Acts 15:18

In R.V. the phrase ἀπʼ αἰῶνος is connected closely with the preceding clause, see critical notes: “who maketh these things known from the beginning of the world” (“of time,” Ramsay), or margin, “who doeth these things which were known” etc. St. James may perhaps have added the words freely to the LXX to emphasise his argument that the call of the Gentiles was a carrying out of God's eternal purpose, but there is nothing corresponding to the words in the Hebrew, although at the end of Acts 15:11 we have ׃בִּימֵי עוֹלָם : LXX, καθὼς αἱ ἡμέραι ἀπʼ αἰῶνος, and somewhat similar phrase in Isaiah 45:21, see Zöckler, in loco, for different authorities, and for further discussion of the words, Klostermann, Probleme im Aposteltexte, p. 128. ἀπʼ αἰῶνος is peculiar to Luke in N.T., cf. Luke 1:70; Acts 3:21; it may simply = “of old time,” see Plummer, St. Luke, l. c., but here it may intimate that St. James refers to that purpose of God revealed by all the prophets, as in Acts 3:21. In Psalms of Solomon, Acts 8:7, ἀπʼ αἰῶνος seems to be equivalent to “from the creation of the heaven and earth,” cf. Ps. 118:52. If the conference was held in Greek, as we may reasonably conclude from the fact that Gentile interests were at stake, and that many of the Gentiles, as of the Hellenistic Jews, would probably be present, it is very significant that St. James, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, quotes the rendering of the LXX so apposite for his purpose, and that he should see the spiritual restoration of the house of David in the kingdom of Jesus, and the fulfilment of prophecy in the reception of the Gentiles into the kingdom of the Messiah, so exclusively guarded by the Jews.