For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us A third time in this clause of the narrative from 22 29 does this official word occur, from which is derived the noun dogma. It had been promised that to the Apostles there should be given the Spirit of truth, who should guide them into all truth (John 16:13) and the historian of the Acts often speaks of them as "filled with the Spirit." They put forward therefore this unerring guide as the warrant for their decree. And as they at the suggestion of the Spirit were laying aside their longstanding prejudices against intercourse with Gentiles, they claim that the Gentiles in their turn should deal tenderly with the scruples of Jews.

no greater burden The Jews themselves could speak thus of the load of legal observances (cp. supra Acts 15:11). They had chosen out but a small part thereof, which the circumstances of the time made necessary to be observed.

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