ἐν ὑμῖν ἐξελέξατο ὁ θεὸς with אABC. Vulg. has ‘Deus in nobis elegit.’

7. πολλῆς δὲ ζητήσεως κ.τ.λ., and when there had been much questioning. For the Pharisaic element would find its warmest supporters at Jerusalem. And it is to that party that the disputing must be ascribed, for it is plain, from the summing-up of St James at the close of the discussion, that the other Apostles were of the same mind with Paul and Barnabas, and as is said in the Epistle to the Galatians (Acts 2:9), ‘they gave unto them the right hands of fellowship.’

ἀναστὰς Πέτρος εἶπεν, Peter rose up and said. It is to be noted that Paul and Barnabas leave arguments and reasons to be put forward by those who had laboured most among Jewish converts, and content themselves with a recital of what God had wrought through them in their journey among the Gentiles.

ἀφ' ἡμερῶν�. Literally ‘from early days.’ The A.V. ‘a good while ago’ is very idiomatic, and sufficiently close in sense. St Peter is alluding to the conversion of Cornelius (chap. 10), which probably took place some ten years before the meeting of this synod. That was at an early period of the Apostolic ministry, and the great and numerous events which had intervened made the time seem long ago.

ἐν ὑμῖν ἐξελέξατο ὁ θεός, God made choice among you. This, the reading of the oldest authorities, shews Peter as putting himself and his fellow Apostles on the same level with the whole Christian body which he is addressing. God might have chosen whom He would to receive the instruction of the sheet let down from heaven.

διὰ τοῦ στόματός μου, by my mouth. That he may not seem to be claiming a distinction for himself as the one chosen of God for this work, St Peter is careful to call himself no more than the mouthpiece of God.

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Old Testament