Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Acts 15:23

τάδε after αὐτῶν omitted with אAB. Vulg. has only ‘per manus eorum.’

καὶ οἱ before ἀδελφοὶ omitted with אABCD. Vulg. has ‘et seniores fratres.’

23. γράψαντες, having written. From the form in which the document is here given, we should judge that the original was in Greek. A translation from a Hebrew original would hardly have begun with a greeting and ended with ἔρρωσθε. It seems likely that this was so too, because the population of Antioch, the chief town in Syria, would use Greek much more than Hebrew, at this date. The nominative case γράψαντες is a construction to accord with sense rather than strict grammar. It stands as if it had been preceded by some such words as καὶ τοῦτο ἐποίησαν.

διὰ χειρὸς αὐτῶν. Literally, ‘by their hand.’ This is a Hebrew form of saying, by them. Cf. Leviticus 10:11, ἅπαντα τὰ νόμιμα ἅ ἐλάλησε κύριος πρὸς αὐτοὺς διὰ χειρὸς Μωυσῆ. So Malachi 1:1, &c. The letter was not delivered to Paul and Barnabas, but to the two ambassadors from Jerusalem. It is the oldest synodical circular letter in existence, and the only one of Apostolic times which has come down to us. Bengel suggests that it was composed by James, in the name and at the request of the assembly.

οἱ�, the Apostles and elder brethren. This reading, supported by the oldest MSS., brings the text into more complete harmony with what has gone before. Hitherto, though the whole Church came together only two sets of persons have been spoken of as to be consulted or as having authority. These are οἱ� (Acts 15:2; Acts 15:6; Acts 15:22). It seems most natural therefore that the decree should run in the names of these two bodies.

κατὰ τὴν Ἀντιόχειαν καὶ Συρίαν καὶ Κιλικίαν, in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia. As we have no mention of this decree of the synod of Jerusalem in St Paul’s Epistles, we may suppose that the agitation on the subject, begun at Antioch, had spread only into Syria and Cilicia, and that the authoritative decision of the mother Church quieted the controversy there, while it did not arise in the same form in other places.

χαίρειν, greeting. The infinitive is dependent on λέγουσι understood, but in a formula of this kind the governing verb never appears.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Acts 15:23

Old Testament

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