Acts 15:5

For [281] see critical note. ἐξανέστησαν : compound verb in this sense here only in N.T. (only elsewhere in quotation, Mark 12:19; Luke 20:28), but in classical Greek and in LXX, cf. Obadiah 1:1, Sir 8:2; Sir 17:23, 1Ma 9:40. The double compound apparently gives at least some measure of emphasis, Simcox, Language of the N. T., p. 43. τινες τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς αἱρ. τῶν Φ.: probably in some smaller and more private assembly in answer to the ἀνήγγ. of Acts 15:4, which seems to mean that the delegates at first announced informally in Jerusalem what had happened, just as they had done in Phœnicia and Samaria, cf. παρείσακτοι ἀδελφοί, Galatians 2:4. The Pharisees took up their remarks, objected probably basing their teaching on the necessity of circumcision on such passages as Isaiah 56:6; cf. Isaiah 52:1 (Lumby); and then followed as a consequence the official assembly in Acts 15:6 (see Zöckler's note, Acts 15:4, and in loco, p. 246, second edition). Or if we consider that a representative meeting of the whole Church is implied in Acts 15:4, and that the Apostles spoke before it, then the private conference of Galatians 2:2 may be regarded as taking place between the first public assembly, Acts 15:4, and the second in Acts 15:6 (Hort, Ecclesia, p. 69, cf. Lightfoot, Galatians, p. 126). αἱρέσεως, see above p. 148. τῶν Φ.: the Pharisaic spirit had already shown itself in Acts 11:2, but this is the first definite mention in the book of the conversion of any of the Pharisees; not strange after the conversion of the priests, see note on Acts 6:7, or after the attitude of men like Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathæa towards our Lord, and the moderate counsels of Gamaliel. πεπιστευκότες : believed, i.e., that Jesus was the Messiah, and the fulfiller of the law but still only as the Head of a glorified Judaism, from which Gentiles were to be rigidly excluded unless they conformed to the enactments relating to circumcision. How difficult it was for a Pharisee Quietist probably of the earlier part of the first century to acknowledge that the law of circumcision and of Moses could possibly be regarded as unessential we may learn from Assumption of Moses, ix., 4 6, and viii., on circumcision, and see references on Acts 15:1. αὐτούς, i.e., the Gentiles, speaking generally, not the τινας ἄλλους of Acts 15:2 (Lekebusch), the uncircumcised companions of Paul and Barnabas, although in accordance with Galatians 2:3-5 such persons would no doubt have been included. τηρεῖν : only used here by St. Luke of keeping the law, and only else where in James 2:10 in a similar phrase, cf. Mark 7:9; John 9:16, of keeping the law of the Sabbath; Matthew 19:17, of keeping the commandments; Tob 14:9 (, al.), Jos., Ant., xiii., 10, 6.

[281] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.