexual immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.
  • Deut 15:23Only you shall not eat its blood. You shall pour it out on the ground like water.
  • 1 Cor 5:11But as it is, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortionist. Don’t even eat with such a person.
  • Heb 13:4Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled: but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
  • Col 3:5Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry;
  • Gal 5:19Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness,
  • Ezek 4:14Then I said, “Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now I have not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals; neither came there abominable meat into my mouth!”
  • 1 Cor 8:1Now concerning things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
  • 1 Pet 4:3For we have spent enough of our past time doing the desire of the Gentiles, and having walked in lewdness, lusts, drunken binges, orgies, carousings, and abominable idolatries.
  • Exod 34:15–16“Don’t make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest they play the prostitute after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and one call you and you eat of his sacrifice;
  • Eph 5:3But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be mentioned among you, as becomes saints;
  • Ps 106:37–39Yes, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.
  • 1 Tim 4:4–5For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with thanksgiving.
  • Ezek 20:30–31“Therefore tell the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Do you pollute yourselves in the way of your fathers? Do you play the prostitute after their abominations?
  • Deut 12:23–25Only be sure that you don’t eat the blood; for the blood is the life. You shall not eat the life with the meat.
  • 2 Cor 12:21that again when I come my God would humble me before you, and I would mourn for many of those who have sinned before now, and not repented of the uncleanness and sexual immorality and lustfulness which they committed.
  • Rev 10:8The voice which I heard from heaven, again speaking with me, said, “Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land.”
  • Dan 1:8But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king’s dainties, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.
  • 1 Cor 10:14–28Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
  • Num 25:2for they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods. The people ate and bowed down to their gods.
  • Heb 12:16lest there be any sexually immoral person, or profane person, like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal.
  • Exod 20:3–5“You shall have no other gods before me.
  • Gen 35:2Then Jacob said to his household, and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, change your garments.
  • Ezek 33:25Therefore tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes to your idols, and shed blood: and shall you possess the land?
  • 1 Cor 6:13“Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods,” but God will bring to nothing both it and them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
  • Deut 14:21You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the foreigner living among you who is within your gates, that he may eat it; or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (12)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Acts videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Acts 15:20YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on ActsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Acts is the risen Christ continuing his work by the Spirit through the church, as the apostles preach that there is salvation in no other name under heaven.

How Acts 15:20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.