Acts 15:28

ἔδοξε γὰρ τῷ Ἁ. Π. καὶ ἡμῖν : “causa principalis” and “causa ministerialis” of the decree. The words of Hooker exactly describe the meaning and purpose of the words, E. P., iii., 10, 2, cf. Acts 8:6-7, and cf. St. Chrysostom's words, Hom., xxxiii., “not making themselves equal to Him [i.e., the Holy Ghost] they are not so mad the one to the Holy Ghost, that they may not deem it to be of man; the other to us, that they may be taught that they also themselves admit the Gentiles, although themselves being in circumcision”. On other suggested but improbable meanings see Alford's and Wendt's notes. The words became a kind of general formula in the decrees of Councils and Synods, cf. the phrase commonly prefixed to Councils: Sancto Spiritu suggerente (Dict. Chr. Ant., i., 483). On this classical construction of ἔδοξε τῷ with the infinitive see Nestle's note, Expository Times, December, 1898. Moreover it would seem that this ἔδοξε is quite in accordance with the manner in which Jewish Rabbis would formulate their decisions. μηδὲν πλέον … βάρος : the words indicate authority on the part of the speakers, although in Acts 15:20 we read only of “enjoining”. St. Peter had used the cognate verb in Acts 15:10, cf. Revelation 2:24, where the same noun occurs with a possible reference to the decree, see Lightfoot, Galatians, p. 309, and Plumptre, in loco. ἐπάναγκες, i.e., for mutual intercourse, that Jewish and Gentile Christians might live as brethren in the One Lord. There is nothing said to imply that these four abstinences were to be imposed as necessary to salvation; the receivers of the letter are only told that it should be well with them if they observed the decree, and we cannot interpret εὖ πράξετε as = σωθήσεσθε. At the same time the word was a very emphatic one, and might be easily interpreted, as it speedily was, in a narrower sense, Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 172; Lightfoot, Galatians, p. 310. Rendall compares the use of ἀναγκαῖος in Thuc., i., 90.