Acts 15:20

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

but that we should write them a letter telling them to abstain from things defiled by idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

Ἀλλὰ ἐπιστεῖλαι αὐτοῖς, τοῦ ἀπέχεσθαι ἀπὸ τῶν ἀλισγημάτων τῶν εἰδώλων, καὶ τῆς πορνείας, καὶ τοῦ πνικτοῦ, καὶ τοῦ αἵματος.

Transliteration

But to episteilai to them, to apechesthai apo tōn alisgēmatōn tōn eidōlōn, and tēs porneias, and the pniktou, and the haimatos.

Grammar Details

• *alla*: conjunction - but/rather
• *episteilai*: aorist, infinitive, active - to write/send [a letter]
• *autois*: dative, masculine, plural - to them
• *tou apechesthai*: present, infinitive, middle, articular - the abstaining
• *apo*: preposition + genitive - from
• *tōn alisgēmatōn*: genitive, neuter, plural - the pollutions/defilements
• *tōn eidōlōn*: genitive, neuter, plural - of idols
• *tēs porneias*: genitive, feminine, singular - sexual immorality
• *tou pniktou*: genitive, neuter, singular - what is strangled
• *tou haimatos*: genitive, neuter, singular - the blood

Word Meanings

• *episteilai*: to write/send [a letter]/instruct
• *apechesthai*: to abstain/keep away/refrain
• *alisgēmatōn*: pollutions/defilements/contaminations
• *eidōlōn*: idols/images
• *porneias*: sexual immorality/fornication
• *pniktou*: what is strangled/strangled meat
• *haimatos*: blood

Referenced Verses

• Lev 3:17 : 17 This is a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all the places where you live: You must never eat any fat or any blood.’”
• Acts 15:29 : 29 that you abstain from meat that has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what has been strangled and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from doing these things, you will do well. Farewell.
• Rev 2:14 : 14 But I have a few things against you: You have some people there who follow the teaching of Balaam, who instructed Balak to put a stumbling block before the people of Israel so they would eat food sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality.
• Rev 2:20 : 20 But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and by her teaching deceives my servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
• Gen 9:4 : 4 But you must not eat meat with its life(that is, its blood) in it.
• Deut 12:16 : 16 However, you must not eat blood– pour it out on the ground like water.
• Deut 15:23 : 23 However, you must not eat its blood; you must pour it out on the ground like water.
• Ezek 4:14 : 14 And I said,“Ah, Sovereign LORD, I have never been ceremonially defiled before. I have never eaten a carcass or an animal torn by wild beasts; from my youth up, unclean meat has never entered my mouth.”
• Lev 17:10-14 : 10 Prohibition against Eating Blood“‘Any man from the house of Israel or from the resident foreigners who live in their midst who eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats the blood, and I will cut him off from the midst of his people, 11 for the life of every living thing is in the blood. So I myself have assigned it to you on the altar to make atonement for your lives, for the blood makes atonement by means of the life. 12 Therefore, I have said to the Israelites: No person among you is to eat blood, and no resident foreigner who lives among you is to eat blood. 13 “‘Any man from the Israelites or from the resident foreigners who live in their midst who hunts a wild animal or a bird that may be eaten must pour out its blood and cover it with soil, 14 for the life of all flesh is its blood. So I have said to the Israelites: You must not eat the blood of any living thing because the life of every living thing is its blood– all who eat it will be cut off.
• Acts 21:25 : 25 But regarding the Gentiles who have believed, we have written a letter, having decided that they should avoid meat that has been sacrificed to idols and blood and what has been strangled and sexual immorality.”
• 1 Cor 6:9 : 9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual partners, practicing homosexuals,
• 1 Cor 6:18 : 18 Flee sexual immorality!“Every sin a person commits is outside of the body”– but the immoral person sins against his own body.
• Exod 34:15-16 : 15 Be careful not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone invites you, you will eat from his sacrifice; 16 and you then take his daughters for your sons, and when his daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will make your sons prostitute themselves to their gods as well.
• 1 Cor 7:2 : 2 But because of immoralities, each man should have relations with his own wife and each woman with her own husband.
• 1 Cor 8:1 : 1 Food Sacrificed to Idols With regard to food sacrificed to idols, we know that“we all have knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
• 1 Cor 8:4-9 : 4 With regard then to eating food sacrificed to idols, we know that“an idol in this world is nothing,” and that“there is no God but one.” 5 If after all there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth(as there are many gods and many lords), 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we live, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we live. 7 But this knowledge is not shared by all. And some, by being accustomed to idols in former times, eat this food as an idol sacrifice, and their conscience, because it is weak, is defiled. 8 Now food will not bring us close to God. We are no worse if we do not eat and no better if we do. 9 But be careful that this liberty of yours does not become a hindrance to the weak. 10 For if someone weak sees you who possess knowledge dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience be“strengthened” to eat food offered to idols? 11 So by your knowledge the weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed. 12 If you sin against your brothers or sisters in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 For this reason, if food causes my brother or sister to sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I may not cause one of them to sin.
• 1 Cor 10:7-8 : 7 So do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written,“The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 And let us not be immoral, as some of them were, and twenty-three thousand died in a single day.
• 1 Cor 10:14-28 : 14 Avoid Idol Feasts So then, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. 15 I am speaking to thoughtful people. Consider what I say. 16 Is not the cup of blessing that we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread that we break a sharing in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all share the one bread. 18 Look at the people of Israel. Are not those who eat the sacrifices partners in the altar? 19 Am I saying that idols or food sacrificed to them amount to anything? 20 No, I mean that what the pagans sacrifice is to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot take part in the table of the Lord and the table of demons. 22 Or are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we really stronger than he is? 23 Live to Glorify God“Everything is lawful,” but not everything is beneficial.“Everything is lawful,” but not everything builds others up. 24 Do not seek your own good, but the good of the other person. 25 Eat anything that is sold in the marketplace without questions of conscience, 26 for the earth and its abundance are the Lord’s. 27 If an unbeliever invites you to dinner and you want to go, eat whatever is served without asking questions of conscience. 28 But if someone says to you,“This is from a sacrifice,” do not eat, because of the one who told you and because of conscience–
• 2 Cor 12:21 : 21 I am afraid that when I come again, my God may humiliate me before you, and I will grieve for many of those who previously sinned and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and licentiousness that they have practiced.
• Gal 5:19 : 19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity,
• Eph 5:3 : 3 But among you there must not be either sexual immorality, impurity of any kind, or greed, as these are not fitting for the saints.
• Col 3:5 : 5 So put to death whatever in your nature belongs to the earth: sexual immorality, impurity, shameful passion, evil desire, and greed which is idolatry.
• 1 Thess 4:3 : 3 For this is God’s will: that you become holy, that you keep away from sexual immorality,
• 1 Tim 4:4-5 : 4 For every creation of God is good and no food is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving. 5 For it is sanctified by God’s word and by prayer.
• Heb 12:16 : 16 And see to it that no one becomes an immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.
• Heb 13:4 : 4 Marriage must be honored among all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge sexually immoral people and adulterers.
• 1 Pet 4:3 : 3 For the time that has passed was sufficient for you to do what the non-Christians desire. You lived then in debauchery, evil desires, drunkenness, carousing, drinking bouts, and wanton idolatries.
• 1 Cor 6:13 : 13 “Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both.” The body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
• 1 Cor 5:11 : 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who calls himself a Christian who is sexually immoral, or greedy, or an idolater, or verbally abusive, or a drunkard, or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person.
• Rev 9:20 : 20 The rest of humanity, who had not been killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so that they did not stop worshiping demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood– idols that cannot see or hear or walk about.
• Rev 10:2 : 2 He held in his hand a little scroll that was open, and he put his right foot on the sea and his left on the land.
• Rev 10:8 : 8 Then the voice I had heard from heaven began to speak to me again,“Go and take the open scroll in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.”
• Num 25:2 : 2 These women invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods; then the people ate and bowed down to their gods.
• Lev 7:23-27 : 23 “Tell the Israelites,‘You must not eat any fat of an ox, sheep, or goat. 24 Moreover, the fat of an animal that has died of natural causes and the fat of an animal torn by beasts may be used for any other purpose, but you must certainly never eat it. 25 If anyone eats fat from the animal from which he presents a gift to the LORD, that person will be cut off from his people. 26 And you must not eat any blood of the birds or the domesticated land animals in any of the places where you live. 27 Any person who eats any blood– that person will be cut off from his people.’”
• Gen 35:2 : 2 So Jacob told his household and all who were with him,“Get rid of the foreign gods you have among you. Purify yourselves and change your clothes.
• Exod 20:3-5 : 3 “You shall have no other gods before me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children to the third and fourth generations of those who reject me,
• Exod 20:23 : 23 You must not make gods of silver alongside me, nor make gods of gold for yourselves.
• Ezek 20:30-31 : 30 “Therefore say to the house of Israel,‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Will you defile yourselves like your fathers and engage in prostitution with detestable idols? 31 When you present your sacrifices– when you make your sons pass through the fire– you defile yourselves with all your idols to this very day. Will I allow you to seek me, O house of Israel? As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I will not allow you to seek me!
• Ezek 33:25 : 25 Therefore say to them,‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: You eat the meat with the blood still in it, pray to your idols, and shed blood. Do you really think you will possess the land?
• Dan 1:8 : 8 But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the royal delicacies or the royal wine. He therefore asked the overseer of the court officials for permission not to defile himself.
• 1 Sam 14:32 : 32 So the army rushed greedily on the plunder, confiscating sheep, cattle, and calves. They slaughtered them right on the ground, and the army ate them blood and all.
• Ps 106:37-39 : 37 They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons. 38 They shed innocent blood– the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. The land was polluted by bloodshed. 39 They were defiled by their deeds, and unfaithful in their actions.
• Deut 12:23-25 : 23 However, by no means eat the blood, for the blood is life itself– you must not eat the life with the meat! 24 You must not eat it! You must pour it out on the ground like water. 25 You must not eat it so that it may go well with you and your children after you; you will be doing what is right in the LORD’s sight.
• Deut 14:21 : 21 You may not eat any corpse, though you may give it to the resident foreigner who is living in your villages and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. You are a people holy to the LORD your God. Do not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.