Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Acts 15:38

Acts 15:38. But Paul thought not good to take him with them. ‘We may well believe that Paul's own mouth gave originally the character to this sentence' (Alford).

Who departed from them from Pamphylia. See Acts 13:13, where this backsliding of Mark is briefly mentioned. Some have tried to excuse the desertion of Mark by supposing it was on account of illness or weak health, but Paul would never have censured him so severely had this really been the cause of his leaving them. No doubt the young man shrank from the toils and dangers of the work, and such conduct one like Paul could never bear or even find excuses for. It has been suggested with some reason that the dispute between Peter and Paul, in which Barnabas even was carried away by the party opposing Paul, had left behind a coolness between the two former friends; and on this account Paul was less likely to condone any former offence or weakness shown by Barnabas' nephew. The strict and truthful accuracy of the writer of these ‘Acts' is shown by his faithful record of the parting between the two friends Barnabas and Paul. It was necessary for his history of the first beginnings of Christianity to show how the founders of the Gentile missions first separated and chose independent fields of labour; therefore, in his work, the writer does not shrink from telling the story of this sorrowful dispute. Both those noble men seemed to have erred the one perhaps too harsh, the other too forgiving; neither chose to yield his opinion, and so they parted. The New Testament writers, faithful and true, tell us but of One Teacher whose love and charity never failed.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Acts 15:38

Old Testament

New Testament