Acts 15:20

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Acts 15:18–22 · Berean Standard Bible

18 that have been known for ages.’

19 It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not cause trouble for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

20 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.

21 For Moses has been proclaimed in every city from ancient times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”

22 Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to select men from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas called Barsabbas and Silas, two leaders among the brothers,

Greek words

Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

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Cross-references

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.

Acts 15:29

You must abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.

Genesis 35:2

So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your garments.

Exodus 20:3

You shall have no other gods before Me.

Exodus 20:4

You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath.

Exodus 20:5

You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

Exodus 20:23

You are not to make any gods alongside Me; you are not to make for yourselves gods of silver or gold.

Exodus 34:15

Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you, and you will eat their sacrifices.

Exodus 34:16

And when you take some of their daughters as brides for your sons, their daughters will prostitute themselves to their gods and cause your sons to do the same.

Numbers 25:2

who also invited them to the sacrifices for their gods. And the people ate and bowed down to these gods.

Psalms 106:37

They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.

Psalms 106:38

They shed innocent blood— the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.

Psalms 106:39

They defiled themselves by their actions and prostituted themselves by their deeds.

Ezekiel 20:30

Therefore tell the house of Israel that this is what the Lord GOD says: Will you defile yourselves the way your fathers did, prostituting yourselves with their abominations?

Ezekiel 20:31

When you offer your gifts, sacrificing your sons in the fire, you continue to defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. So should I be consulted by you, O house of Israel? As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I will not be consulted by you!

1 Corinthians 8:1

Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

1 Corinthians 8:4

So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.

1 Corinthians 8:5

For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many so-called gods and lords),

1 Corinthians 8:6

yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we exist. And there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we exist.

1 Corinthians 8:7

But not everyone has this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that they eat such food as if it were sacrificed to an idol. And since their conscience is weak, it is defiled.

1 Corinthians 8:8

But food does not bring us closer to God: We are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

1 Corinthians 8:9

Be careful, however, that your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.

1 Corinthians 8:10

For if someone with a weak conscience sees you who are well informed eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged to eat food sacrificed to idols?

1 Corinthians 8:11

So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge.

1 Corinthians 8:12

By sinning against your brothers in this way and wounding their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.

1 Corinthians 8:13

Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to stumble.

1 Corinthians 10:20

No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons.

1 Corinthians 10:21

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot partake in the table of the Lord and the table of demons too.

1 Corinthians 10:22

Are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?

1 Corinthians 10:28

But if someone tells you, “This food was offered to idols,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience—

Revelation 2:14

But I have a few things against you, because some of you hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block before the Israelites so they would eat food sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality.

Revelation 2:20

But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads My servants to be sexually immoral and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

Revelation 9:20

Now the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the works of their hands. They did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.

Revelation 10:2

He held in his hand a small scroll, which lay open. He placed his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land.

Revelation 10:8

Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the small scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel standing on the sea and on the land.”

1 Corinthians 5:11

But now I am writing you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a verbal abuser, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

1 Corinthians 6:9

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,

1 Corinthians 6:13

“Food for the stomach and the stomach for food,” but God will destroy them both. The body is not intended for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

1 Corinthians 6:18

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.

1 Corinthians 7:2

But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.

2 Corinthians 12:21

I am afraid that when I come again, my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of their acts of impurity, sexual immorality, and debauchery.

Galatians 5:19

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery;

Ephesians 5:3

But among you, as is proper among the saints, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed.

Colossians 3:5

Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.

1 Thessalonians 4:3

For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality;

Hebrews 12:16

See to it that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his birthright.

Hebrews 13:4

Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

1 Peter 4:3

For you have spent enough time in the past carrying out the same desires as the Gentiles: living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry.

Acts 21:25

As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they must abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality.”

Genesis 9:4

But you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it.

Leviticus 3:17

This is a permanent statute for the generations to come, wherever you live: You must not eat any fat or any blood.”

Leviticus 7:23

“Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘You are not to eat any of the fat of an ox, a sheep, or a goat.

Leviticus 7:24

The fat of an animal found dead or mauled by wild beasts may be used for any other purpose, but you must not eat it.

Leviticus 7:25

If anyone eats the fat of an animal from which an offering made by fire may be presented to the LORD, the one who eats it must be cut off from his people.

Leviticus 7:26

You must not eat the blood of any bird or animal in any of your dwellings.

Leviticus 7:27

If anyone eats blood, that person must be cut off from his people.’”

Leviticus 17:10

If anyone from the house of Israel or a foreigner living among them eats any blood, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from among his people.

Leviticus 17:11

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for your souls upon the altar; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.

Leviticus 17:12

Therefore I say to the Israelites, ‘None of you may eat blood, nor may any foreigner living among you eat blood.’

Leviticus 17:13

And if any Israelite or foreigner living among them hunts down a wild animal or bird that may be eaten, he must drain its blood and cover it with dirt.

Leviticus 17:14

For the life of all flesh is its blood. Therefore I have told the Israelites, ‘You must not eat the blood of any living thing, because the life of all flesh is its blood; whoever eats it must be cut off.’

Deuteronomy 12:16

but you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.

Deuteronomy 12:23

Only be sure not to eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.

Deuteronomy 12:24

You must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.

Deuteronomy 12:25

Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in the eyes of the LORD.

Deuteronomy 14:21

You are not to eat any carcass; you may give it to the foreigner residing within your gates, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a holy people belonging to the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Deuteronomy 15:23

But you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.

1 Samuel 14:32

So they rushed greedily to the plunder, taking sheep, cattle, and calves. They slaughtered them on the ground and ate meat with the blood still in it.

Ezekiel 4:14

“Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”

Ezekiel 33:25

Therefore tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You eat meat with the blood in it, lift up your eyes to your idols, and shed blood. Should you then possess the land?

1 Timothy 4:4

For every creation of God is good, and nothing that is received with thanksgiving should be rejected,

1 Timothy 4:5

because it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.