Acts 15:22-29

The Letter is Sent. The apostles and elders have never in this chapter acted alone (see Acts 15:6); the action is that of the whole Church. Silas does not stand for Silvanus, but is a Semitic name, the Aramaic form of Saul (Schmiedel in EBi. 4519); in Ac. he is the companion of Paul. Judas and Silas are leading men in the Jerusalem church; in Acts 15:32 they are prophets, men holding official position. The letter they carry is addressed to Gentile believers in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia. Why not also in Pisidia and Lycaonia, the regions visited by Paul and Barnabas in chs. 13 f.? This verse is the strongest, though as we have seen not the only, evidence, that the Jerusalem meeting is in Acts misplaced. Its historical position is before Acts 13 f., when, as Paul tells us (Galatians 1:21), he had carried on his mission in Syria and Cilicia only. greeting: the ordinary salutation at the beginning of a Greek letter. In Paul's epistles it is always expanded.

Acts 15:24 may be compared with Luke 1:1; this reveals the editor, as does the repetition of the doubtful story in Acts 15:1 f., that the discussion began not in Jerusalem but in the northern churches.

Acts 15:27. Judas and Silas are to confirm by their voice the contents of the letter. There follows what was proposed by James, D again adding the Golden Rule in its negative form, and, after the words Ye shall do well, being borne along in the Holy Spirit, words known to Irenæ us and Tertullian, and favouring a spiritual interpretation of the rescript. The word translated Fare ye well is the ordinary conclusion of a Greek letter.