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Acts 15 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
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It might have seemed as if the conversion of Cornelius had been accepted as deciding the question which we now find raised again (<a href="/acts/11-18.htm" title="When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then has God also to the Gentiles granted repentance to life.">Acts 11:18</a>). It would seem, however, that those who had raised objections to Peter’s conduct in that case were not content to accept the conclusion which he drew from it, and it is not difficult to represent to ourselves the train of thought which led them to take a different view. To them it may have seemed the exception that proved the rule. Where signs and wonders came in, they may have been content to accept an uncircumcised convert as a member of the Church, simply on the ground that God had dispensed in such cases with His own law; or they may have urged that though, in such cases, they did not require circumcision as a condition of admission, the continuance in the uncircumcised state after baptism was a wilful transgression, which shut men out from the “salvation” which they were seeking. Circumcision, they may have said, had been given as an “everlasting covenant” (<a href="/genesis/17-13.htm" title="He that is born in your house, and he that is bought with your money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.">Genesis 17:13</a>), and had never been formally abrogated. Who were the new teachers, that they should change what God had thus established? It is clear that they came, claiming to speak in the name of James, the Bishop of Jerusalem, and though he distinctly repudiates having authorised them (<a href="/acts/15-24.htm" title="For as much as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, You must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:">Acts 15:24</a>), yet if we suppose, as is probable, that his Epistle was written shortly before the Council, we can easily understand that they might rest their case on the words which he had used in it, that “whosoever shall keep the whole Law, and yet offend in one point, is guilty of all” (<a href="/james/2-10.htm" title="For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.">James 2:10</a>). Here, they might say, is a point confessedly in the Law, and even prior to it; and they were not prepared to draw the distinctions which we have learned to draw between the positive and the moral, the transient and the permanent, obligations of that Law. And it is to be noted that they did not merely make circumcision a condition of church communion; they carried their principles to their logical conclusion—as mediaeval dogmatism did in the case of baptism—and excluded the uncircumcised from all hope of salvation. (Comp. the account of Ananias and Izates given in the Note on <a href="/acts/9-10.htm" title="And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.">Acts 9:10</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-2.htm">Acts 15:2</a></div><div class="verse">When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">When therefore Paul and Barnabas.</span>—The two Apostles must obviously have agreed in feeling that the teaching of the Judaisers (it will be convenient to use that term henceforth) involved a direct condemnation of all the work in which they saw the triumph of God’s grace. They had proclaimed salvation through faith in Christ. Their converts were now told that they had been teaching a soul-destroying falsehood.<p><span class= "bld">No small dissension and disputation.</span>—The first of the two words was that which had been used by classical writers, like Thucydides (iii. 82) and Aristotle (<span class= "ital">Polit.</span> v. 2), to express the greatest evil of all political societies—the spirit of party and of faction. In <a href="/mark/15-7.htm" title="And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection.">Mark 15:7</a>; <a href="/luke/23-19.htm" title="(Who for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison.)">Luke 23:19</a>, it is used of the “insurrection” in which Barabbas had been the ringleader. That element of evil was now beginning to show itself in the Christian Church.<p><span class= "bld">They determined that Paul and Barnabas.</span>—These were naturally chosen as the representatives of the cause of which they had been the chief advocates. The “certain others” are not named, but the prophets of <a href="/acts/13-1.htm" title="Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.">Acts 13:1</a>, and the men of Cyprus and Cyrene of <a href="/acts/11-20.htm" title="And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spoke to the Grecians, preaching the LORD Jesus.">Acts 11:20</a>, were likely enough to have been chosen, and Titus was apparently taken up as an example of the fruits of St. Paul’s labours (<a href="/galatians/1-3.htm" title="Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,">Galatians 1:3</a>). Looking to the Roman name which this disciple bore, it is not unlikely that he may have been among the first to whom the term <span class= "ital">Christian</span> was applied. (See Note on <a href="/acts/11-26.htm" title="And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.">Acts 11:26</a>.) The fulness with which the history of the Council is given, suggests the possibility that St. Luke himself may have been present at it. If not, he must have based his report on materials supplied by St. Paul or one of the other delegates from Antioch, possibly Manaen (<a href="/acts/13-1.htm" title="Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.">Acts 13:1</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders.</span>—The circumstances of the journey make it all but certain that we may identify it with that of which St. Paul speaks in <a href="/galatians/2-1.htm" title="Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also.">Galatians 2:1</a>. The only other visits that can dispute its claim are those of <a href="/acts/11-30.htm" title="Which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.">Acts 11:30</a>; <a href="/acts/18-22.htm" title="And when he had landed at Caesarea, and gone up, and saluted the church, he went down to Antioch.">Acts 18:22</a>; but though the latter view has been taken by some able writers (<span class= "ital">e.g., </span>Lewin’s <span class= "ital">St. Paul, </span>i., p. 302), there are, it is believed, decisive grounds for rejecting both. Against the first there are the facts, (1) that it is not easy to place fourteen years between the visit of <a href="/acts/9-27.htm" title="But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared to them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.">Acts 9:27</a>, and that of <a href="/acts/11-30.htm" title="Which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.">Acts 11:30</a>; (2) the visit of <a href="/acts/11-30.htm" title="Which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.">Acts 11:30</a> appears in the history as confined to the single object of carrying relief to the suffering poor of the Church at Jerusalem; (3) the question as to enforcing circumcision had not then been raised, after its apparent settlement in the case of Cornelius; (4) had the agreement referred to in <a href="/galatians/2-9.htm" title="And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go to the heathen, and they to the circumcision.">Galatians 2:9</a> preceded the Council, it would assuredly have been appealed to in the course of the debate at the Council. Against the second there are the facts (1) that the interval would, in that case, have been more than fourteen years; and (2) that it was not likely that the question should have been raised again after the decision of the Council. The only arguments of any weight on the other side are, (1) that the narrative of Acts 15 makes no mention of Titus; and (2) that that of Galatians 2 makes no mention of the Council; but these arguments from omission tell equally against both the other visits. These points will be dealt with as we proceed, and are, in any case, not sufficient to outweigh the evidence in the other scale. The reference of the question to the “Apostles and elders” is in many ways important. (1) As against the dogmatic system of the Church of Rome. On her theory, in its latest forms, the reference should have been to Peter, and to Peter alone, as the unerring guide of the Church into all truth. (2) As a recognition of the authority of the mother-Church of Jerusalem by the daughter-Church of Antioch; and as a precedent for referring local disputes to the decision of a central authority. (3) As showing the confidence which Paul and Barnabas felt that the decision would be in their favour. They could not believe that St. Peter would be false to the lesson which the history of Cornelius had taught him, nor that St. James would recall the definition which he had so recently given of “pure and undefiled religion” (<a href="/james/1-27.htm" title="Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.">James 1:27</a>). (4) We note that St. Paul ascribes the journey to a “revelation” (<a href="/galatians/2-1.htm" title="Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also.">Galatians 2:1</a>). The thought came into his mind as by an inspiration that this, and not prolonged wranglings at Antioch, was the right solution of the problem.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-3.htm">Acts 15:3</a></div><div class="verse">And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">They passed through Phenice and Samaria.</span>—The route lay from Seleucia, at the mouth of the Orontes, along the coast of Sidon, Tyre, and, probably, Cæsarea, and then through Samaria. They might have gone to Joppa, and so have avoided the old Canaanite cities and the region of the hated Samaritans. The very journey was, therefore, an assertion of the principles for which they were contending. We note, too, that the facts imply that they found “brethren,” <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>established Christian societies, in both regions. “Tyre and Sidon” had repented and believed, though Chorazin and Bethsaida had hardened themselves in unbelief (<a href="/luke/11-13.htm" title="If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?">Luke 11:13</a>). The “woman of Canaan,” of <a href="/mark/7-26.htm" title="The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she sought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.">Mark 7:26</a>, may, by this time, have eaten not of the “crumbs,” but of the “Bread” of Life. Everything points to Philip as the probable Evangelist of this region as well as of Samaria. Paul and Barnabas would accordingly, as they travelled, be setting their seal to his work, claiming fellowship with Canaanites and Samaritans; and wherever they went they were received with joy. Here, at least, they were certain of support; and, on mere grounds of policy, they were strengthening their cause by appearing at Jerusalem as the representatives of such important communities, having the courage of their convictions, and determined, though they might make concessions in things indifferent, not to sacrifice a single principle.<p><span class= "bld">They caused</span> <span class= "bld">great joy.</span>—The tense implies continued action. Wherever they went the tidings of the conversion of the Gentiles were received by the disciples at large with a gladness which presented the strongest possible contrast to the narrowness and bitterness of the Pharisee section of the Church of Jerusalem.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-4.htm">Acts 15:4</a></div><div class="verse">And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and <i>of</i> the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">They were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders.</span>—The words imply a general gathering of the Church, members of different synagogues coining together, with the elders who presided over them. The position of the Apostles, though in some degree analogous in their relation to the elders to the later office of bishops, was yet in many ways unique. They had no local diocese, but remained at Jerusalem, guiding the progress of the Church at large, as a kind of central council, calling in the “elders,” or “presbyters,” to consult with them, and submitting the result of their deliberations to the Church at large. The three bodies stood to each other as the <span class= "ital">Boulè, </span>or council, the <span class= "ital">Gerusia, </span>or senate, and the <span class= "ital">Ecclesia, </span>or assembly, in a Greek republic.<p><span class= "bld">They declared all things that God had done with them.</span>—This obviously implied a narrative of considerable length: the history of acts and sufferings, of signs and wonders, of the fruits of the Spirit as seen in the purity, and truth, and love of the Gentile converts. This took place apparently at a preliminary meeting.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-5.htm">Acts 15:5</a></div><div class="verse">But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command <i>them</i> to keep the law of Moses.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">Certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed.</span>—This is the first distinct mention of the conversion of any of the Pharisaic party, but there had been a drift in that direction going on for some time, beginning during our Lord’s ministry (<a href="/john/12-42.htm" title="Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue:">John 12:42</a>), and showing itself in the moderate counsels of Gamaliel (<a href="/context/acts/5-38.htm" title="And now I say to you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nothing:">Acts 5:38-39</a>). The position which they occupied was that of accepting Jesus as a teacher sent from God, proved by the Resurrection to be the Christ, and as such the Head of a kingdom which was to present to mankind a restored and glorified Judaism, the Law kept in its completeness, the Temple ritual still maintained, Gentiles admitted only on their confessing their inferiority and accepting the sign of incorporation with the superior race. It appears, from <a href="/galatians/2-1.htm" title="Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also.">Galatians 2:1</a>, that here, as in so many later controversies, the general issue was debated on an individual case. Was Titus—a Greek, <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>a Gentile, whom St. Paul had brought up with him—to be circumcised, or not? Was he to be admitted to communion with the Church, or treated as a heathen? Here, probably, there was no official rank as in the case of Cornelius, no previous transition stage in passing through the synagogue as a proselyte of the gate. He was a Gentile pure and simple, and as such his case was a crucial one. Circumcision, however, did not stand alone. It carried with it every jot and tittle of the Law, the Sabbaths and the feasts, the distinction between clean and unclean meats. It may be noted that the position which Titus occupied in this controversy gave him a special fitness for the work afterwards assigned to him, of contending against the party of the circumcision, with their “Jewish fables” and false standards of purity (<a href="/titus/1-10.htm" title="For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:">Titus 1:10</a>; <a href="/context/titus/1-14.htm" title="Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.">Titus 1:14-15</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-6.htm">Acts 15:6</a></div><div class="verse">And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">And the apostles and elders came together.</span>—The meeting rightly takes its place as the first in the long series of councils, or synods, which mark the course of the Church’s history. It bore its witness that the government of the Christian society was not to rest in the autocracy of a single will, but in the deliberative decision of those who, directly or indirectly, having been appointed by the choice, or with the approval, of the people, represented the whole community. Presbyters had an equal voice with the Apostles, whose position was analogous to that of the later bishops. Those whom we should call the laity were present at the deliberations, and, though we have no absolute proof that they took part in them, gave their vote. (Comp. Note on <a href="/acts/15-23.htm" title="And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brothers send greeting to the brothers which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia.">Acts 15:23</a>.) Strictly speaking, it was, in the later ecclesiastical language, a provincial and not an œcumenical synod, called to decide what seemed a question of discipline rather than of doctrine; but the ground on which the question had been argued made it one of world-wide dogmatic importance. If circumcision was necessary, then faith in Christ was insufficient. St. Paul saw and felt this in all its fulness, and therefore would not “give way by subjection, no, not for an hour” (<a href="/galatians/2-5.htm" title="To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.">Galatians 2:5</a>). We have no <span class= "ital">data</span> for estimating the number of the presbyters who were present. Probably they included those of the neighbouring towns and villages of Judæa as well as of Jerusalem, and if so, we may fairly think of some number between fifty and a hundred.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-7.htm">Acts 15:7</a></div><div class="verse">And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men <i>and</i> brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">When there had been much disputing.</span>—This implies a full discussion, in which the Judaising teachers, probably, though not certainly, presbyters, on the one side, and the advocates of freedom, on the other, took part. Light is thrown on the character of the debate by St. Paul’s account of the matter in <a href="/context/galatians/2-2.htm" title="And I went up by revelation, and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.">Galatians 2:2-10</a>. He did not even then bring out what he held and taught, in its fulness. He shrank from startling and offending the prejudices of his countrymen, and was content to argue that circumcision and the Law were not binding upon the Gentiles, to press the precedent of the case of Cornelius and the analogy of the proselytes of the gate. Privately, in interviews with Peter, James, and John, he had gone further, and had declared his convictions that for Jew and Gentile alike circumcision and the Law were hindrances, and not helps, to the spiritual life, and that faith working by love was everything. And they, as the history of the Council and yet more their Epistles show, accepted his teaching. Of all doctrines as to the development of the Christian Church that which sees in Peter, James, and John the leaders of a Judaising anti-Pauline party is, perhaps, the most baseless and fantastic. The fact that their names were unscrupulously used by that party, both in their lifetime and, as the Pseudo-Clementine <span class= "ital">Homilies</span> and <span class= "ital">Recognitions</span> show, after their death, cannot outweigh their own deliberate words and acts.<p><span class= "bld">Peter rose up, and said unto them.</span>—The position of the Apostle is one of authority, but not of primacy. He does not preside, nor even propose, as we should say, a definite canon or resolution. His authority is that of personal and moral influence, that of a <span class= "ital">vir pietate gravis, </span>but nothing more.<p><span class= "bld">Men and brethren.</span>—Better, as before, <span class= "ital">Brethren</span> only, and so again in <a href="/acts/15-13.htm" title="And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brothers, listen to me:">Acts 15:13</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Ye know how that a good while ago . . .</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">of ancient days.</span> Ten or twelve years had passed since the conversion of Cornelius. Where Peter had been in the meantime, and what he had done, we have no record. We can hardly believe, as the Romish theory implies, that he came from the imperial city to attend the Council. It will be noted, as has been said before (see Note on <a href="/acts/11-20.htm" title="And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spoke to the Grecians, preaching the LORD Jesus.">Acts 11:20</a>), that the Apostle speaks of this as having been the first admission of the Gentiles.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-8.htm">Acts 15:8</a></div><div class="verse">And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as <i>he did</i> unto us;</div>(8) <span class= "bld">God which knoweth the hearts.</span>—We note the recurrence of the epithet as characteristic of St. Peter. (See Note on <a href="/acts/1-24.htm" title="And they prayed, and said, You, Lord, which know the hearts of all men, show whether of these two you have chosen,">Acts 1:24</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-9.htm">Acts 15:9</a></div><div class="verse">And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">And put no difference between us and them.</span>—It is obvious that this implies the most entire acceptance of the teaching which St. Paul had privately communicated to the three who were as the pillars of the Church (<a href="/galatians/2-9.htm" title="And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go to the heathen, and they to the circumcision.">Galatians 2:9</a>). In <a href="/romans/10-12.htm" title="For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich to all that call on him.">Romans 10:12</a> we have almost the very words of St. Peter reproduced.<p><span class= "bld">Purifying their hearts by faith.</span>—The addition of these words is very suggestive. It was not only in the “gifts” of the Spirit, the tongues and prophecy, that the Apostle saw the witness which God had borne to the acceptance of the Gentiles, but even more than this, in the new purity growing out of a new faith in God and a new hope. Underlying the words we trace the assertion of a higher ideal of purity than that on which the Pharisees were insisting. They looked on the Gentiles as impure because they did not observe the ceremonial law and the traditions of the elders as to purity. He had learnt to call no man common or unclean (<a href="/acts/10-28.htm" title="And he said to them, You know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come to one of another nation; but God has showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.">Acts 10:28</a>) and to see that it was in the heart, and not in the flesh, that the work of purifying was to be accomplished. Comp. in connection with the thought suggested in the Note on <a href="/acts/15-5.htm" title="But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.">Acts 15:5</a>, the teaching as to purity in <a href="/titus/1-15.htm" title="To the pure all things are pure: but to them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.">Titus 1:15</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-10.htm">Acts 15:10</a></div><div class="verse">Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?</div>(10) <span class= "bld">Why tempt ye God.</span>—To tempt God was to make the experiment whether His will, manifested in the acceptance of the Gentiles, or man’s will, resenting and resisting it, was the stronger of the two. Nothing but defeat and condemnation could be the issue of such a trial.<p><span class= "bld">To put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples.</span>—No words of St. Paul’s, in relation to the Law, could be stronger or clearer than these. They reproduced our Lord’s own language as to the “heavy burdens” of the Pharisaic traditions (<a href="/matthew/23-4.htm" title="For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.">Matthew 23:4</a>) and His own “easy yoke” (<a href="/matthew/11-30.htm" title="For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.">Matthew 11:30</a>). They were echoed by St. Paul when he warned the Galatians not to be entangled again in the yoke of bondage (<a href="/galatians/5-1.htm" title="Stand fast therefore in the liberty with which Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.">Galatians 5:1</a>). The words that follow, on the one hand, speak out the experience of the Apostle himself in terms that are hardly less striking than those of St. Paul in <a href="/context/romans/7-7.htm" title="What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. No, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, You shall not covet.">Romans 7:7-8</a>, though they deal with the Law in its positive rather than its moral aspects, and contain an implied appeal to the experience of his hearers. Was it worth while to “tempt God” by resisting His teaching in history in order to bring the Gentiles down to the level from which they themselves, Jews as they were, were thankful to have risen?<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-11.htm">Acts 15:11</a></div><div class="verse">But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">We believe that through the grace . . .</span>—This comes, in what we may well regard as a summary of St. Peter’s speech, as the closing argument. The Pharisee might regard the Law as binding, but even he, if he believed in Christ, was compelled to confess that his hope of salvation was found in the work of Christ as the Saviour; and if so, then, as regards that hope, Jew and Gentile were on the same level, and the judgment that men could not be saved without the Law was but the inconsistency of an intolerant dogmatism, insisting on imposing that which was acknowledged to be profitless. It may be noted that this is the last appearance of St. Peter in the Acts, which from this period turns exclusively upon the work of St. Paul. For the subsequent history of the former, see <span class= "ital">Introduction</span> to the Epistles of St. Peter.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-12.htm">Acts 15:12</a></div><div class="verse">Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.</div>(12) <span class= "bld">And gave audience to Barnabas and Paul.</span>—The leaders of the Church had clearly reserved their part in the debate to the last, and the two Apostles of the Gentiles were now called on to repeat more publicly what they had already narrated to the Apostles and elders (<a href="/acts/15-4.htm" title="And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them.">Acts 15:4</a>). It was, perhaps, with a special view to the character of their hearers that they laid stress on the “signs and wonders” which had attested God’s acceptance of their work (<a href="/matthew/12-38.htm" title="Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from you.">Matthew 12:38</a>; <a href="/matthew/16-1.htm" title="The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven.">Matthew 16:1</a>; <a href="/1_corinthians/1-22.htm" title="For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:">1Corinthians 1:22</a>). Miracles had been wrought among the Gentiles as freely as among the Jews, and those who wrought them, unless they were casting out devils by Beelzebub (and the Judaisers appear to have shrunk from that charge), must have been sent by God (<a href="/john/3-2.htm" title="The same came to Jesus by night, and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that you do, except God be with him.">John 3:2</a>; <a href="/context/john/9-31.htm" title="Now we know that God hears not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and does his will, him he hears.">John 9:31-33</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-13.htm">Acts 15:13</a></div><div class="verse">And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men <i>and</i> brethren, hearken unto me:</div>(13) <span class= "bld">James answered.</span>—The position which James the brother of the Lord (see Notes on <a href="/acts/12-17.htm" title="But he, beckoning to them with the hand to hold their peace, declared to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, Go show these things to James, and to the brothers. And he departed, and went into another place.">Acts 12:17</a>; and <a href="/matthew/12-46.htm" title="While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood without, desiring to speak with him.">Matthew 12:46</a>; <a href="/matthew/13-55.htm" title="Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brothers, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?">Matthew 13:55</a>) occupies in the Council is clearly that of pre-eminence, justifying the title of Bishop of Jerusalem, which later writers give him. No one speaks after him; he sum up the whole debate; he proposes the decree which is to be submitted to the Council for approval.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-14.htm">Acts 15:14</a></div><div class="verse">Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.</div>(14) <span class= "bld">Simeon hath declared . . .</span>—The Greek form is <span class= "ital">Symeon, </span>as in <a href="/2_peter/1-1.htm" title="Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ:">2Peter 1:1</a>. The use of the old Hebrew form of the Apostle’s name, instead of the more familiar Simon, was natural in the Galilean speaker, and is presumptive evidence in favour of our having a report from notes made at the time.<p><span class= "bld">Did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people.</span>—The two words present an emphatic contrast. The Jews claimed for themselves the exclusive right to the latter term. They alone were the “people,” the rest of mankind were the “nations”—the “heathen.” St. James proclaims that out of those heathen nations a people had been taken who were as truly God’s people as Israel had ever been. He, too, recognises the change as fully as St. Paul does, when in <a href="/romans/9-26.htm" title="And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.">Romans 9:26</a> he quotes the memorable prophecy of <a href="/hosea/1-10.htm" title="Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there it shall be said to them, You are the sons of the living God.">Hosea 1:10</a>. St. James as well as St. Peter had, it is clear, profited by the private teaching referred to in <a href="/galatians/2-2.htm" title="And I went up by revelation, and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.">Galatians 2:2</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-15.htm">Acts 15:15</a></div><div class="verse">And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written,</div>(15) <span class= "bld">To this agree the words of the prophets.</span>—On the mode of quoting without naming the prophet, see Note on <a href="/acts/13-40.htm" title="Beware therefore, lest that come on you, which is spoken of in the prophets;">Acts 13:40</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-16.htm">Acts 15:16</a></div><div class="verse">After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:</div>(16) <span class= "bld">After this I will return.</span>—It is a fact not without interest that the prophet from whom these words are taken (<a href="/context/amos/9-11.htm" title="In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:">Amos 9:11-12</a>) had been already quoted by Stephen (<a href="/acts/7-42.htm" title="Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O you house of Israel, have you offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?">Acts 7:42</a>). Those who then listened to him had, we may believe, been led to turn to the writings of Amos, and to find in them meanings which had hitherto been latent. The fact that the inference drawn from the passage mainly turns on a clause in which the LXX. version, which St. James quotes, differs from the Hebrew, shows, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the discussion must have been conducted in Greek, and not in Hebrew. At first this may appear strange in a council held at Jerusalem, but the trial of Stephen presents a precedent (see Note on <a href="/acts/7-1.htm" title="Then said the high priest, Are these things so?">Acts 7:1</a>); and it is obvious that in a debate which chiefly affected the interests of Greeks, and at which many of them, and of the Hellenistic Jews, were likely to be present, the use of that language, both in the debate and the decree in which it resulted, was almost a matter of necessity. Both languages were probably equally familiar to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. (See Note on <a href="/acts/22-2.htm" title="(And when they heard that he spoke in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence: and he said,)">Acts 22:2</a>.) The quotation suggests, perhaps implies, a fuller interpretation than is given in the summary of St. James’s speech. It assumes that the “tabernacle of David,” which to human eyes had been lying as in ruins, was being rebuilt by Christ, the Son of David, that He was doing the work which, in the prophecy, Jehovah claimed as His.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-17.htm">Acts 15:17</a></div><div class="verse">That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.</div>(17) <span class= "bld">That the residue of men . . .</span>—The Hebrew gives, as in our version, “That they may possess the remnant of Edom and of all the heathen which are called by my name.” The LXX. translators either paraphrased the passage, so as to give a wider and more general view of its teaching, or followed a reading in which the Hebrew for “man” (<span class= "ital">Adam</span>) took the place of Edom. It will be seen that the argument of St. James turns upon the Greek rendering. The “name of God” was to be “called” upon by those who were “the residue of men,” <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>all that were outside the pale of Israel. So understood, the words became, of course, a prediction of the conversion of the Gentiles, and to the uncritical habits of the time, accustomed to Targums or Paraphrases of many parts of Scripture, the LXX. was for all but the stricter and more bigoted Hebraists, as authoritative as the original.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-18.htm">Acts 15:18</a></div><div class="verse">Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.</div>(18) <span class= "bld">Known unto God are all his works.</span>—The better MSS. give “all His work”—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>the great work of the government and education of mankind. The words are an implicit answer to the charge of innovation. If the work were of God, it could not be so called, for His mercies are everlasting, and the work which He carries on now must be thought of as contemplated and purposed from eternity. The principle has clearly a wider range than that within which St. James applies it. We do well to remember, whenever we are tempted to offer an obstinate resistance to what seems to us a novelty, and which we therefore are ready to condemn, that we ought first to inquire whether the “signs of the times” do not indicate that it is part of the divine plan, working through the ages, that the old order should change and give place to the new.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-19.htm">Acts 15:19</a></div><div class="verse">Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:</div>(19) <span class= "bld">Wherefore my sentence is.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">Wherefore I judge.</span> The tone is that of one who speaks with authority, but what follows is not given as a decree, but as a resolution which was submitted to the judgment of the Apostles and elders. (Comp. <a href="/acts/16-4.htm" title="And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem.">Acts 16:4</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">That we trouble not them.</span>—The verb is not found elsewhere in the New Testament, and expresses the idea of “worrying” or “harassing.”<p><span class= "bld">Are turned to God.</span>—More accurately, <span class= "ital">are turning, </span>as acknowledging that the work was going on at that very moment.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-20.htm">Acts 15:20</a></div><div class="verse">But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and <i>from</i> fornication, and <i>from</i> things strangled, and <i>from</i> blood.</div>(20) <span class= "bld">But that we write unto them.</span>—The grounds on which the measure thus defined was proposed are not far to seek. (1) It was of the nature of a compromise. The Gentiles could not complain that the burden imposed on them was anything very grievous. The Pharisee section of the Church could not refuse admission to those who fulfilled these conditions, when they had admitted the proselytes of the gate on like conditions to their synagogues, and had so treated them as no longer unclean. (2) The rules on which stress was now laid found a place among the seven precepts traditionally ascribed to Noah, and based upon the commands recorded in <a href="/genesis/9-5.htm" title="And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man.">Genesis 9:5</a>. These were held to be binding upon all mankind; while the Law, as such, was binding on Israel only. These, therefore, had been thought sufficient for the proselytes of the gate before, and were urged now as sufficient for the Gentile converts by the teacher who represented the most rigid type of Judaism. (See, once more, the history of Ananias and Izates in the Note on <a href="/acts/9-10.htm" title="And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.">Acts 9:10</a>.) Special reasons attached, as will be seen, to each precept.<p><span class= "bld">From pollutions of idols.</span>—The Greek of the first noun is found only in the LXX. and the New Testament; and perhaps its primary idea is that of “wallowing” in blood and mire, and so incurring pollution. As distinguished from the acts that follow, it indicates any participation, publicly or privately, in idolatrous rites. One who acted on the rule would have to refrain from entering a temple, and to dislodge busts or statues of the gods from his house and gardens. The presence of such things, when they presented themselves on entering a house, was a great stumbling-block to devout Jews, and the Gentile convert who, left to himself, might have been disposed to keep them, though no longer as objects of worship, but as works of art, was required to renounce them. The statues of Zeus and Artemis and Hermes were to be to him henceforth as abominations. In the decree itself, however, we find “things sacrificed to idols” instead of the more general term, and we may accordingly deal here with that question also. So interpreted, the rule brings before us a new phase of the life of the early Christian converts. Under the religion of Greece and Rome, sacrifices were so common that it might fairly be taken for granted that the flesh at any festive meal had been so offered. But a small portion of the flesh was burnt upon the altar, and the rest was cooked for the household meal, or sent to the market for sale. Such meat was, in the eyes of the strict Jews, polluted, and the history of Daniel and his companions (<a href="/daniel/1-8.htm" title="But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.">Daniel 1:8</a>) was regarded as a precedent to avoiding it. Partly on this ground, partly on that referred to in the next Note but one, the Jew never bought meat in the market, nor of other than a Jewish butcher. He travelled with his <span class= "ital">cophinus, </span>or basket, <span class= "ital">on</span> his back, and carried his provisions with him. So Juvenal (<span class= "ital">Sat. iii.</span> 14) speaks of—<p>“Judæis, quorum cophinus fœnumque supellex.”<p>[“Basket, and wisp of straw to serve as pillow,—<p>That’s the Jew’s luggage.”]<p>Here, therefore, was a new stumbling-block, and the Gentile was required to avoid this also. It involved many sacrifices, and what would seem privations. The convert had to refuse invitations to birthday, and marriage, and funeral feasts; or, if present, to refuse to eat at them. A man with a sensitive conscience would refuse to partake of what was set before him in a private house or offered for sale in the market, unless he had satisfied himself that it had not so been offered. It was natural that this restriction, which did not rest directly on a moral ground, should give rise to some resistance, and the controversy connected with it assumed many different phases. At Corinth men claimed the right to eat what they chose, and St. Paul conceded the right in the abstract, but urged abstinence on the ground of charity (1 Corinthians 8-10.). At Pergamos and Thyatira, somewhat later in the apostolic age (<a href="/revelation/2-14.htm" title="But I have a few things against you, because you have there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication.">Revelation 2:14</a>; <a href="/revelation/2-20.htm" title="Notwithstanding I have a few things against you, because you suffer that woman Jezebel, which calls herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols.">Revelation 2:20</a>), the lawfulness of eating things sacrificed to idols was openly maintained in contravention alike of the teaching of St. Paul and of the apostolic decree, and was joined with a like claim to be exempted from the law which forbade illicit sexual intercourse. At Corinth, it would seem from <a href="/1_corinthians/8-10.htm" title="For if any man see you which have knowledge sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols;">1Corinthians 8:10</a>, the assertion of freedom had led men so far as not only to eat of the flesh that had been sacrificed, but actually to sit down to a feast in the idol’s temple. (Comp. <a href="/romans/2-22.htm" title="You that say a man should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? you that abhor idols, do you commit sacrilege?">Romans 2:22</a>, as expressing the Jewish feeling.)<p><span class= "bld">And from fornication.</span>—We are surprised at first to find, what seems to us, a moral law placed in juxtaposition with two rules which, like those that follow, seem purely positive and ceremonial. We have to remember, however, (1) that the first command was moral also, and that we may fairly recognise something like a practical, though not a formal distinction, by thinking of the first two precepts as grouped together; (2) that the sin named, involving, as it did, the absence of any true sense of self-respecting purity or reverence for womanhood, was the wide-spread evil of the ancient world, against which Israel had from the first been called to bear its witness (<a href="/genesis/34-31.htm" title="And they said, Should he deal with our sister as with an harlot?">Genesis 34:31</a>; <a href="/leviticus/19-29.htm" title="Do not prostitute your daughter, to cause her to be a whore; lest the land fall to prostitution, and the land become full of wickedness.">Leviticus 19:29</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/23-17.htm" title="There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.">Deuteronomy 23:17</a>; <a href="/context/proverbs/7-6.htm" title="For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,">Proverbs 7:6-27</a>). The increasing laxity of morals throughout the Roman empire, showing itself in the well-known line of Terence—<p>“Nihil peccati est adolescentulum scortari, “<p>had led men to think of it as natural and permissible, bringing with it no sense of wrong or shame (comp. Horace, <span class= "ital">Sat. i.</span> 2, 119), and it might well be that the ethical standard of the Gentile converts was not all at once raised to a true ideal of purity. The old license may have seemed venial, and the disciples may have thought, as Christians have too often thought since, that it did not call for any deep repentance, or exclude them from fellowship with Christ. And yet it was clear that to the Jewish Christian, trained from his childhood to condemn the sin severely, this, too, would legitimately be a very grave stumbling-block in the admission of Gentile converts. How could he feel any assurance that they might not have come from the embraces of a harlot to the Feast of Charity or to the very Supper of the Lord? (Comp. <a href="/1_corinthians/6-15.htm" title="Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.">1Corinthians 6:15</a>; <a href="/revelation/2-14.htm" title="But I have a few things against you, because you have there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication.">Revelation 2:14</a>.) Such a state of things required to be dealt with by a special enactment. The moral command had to be re-enacted, and brought into a new prominence. The Church had to take its first step in purifying the morals of mankind, not only by its general teaching, but by canons and rules of discipline. Stress has often been laid on the fact that in many cases, as in those of the <span class= "ital">Hetæræ?, </span>or harlot-priestesses, of Aphrodite at Corinth and Paphos, prostitution was in closest alliance with idolatry, as a reason for the prohibition, and it is, of course, true that in such cases the sin assumed, in the eyes of Jews, an aggravated character. The man identified himself, by his sinful indulgence, with the <span class= "ital">coltus</span> of the woman who was its avowed devotee. We can scarcely think, however, that the sin was forbidden, not on account of its own intrinsic evil, but only or chiefly, with a view to this ulterior and incidental consequence.<p><span class= "bld">Things strangled.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">of that which has been strangled.</span> The prohibition rested on <a href="/genesis/9-4.htm" title="But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall you not eat.">Genesis 9:4</a>, and was connected with the symbolic meaning of the blood as representing life, and therefore consecrated to Jehovah. It was repeated in the Law (<a href="/leviticus/3-17.htm" title="It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that you eat neither fat nor blood.">Leviticus 3:17</a>; <a href="/leviticus/7-26.htm" title="Moreover you shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings.">Leviticus 7:26</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/12-16.htm" title="Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it on the earth as water.">Deuteronomy 12:16</a>; <a href="/1_samuel/14-33.htm" title="Then they told Saul, saying, Behold, the people sin against the LORD, in that they eat with the blood. And he said, You have transgressed: roll a great stone to me this day.">1Samuel 14:33</a>), and has been maintained with a wonderful tenacity. For this reason, long after sacrifices have ceased, the Jew will still, if possible, only eat what has been killed by a butcher of his own persuasion. Meat so killed, which may be eaten without defilement, is known technically as <span class= "ital">Kosher.</span> Here the moral element falls entirely into the background, and the prohibition has simply the character of a <span class= "ital">concordat</span> to avoid offence. St. Paul and St. Peter were alike persuaded that “there is nothing unclean of itself” (<a href="/acts/10-15.htm" title="And the voice spoke to him again the second time, What God has cleansed, that call not you common.">Acts 10:15</a>; <a href="/romans/14-14.htm" title="I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteems any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.">Romans 14:14</a>). Practically, the effect of the rule would have been to compel Christians to buy their meat, poultry, &c., from a Jewish butcher or a Christian who followed the Jewish mode of killing, and in some places this must have entailed considerable inconvenience.<p><span class= "bld">From blood.</span>—As distinguished from the preceding rule, this forbade the separate use of blood, as with flour and vegetables, or in the black-puddings of modern cookery, as an article of food. Dishes so prepared were common in the <span class= "ital">cuisine</span> both of Greeks and Romans, and here also, therefore, the restriction would have involved a frequent withdrawal from social life, or a conspicuous singularity. On the history of the observance, see Note on <a href="/acts/15-28.htm" title="For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay on you no greater burden than these necessary things;">Acts 15:28</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-21.htm">Acts 15:21</a></div><div class="verse">For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.</div>(21) <span class= "bld">For Moses of old time.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">of ancient generations.</span> The conjunction gives the reason for writing to the Gentiles, and giving them these injunctions. The Jews, who heard the Law in their synagogues every Sabbath, did not need instruction. It might be taken for granted that they would adhere to the rules now specified. So, in <a href="/acts/15-23.htm" title="And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brothers send greeting to the brothers which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia.">Acts 15:23</a>, the encyclical letter is addressed exclusively to “the brethren of the Gentiles.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-22.htm">Acts 15:22</a></div><div class="verse">Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; <i>namely</i>, Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren:</div>(22) <span class= "bld">The apostles and elders, with the whole church.</span>—The latter words are important, as showing the position occupied by the laity. If they concurred in the letter, it must have been submitted to their approval, and the right to approve involves the power to reject and, probably, to modify. It is probable enough, as in the analogous constitution of Greek republics above referred to (see Note on <a href="/acts/15-4.htm" title="And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them.">Acts 15:4</a>), that the Ecclesia, or popular assembly, did not possess the power of initiating measures; but their right to vote appears, from this instance, to have been indisputable. (See, however, Note on the next verse.) It does not follow, of course, that what was thus the polity of the apostolic age was necessarily adapted for the Church of all subsequent ages; but the exclusion of the laity from all share in Church synods, though it may be defended as a safeguard against the violence of a barbarous or faithless age, must, at any rate, be admitted to be at variance with primitive and apostolic practice.<p><span class= "bld">To send chosen men.</span>—Literally, the participle being active in meaning, <span class= "ital">to choose and send men.</span> This was obviously necessary, to guard against suspicion. Had Paul and Barnabas alone been the bearers of such a letter, it might have been said that they had forged it.<p><span class= "bld">Judas surnamed Barsabas.</span>—The same patronymic meets us, it will be remembered, in <a href="/acts/1-23.htm" title="And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.">Acts 1:23</a>, as belonging to “Joseph, called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus.” It is a natural inference that the two were brothers, and therefore that the disciple now mentioned had been among those who were personally followers of our Lord. This would naturally clothe him with a high authority. The fact that he is spoken of in <a href="/acts/15-32.htm" title="And Judas and Silas, being prophets also themselves, exhorted the brothers with many words, and confirmed them.">Acts 15:32</a> as a prophet, makes it probable that he was of the number of the Seventy. (See Note on <a href="/luke/10-1.htm" title="After these things the LORD appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, where he himself would come.">Luke 10:1</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Silas.</span>—This may have been either a contracted form of Silvanus, as Antipas was of Antipatros, or an Aramaic name, for which Silvanus was adopted as the nearest Greek equivalent. It is probable that he, too, fulfilled the same conditions as his companion. He also was a prophet (<a href="/acts/15-32.htm" title="And Judas and Silas, being prophets also themselves, exhorted the brothers with many words, and confirmed them.">Acts 15:32</a>). His later history will be noticed as it comes before us. As the name is connected with the Hebrew for “three,” he has by some been identified with the Tertius of <a href="/romans/16-22.htm" title="I Tertius, who wrote this letter, salute you in the Lord.">Romans 16:22</a>; but it is hardly probable that one who had been known at Corinth as Silvanus (<a href="/2_corinthians/1-19.htm" title="For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yes and no, but in him was yes.">2Corinthians 1:19</a>), should afterwards have changed his name.<p><span class= "bld">Chief men among the brethren.</span>—The title thus given is the same as “those that bear rule over you,” in <a href="/hebrews/13-17.htm" title="Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.">Hebrews 13:17</a>, and implies that they had a position of greater authority than the other elders, as at least <span class= "ital">primi inter pares.</span> This also falls in with the view that they had been disciples of Christ, who, as the number of witnesses diminished, came more and more into prominence.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-23.htm">Acts 15:23</a></div><div class="verse">And they wrote <i>letters</i> by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren <i>send</i> greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia:</div>(23) <span class= "bld">And they wrote letters by them.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">wrote letters by their hands.</span> What follows, unless we assume a deliberate fraud, is clearly the transcript of a document—the first in the long list of decrees and canons and encyclical letters which mark the Church’s history.<p><span class= "bld">The apostles and elders and brethren.</span>—The MSS. present a singular variation of readings, some of the earliest omitting the conjunction and article before the last noun, and giving “the Apostles and elders, brethren.” Such a mode of speech, however, is foreign to the usage of the New Testament, and it is probable that this reading originated in a desire to bring the text into harmony with the later practice of the Church, which excluded the laity from all participation in its synods. (See Note on <a href="/acts/15-22.htm" title="Then pleased it the apostles and elders with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas surnamed Barsabas and Silas, chief men among the brothers:">Acts 15:22</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Send greeting.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">wish joy.</span> The formula was common in Greek epistles, but is not used in the New Testament, except here and in <a href="/james/1-1.htm" title="James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.">James 1:1</a>. As it is reasonable to suppose that this letter was written or dictated by him, its occurrence is <span class= "ital">primâ facie</span> evidence of the authorship of the Epistle that bears his name, and which, on the view taken in these Notes, had been already written to the Church of the Circumcision.<p><span class= "bld">Unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles.</span>—The letter was therefore addressed to them exclusively (see Note on <a href="/acts/15-20.htm" title="But that we write to them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.">Acts 15:20</a>), as the Epistle of St. James had probably been previously addressed to the Jews of the “dispersion,” and not to the Gentiles.<p><span class= "bld">In Antioch and Syria and Cilicia.</span>—The mention of the latter country is important as showing the extent of St. Paul’s work there prior to his joining Barnabas at Antioch (<a href="/acts/11-25.htm" title="Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul:">Acts 11:25</a>). There also he had founded churches in which Gentile converts were admitted as such to full communion.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-24.htm">Acts 15:24</a></div><div class="verse">Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, <i>Ye must</i> be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no <i>such</i> commandment:</div>(24) <span class= "bld">Certain which went out from us.</span>—The reference is obviously to the teachers (their names are wisely and charitably suppressed) who had appeared at Antioch, as in <a href="/acts/15-1.htm" title="And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brothers, and said, Except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved.">Acts 15:1</a>. St. John, who was present at the Council (<a href="/galatians/2-9.htm" title="And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go to the heathen, and they to the circumcision.">Galatians 2:9</a>), and who, though he took no part in the debate, may well have had a share in drawing up the letter, uses a like mode of speech, “They went out from us, but they were not of us” (<a href="/1_john/2-19.htm" title="They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.">1John 2:19</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Subverting your souls.</span>—The Greek verb, literally, <span class= "ital">turning upside down, </span>implies throwing into a state of excitement and agitation. The Gentiles had been “unsettled” by the teaching of the Judaisers.<p><span class= "bld">And keep the law.</span>—Assuming the Epistle of St. James to have been already written, there is something almost like a touch of irony in his repeating the phrase of <a href="/james/2-10.htm" title="For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.">James 2:10</a>. The teachers who bade the Gentiles keep the Law were reminded in that Epistle that they, in their servile respect of persons, were breaking the Law deliberately in one point, and were therefore guilty of all. Putting the two passages together, they bring St. James before us as speaking in the very accents of St. Paul, “Thou, therefore, which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself?” (<a href="/romans/2-21.htm" title="You therefore which teach another, teach you not yourself? you that preach a man should not steal, do you steal?">Romans 2:21</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">To whom we gave no such commandment.</span>—The word “such” is a needless interpolation. What St. James declares is that the teachers had had no commission of any kind from him. The passage is important as throwing light on the nature of a later claim set up by the same party (<a href="/galatians/2-12.htm" title="For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.">Galatians 2:12</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-25.htm">Acts 15:25</a></div><div class="verse">It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,</div>(25) <span class= "bld">Being assembled with one accord.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">being of one mind, unanimously.</span><p><span class= "bld">To send chosen men unto you.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">to choose men and send them unto you.</span> The men, are, of course, Barsabas and Silas.<p><span class= "bld">With our beloved Barnabas and Paul.</span>—The order in which the names stand is, perhaps, characteristic of the Church of Jerusalem, to whom Barnabas was still the more conspicuous teacher of the two. The way in which the two are named may be taken as illustrating St. Paul’s statement that the “pillars” of the Church of Jerusalem gave to him and Barnabas the “right hand of fellowship” (<a href="/galatians/2-9.htm" title="And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go to the heathen, and they to the circumcision.">Galatians 2:9</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-26.htm">Acts 15:26</a></div><div class="verse">Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.</div>(26) <span class= "bld">Men that have</span> <span class= "bld">hazarded their lives.</span>—It is clear from this that the narrative of the hairbreadth escapes at the Pisidian Antioch (<a href="/acts/13-50.htm" title="But the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts.">Acts 13:50</a>) and Lystra (<a href="/acts/14-19.htm" title="And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead.">Acts 14:19</a>) must have been laid before the Church. Prominence is given to the fact as likely to secure reverence for those whom many had hitherto regarded with distrust.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-28.htm">Acts 15:28</a></div><div class="verse">For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;</div>(28) <span class= "bld">It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us . . .</span>—The measure was, the Apostles were persuaded, one of wisdom and charity, and they could not ascribe those gifts to any other source than the Spirit who gives a right judgment in all things. The words have since become almost a formula for the decrees of councils and synods, often used most recklessly when those decrees bore most clearly the marks of human policy and passion. Here we may well admit that the claim was founded on a real inspiration, remembering, however, as we do so, that an inspired commandment does not necessarily involve a permanent obligation. (See Note on next verse.)<p><span class= "bld">To lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things.</span>—The words throw light upon the message addressed to the Church of Thyatira, “I will put upon you no other burden” (<a href="/revelation/2-24.htm" title="But to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put on you none other burden.">Revelation 2:24</a>). Looking to the prominence in the Epistles to the Seven Churches of the two points of fornication and eating things sacrificed to idols, there can scarcely be the shadow of a doubt that we have in those words a distinct reference to the decree of the Council of Jerusalem. The letter does not say why these things were necessary, and the term was probably chosen as covering alike the views of those who held, like the Pharisee Christians, that they were binding on the Church for ever, and those who, like St. Paul, held that they were necessary only for the time, and as a measure of wise expediency.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-29.htm">Acts 15:29</a></div><div class="verse">That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.</div>(29) <span class= "bld">From meats offered to idols.</span>—The specific term takes the place of the more general word which St. James had used. The change, if the two words were not used, as is possible, as altogether equivalent, may be thought of as favouring the Gentiles by narrowing the prohibition to a single point.<p><span class= "bld">Fare ye well.</span>—The closing salutation was, like the opening, a Greek and not a Hebrew one. It meets us again in <a href="/acts/23-30.htm" title="And when it was told me how that the Jews laid wait for the man, I sent straightway to you, and gave commandment to his accusers also to say before you what they had against him. Farewell.">Acts 23:30</a>. Both were naturally used in a letter addressed to Greeks, and intended to be read by them and by Hellenistic Jews. It does not occur, however, in any of the Epistles of the New Testament.<p>It is natural to ask, at the close of the great encyclical letter, in what relation it really stood to the life of the Apostolic Church. As a <span class= "ital">concordat</span> between the contending parties it was framed, as has been said, with a sagacity that may well be looked on as inspired. But obviously it was not, and from the nature of the case could not be, more than that. The time had not come for proclaiming to the Church of Jerusalem the full width of St. Paul’s teaching (<a href="/galatians/2-2.htm" title="And I went up by revelation, and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.">Galatians 2:2</a>), and accordingly, though something may be read between the lines, the decree seems to treat the precepts of Noah as perpetually binding, places moral and positive obligations on the same footing, and leaves the ground on which they are “necessary” an open question. St. Paul, who had accepted it as a satisfactory settlement of the matter in debate, never refers to it, even when he is discussing the chief point with which the decree dealt (1 Corinthians 8-10). In his narrative of what passed on this occasion (<a href="/context/galatians/2-1.htm" title="Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also.">Galatians 2:1-10</a>) there is no mention of it. The private conference with the three great “pillars” of the Church was for him more than the decree of the synod, and he felt himself able to discuss the whole question again on different grounds, and with a more distinct reference to spiritual and ethical principles. It was wrong to eat things sacrificed to idols, not because the act of so eating in itself brought defilement, but because it might involve a participation in the sin of idolatry in the consciousness of the eater, or wound the conscience of the weaker brother who saw him eat. It was natural that those who lacked his largeness of view should become slaves to the letter of the rules long after the grounds on which they rested had ceased to exist, and so we find that the prohibition of blood was re-enforced in the so-called Apostolic Canons (c. 62), and in the fourth century by the Council of Gangra (c. 2), and in the seventh by that at Constantinople, known as <span class= "ital">in Trullo</span> (c. 67), and continues to be the binding rule of the Greek Church still. In Africa and in Europe, however, truer views prevailed (August, <span class= "ital">cont. Faust.</span> xxxii. 13), and not even the most devout believer in the inspiration of the Apostles, or in the authority of primitive antiquity. would venture to urge that the two last precepts of the four here enjoined were in any degree binding. Hooker (<span class= "ital">Eccl. Pol.</span> iv., xi., § 5) rightly refers to this decree as a crucial instance proving that commands might be divine and yet given only for a season, binding as long as the conditions to which they applied continued, but no longer. It would almost seem, indeed, as if St. Paul felt that the terms of the decree had the effect of placing the sin of impurity on the same level with that of eating things sacrificed to idols, and things strangled, and blood, and so tended to keep men from seeing it in its true hatefulness. Those who claimed a right, which in the abstract St. Paul could not deny, to eat of things strangled or offered to idols, thought themselves free to fall back into the old license of the heathen world, and he needed far stronger motives than the canons of the council to restrain them (<a href="/context/1_corinthians/5-9.htm" title="I wrote to you in an letter not to company with fornicators:">1Corinthians 5:9-10</a>; <a href="/context/1_corinthians/6-15.htm" title="Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.">1Corinthians 6:15-20</a>, and found those motives in the truths that they had been bought with a price, that the will of God was their sanctification, and that their bodies were His temple.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-30.htm">Acts 15:30</a></div><div class="verse">So when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch: and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle:</div>(30) <span class= "bld">When they were dismissed, they came to Antioch.</span>—It is natural, in the absence of anything to the contrary, to infer that they returned, as they had come, through Samaria and Phœnicia, and gladdened the hearts of the disciples there by telling them of the triumph which had been won at Jerusalem for the cause of freedom.<p><span class= "bld">They delivered the epistle.</span>—We can picture to ourselves the eager excitement of that moment, the listening crowds, the letter, which as a formal missive would be sealed and tied round with thread, solemnly opened and read out aloud, mortification and murmurs on the one side, clamorous applause on the other, as each sentence repudiated the claims of the Judaisers and confirmed the principles and the work of St. Paul and Barnabas. To the Gentile converts it was, indeed—won, as it had been, after a hard battle—as the great charter of their freedom.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-31.htm">Acts 15:31</a></div><div class="verse"><i>Which</i> when they had read, they rejoiced for the consolation.</div>(31) <span class= "bld">They rejoiced for the consolation.</span>—We ought not to forget that the letter was probably read out by one who was himself emphatically “the son of consolation” (<a href="/acts/4-36.htm" title="And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,">Acts 4:36</a>) in all the manifold aspects of that word, and who now proved himself worthy of the name.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-32.htm">Acts 15:32</a></div><div class="verse">And Judas and Silas, being prophets also themselves, exhorted the brethren with many words, and confirmed <i>them</i>.</div>(32) <span class= "bld">Judas and Silas, being prophets also themselves.</span>—See Note on <a href="/acts/15-22.htm" title="Then pleased it the apostles and elders with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas surnamed Barsabas and Silas, chief men among the brothers:">Acts 15:22</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Exhorted.</span>—The verb is that from which the Greek for “consolation” was formed, and includes that meaning here. This was the chief end to which the gift of prophecy was directed. The two teachers thus showed that they had not come only as formal representatives of the Church in Jerusalem, but took a personal interest in the work. Their work was the very reverse of those who had previously come from Judæa “subverting the souls of the disciples” (<a href="/acts/15-24.htm" title="For as much as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, You must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:">Acts 15:24</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-33.htm">Acts 15:33</a></div><div class="verse">And after they had tarried <i>there</i> a space, they were let go in peace from the brethren unto the apostles.</div>(33) <span class= "bld">Unto the apostles.</span>—The better MSS. have simply, “to those that had sent them,” and omit <a href="/acts/15-34.htm" title="Notwithstanding it pleased Silas to abide there still.">Acts 15:34</a>, which was probably added by a later copyist to explain the fact mentioned in <a href="/acts/15-40.htm" title="And Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by the brothers to the grace of God.">Acts 15:40</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-35.htm">Acts 15:35</a></div><div class="verse">Paul also and Barnabas continued in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also.</div>(35) <span class= "bld">Preaching the word of the Lord.</span>—Here, as often elsewhere, <span class= "ital">preaching the glad tidings of the word.</span><p><span class= "bld">With many others.</span>—Among these we may fairly reckon the prophets of <a href="/acts/13-1.htm" title="Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.">Acts 13:1</a>. Looking to the later history of the Church of Antioch, it is not improbable that we may think also of the martyr Ignatius, and Euodius, afterwards Bishop of Antioch, as among those who were thus active, though they were not prominent enough, when St. Luke wrote, to be specially named. Ignatius was said to have been, together with Polycarp, a disciple of St. John (<span class= "ital">Mart. Ignat.</span> c. 3), while another tradition represents him as a follower of Peter. It is possible that the dispute between St. Peter and St. Paul, referred to in <a href="/context/galatians/2-11.htm" title="But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.">Galatians 2:11-13</a>, occurred during this period, but the evidence on the whole tends to connect it with St. Paul’s visit to Antioch in <a href="/acts/18-22.htm" title="And when he had landed at Caesarea, and gone up, and saluted the church, he went down to Antioch.">Acts 18:22</a>, where see Note.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-36.htm">Acts 15:36</a></div><div class="verse">And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, <i>and see</i> how they do.</div>(36) <span class= "bld">And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas.</span>—The commonly received chronology of the Acts makes the interval between the Council of Jerusalem and St. Paul’s second missionary journey somewhat more than a year.<p><span class= "bld">Let us go again.</span>—The proposal was characteristic of one whose heart was ever full of “the care of all the churches” (<a href="/2_corinthians/11-28.htm" title="Beside those things that are without, that which comes on me daily, the care of all the churches.">2Corinthians 11:28</a>), ever making mention of them in his prayers night and day (<a href="/romans/1-9.htm" title="For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;">Romans 1:9</a>; <a href="/ephesians/1-16.htm" title="Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;">Ephesians 1:16</a>; <a href="/philippians/1-3.htm" title="I thank my God on every remembrance of you,">Philippians 1:3</a>). We may well believe that it was a desire to know, not only the general condition of the churches, but the spiritual growth of each individual member.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-37.htm">Acts 15:37</a></div><div class="verse">And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark.</div>(37) <span class= "bld">Barnabas determined.</span>—The Greek verb is hardly so strong, better, <span class= "ital">was minded.</span> The ties of relationship led the uncle, or cousin, to wish to make another trial of his kinsman’s fitness (<a href="/colossians/4-10.htm" title=" Aristarchus my fellow prisoner salutes you, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, (touching whom you received commandments: if he come to you, receive him;)">Colossians 4:10</a>). He saw extenuating circumstances which St. Paul could not recognise, and which half-excused his turning back when he had set his hand to the plough. (See Note on <a href="/acts/13-13.htm" title="Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia: and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem.">Acts 13:13</a>.) To St. Paul one who had so acted, seemed, in our Lord’s words, “not fit for the kingdom of God,” and needing at least the discipline of rejection for a time, from the higher work for which he had shown himself unworthy.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-39.htm">Acts 15:39</a></div><div class="verse">And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus;</div>(39) <span class= "bld">And the contention was so sharp between them, that . . .</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">there was a sharp contention, </span>(or <span class= "ital">paroxysm</span>)<span class= "ital">, so that</span> . . . The warmth of previous affection, of a friendship begun probably in boyhood, and cemented by new hopes, and a great work in which both were sharers, made the breach between the two more painful. At this stage, both Barnabas and Mark disappear from the history of the Acts, but it will be worth while to note the chief facts in the after-history of each. (1) Probably Barnabas and Paul met again in the visit of <a href="/acts/18-22.htm" title="And when he had landed at Caesarea, and gone up, and saluted the church, he went down to Antioch.">Acts 18:22</a>, unless, indeed, we refer the incidents of <a href="/context/galatians/2-11.htm" title="But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.">Galatians 2:11-13</a> to an earlier period, and then there was a yet further cause of division in his yielding to the dissimulation of the Judaising teachers. (2) In writing to the Corinthians (<a href="/1_corinthians/9-6.htm" title="Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?">1Corinthians 9:6</a>) the Apostle names Barnabas as setting the same noble example as himself in labouring with his own hands and accepting nothing from the churches. (3) On the later life of Mark see the <span class= "ital">Introduction to St. Mark’s Gospel.</span> Here it will be sufficient to note that the discipline did its work. After labouring with his cousin in Cyprus, he appears to have returned to St. Peter, as his first father in the faith, and to have been with him at Babylon (<a href="/1_peter/5-13.htm" title="The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, salutes you; and so does Marcus my son.">1Peter 5:13</a>). He and St. Paul met during the latter’s first imprisonment at Rome (<a href="/colossians/4-10.htm" title=" Aristarchus my fellow prisoner salutes you, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, (touching whom you received commandments: if he come to you, receive him;)">Colossians 4:10</a>; <a href="/philemon/1-24.htm" title="Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellow laborers.">Philemon 1:24</a>), and the Apostle learnt to recognise in him one who was “profitable to him for the ministry” (<a href="/2_timothy/4-11.htm" title="Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with you: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.">2Timothy 4:11</a>), and whom he wished to have with him at the last.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-40.htm">Acts 15:40</a></div><div class="verse">And Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God.</div>(40) <span class= "bld">Paul chose Silas.</span>—It is clear from this, even if we reject <a href="/acts/15-34.htm" title="Notwithstanding it pleased Silas to abide there still.">Acts 15:34</a> as an interpolation, that Silas had remained when the other delegates from the Church of Jerusalem went back. This in itself was a proof of his interest in the mission-work among the Gentiles, and no one, perhaps, could be found so well fitted to fill the place of Barnabas. He too had the gift of prophetic utterance, and, as we have seen (Note on <a href="/acts/15-22.htm" title="Then pleased it the apostles and elders with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas surnamed Barsabas and Silas, chief men among the brothers:">Acts 15:22</a>), was probably able to speak as one who had followed the Lord Jesus, and could bear witness of the Resurrection.<p><span class= "bld">Being recommended by the brethren.</span>—See Note on <a href="/acts/14-26.htm" title="And there sailed to Antioch, from where they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled.">Acts 14:26</a>. This obviously implied a full gathering of the Church and a special service of prayer on the departure of the two Apostles. Silas, as thus sent forth by the Church, might now claim that title no less than Barnabas.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/15-41.htm">Acts 15:41</a></div><div class="verse">And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches.</div>(41) <span class= "bld">He went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches.</span>—Cilicia, it will be remembered, had not been visited on St. Paul’s first journey with Barnabas, and the churches must accordingly have been founded at some earlier period, probably during St. Paul’s residence at Tarsus before he came to Antioch (<a href="/acts/9-30.htm" title="Which when the brothers knew, they brought him down to Caesarea, and sent him forth to Tarsus.">Acts 9:30</a>; <a href="/acts/11-25.htm" title="Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul:">Acts 11:25</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Confirming</span> is, it need hardly be said, used in the general sense of “strengthening,” but as the bestowal of spiritual gifts by the laying-on of hands was a chief part of the work so done, it, at least, approximates to the idea of “confirming” in the later and more technical sense of the term.<p><span class= "bld"><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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