Acts 15:22

ἔδοξε : the word is often found in public resolutions and official decrees, Herod., i., 3; Thuc., iv., 118 L) and.). τοῖς ἀποσ.… ἐκλεξ.… γράψ.: on the irregular construction see Page and Rendall, and instances in Alford and Lumby; and further, Burton, N. T. Moods and Tenses, p. 173. σὺν ὅλῃ τῇ ἐκκλ., cf. Acts 15:12, πᾶν τὸ πλῆθος, cf. Iren., Hær. iii., 12. ἐκλεξ. ἄνδρας πέμψαι : “to choose men out of their company, and send,” R.V. In A.V. we lose sight of the fact that the choice was thus made in the rendering “chosen men,” a rendering which takes ἐκλεξ. middle as if passive (see Wendt's just criticism, and cf. Acts 15:40 ἐπιλεξ.). Ἰούδαν τὸν ἐπικ. Β., see critical note, sometimes regarded as a brother of Joseph Barsabbas in Acts 1:23. Ewald thinks that he was actually identical with him. Nothing further is known of him, but if he was a brother of Joseph Barsabbas, he too may have been amongst the personal followers of the Lord; hence his leading position, see also B.D. 2 “Judas,” p. 1830. Σίλαν, cf. Acts 15:40; Acts 16:19; Acts 16:25; Acts 16:29; Acts 17:4; Acts 17:10; Acts 17:14; Acts 18:5 2 Corinthians 1:19, 1 Thessalonians 1:1 2 Thessalonians 1:1, 1 Peter 5:12. The name may have been contracted for Silvanus, but it may also have been a Greek equivalent for a Hebrew name שֶׁלֶשׁ = Tertius, or שֶׁלַח, Genesis 10:24, see especially Winer-Schmiedel, p. 143, note, and Zahn, Einleitung, i., p. 23, who prefers שׁאל, “bitten, erfragen”. Paul always used the form Σιλουανός (so 1 Peter 5:12), Blass, Gram., pp. 70, 71, Winer-Schmiedel, u. s., and also pp. 74, 75. On the supposed identity of Silas with Titus, who is never mentioned in Acts, see above; and Wendt, in loco. If the two passages, 2 Corinthians 1:19; 2 Corinthians 8:23, on which the advocates of this view rely make the identity possible, the description of Titus, Galatians 2:3, is completely at variance with the description of Silas in this chapter (“perversa, ne quid durius dicam, conjectura” Blass, in commenting on the supposed identity). ἡγουμένους, cf. Acts 15:32, προφῆται ὄντες : the word is also used in Hebrews 13 three times, once of those who had passed away, Acts 15:7, and in Acts 15:17; Acts 15:24 of actual authorities to be obeyed. The word is applied in the LXX to various forms of authority and leadership (see also references to the word in classical Greek, Grimm-Thayer), and cf. Clem. Rom., Cor [288], i. 3 (Acts 21:6), with Acts 15:7, xxxvii. 2, Leviticus 1, lx. 4. It is quite possible that it may have essentially = διδάσκαλοι, Acts 13:1 (cf. Acts 14:12, ἡγούμ. τοῦ λόγου), cf. Heb. u. s., with Didaché, iv.1, and see Zöckler, Apostelgeschichte, p. 249; Harnack, Proleg. to Didaché, p. 95; or the mere fact that Judas and Silas may both have been personal followers of Jesus would have conferred upon them a high degree of authority (Plumptre); or the term ἡγου. may be used as a general one, and we cannot say to what particular office or qualification it may have extended besides that involved in Acts 15:32. For use of the word in sub-apostolic times see Gore, Church and the Ministry, p. 322, etc., Moberly, Ministerial Priesthood, pp. 166, 186. The word may be called characteristic of St. Luke (Friedrich, p. 22, cf. Luke 22:26; Acts 7:10 (of civil rule), Acts 14:12).

[288] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.