<P> The decision of the Council came to be called the Apostolic Decree and was that most Mosaic law, including the requirement for circumcision of males, was not obligatory for Gentile converts, possibly in order to make it easier for them to join the movement . However, the Council did retain the prohibitions against eating meat containing "blood", or meat of animals not properly slain, and against "fornication" and "idol worship". Beginning with Augustine of Hippo, many have seen a connection to Noahide Law, while some modern scholars reject the connection to Noahide Law and instead see Lev 17 - 18 as the basis . See also Old Testament Law applicable to converts and Leviticus 18 . </P> <P> Noted in Acts 15: 19 - 21, James tells the Jewish believers to understand his reasoning for writing letters to Gentile believers when he says, "For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath ." Knowing the new converts would have to attend a synagogue in order to learn the history of Israel and the Church, James set the Gentile believers up with a beginning attitude of precaution towards those who would preach Moses' Law as a requirement for Gentile believers . </P> <P> The Apostolic decree may be a major act of differentiation of the Church from its Jewish roots, the first being the Rejection of Jesus . Although the outcome is not inconsistent with the Jewish view on the applicability of Mosaic Law to non-Jews, the Decree created a category of persons who were members of the Christian community (which still considered itself to be part of the Jewish community) who were not considered to be full converts by the wider Jewish community . In the wider Jewish community these partial converts were welcomed (a common term for them being God fearers, similar to the modern movement of B'nei Noah, see dual covenant theology), but they as Gentiles were excluded from the Temple proper and certain rituals . This created problems especially when the Christian community had become dominated by former Gentiles with less understanding of the reasons for the dispute . </P> <P> In the middle of the second century, bishop Marcion proposed rejecting the entire Jewish Bible, indeed he considered the God portrayed there to be a lesser deity, a demiurge . His position however was strongly rejected by Proto - orthodox Christianity, notably Tertullian and Irenaeus . The terms Old Testament and New Testament are traditionally ascribed to Tertullian, but some scholars instead propose Marcion as the source while other scholars propose that Melito of Sardis coined the phrase Old Testament . </P>

What was the old covenant of the old testament