Quote:In Acts 15, James is clearly a leader and decision maker in the church of Jerusalem. First, Peter speaks in favor of sharing of the Gospel to uncircumcised Gentiles. Then Paul and Barnabas recount the signs and wonders of conversions among the Gentiles. But finally, it is James who makes the pronouncement of inclusion without circumcision.
Surely everyone realizes that this sort of thing is common in ancient historical writing?
When Livy recounts the reasons for the Second Punic War he has characters give "speeches" outlining the issues involved. But when he writes that "Fabius Maximus mounted the rostrum and addressed the Senate as follows...." we can be certain that Fabius said no such thing. Livy, writing two centuries later did not have access to a verbatim account of any discussion in the senate. No such records were kept. Even worse, he will have a member of the Carthaginian war party addressing Carthage's senate on the reasons for starting the war! Certainly there were no Roman spies sitting there taking notes of what was said.
We have no original documents written by any of these "people" including James and Paul. They are characters to be manipulated by later power brokers.
