Acts 15:21

Acts 15:21. For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him. This is no figure of speech, but a simple expression of what was actually the case at that time in the Roman empire. There were colonies of Jews in all important cities in the East and West, and in each of these, one or more synagogues existed, where every Sabbath-day the law of Moses was read. In addition, then, to the graver reasons (see the Excursus above referred to) which rendered the decrees of the Council so needful to secure a higher moral life among the followers of Jesus living among the dissolute subjects of the empire, this verse assigns another plea for their enforcement. The Jewish Christian, constantly hearing the things specified in the decree, forbidden in the Mosaic law read by them so reverently every Sabbath-day, would be bitterly offended if their fellow-believers indulged in things they were so sternly warned against. The fathers of the Council hoped that if the Gentile Christians carefully abstained from acts which the Jews regarded as causing pollution, gradually the Christian church and the Christian synagogue, both acknowledging the same Messiah, both living in the same glorious hopes, would forget the old differences of origin, and in the end would form one fold under one Shepherd, Jesus Christ.