Acts 15: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Some men from Judea taught the believers in Antioch that they had to be circumcised the way Moses taught or they could not be saved. Paul and Barnabas took the question to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, where Peter and James spoke, and the meeting decided not to require circumcision and the law of Moses of non-Jewish believers, but to ask them to keep away from four things. A letter with that decision was carried to Antioch by Judas and Silas. The chapter closes with Paul and Barnabas parting company over whether to take John Mark along, and each setting out separately.

Claim by Claim

1. 15:1
   • Certain men came down from Judaea.
   • These men taught the brethren.
   • They said that unless the brethren were circumcised after the manner of Moses, they could not be saved.
2. 15:2
   • Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with these men.
   • It was determined that Paul and Barnabas should go up to Jerusalem about this question.
   • It was determined that certain others of them should go up with Paul and Barnabas.
   • They were to go to the apostles and elders.
3. 15:3
   • The church brought them on their way.
   • They passed through Phoenicia and Samaria.
   • They declared the conversion of the Gentiles.
   • They caused great joy to all the brethren.
4. 15:4
   • They came to Jerusalem.
   • They were received by the church, the apostles, and the elders.
   • They declared all the things God had done with them.
5. 15:5
   • Certain believers of the sect of the Pharisees rose up.
   • They said it was necessary to circumcise the Gentiles.
   • They said it was necessary to command the Gentiles to keep the law of Moses.
6. 15:6
   • The apostles and elders came together to consider this matter.
7. 15:7
   • There had been much disputing.
   • Peter rose up.
   • Peter spoke to them.
   • Peter addressed them as men and brethren.
   • Peter said they knew that a good while ago God made choice among them.
   • Peter said God chose that the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel by Peter's mouth.
   • Peter said God chose that the Gentiles should believe.
8. 15:8
   • God knows the hearts.
   • God bore the Gentiles witness.
   • God gave the Gentiles the Holy Spirit.
   • God gave the Gentiles the Holy Spirit just as he gave it to the Jewish believers.
9. 15:9
   • God put no difference between the Jewish believers and the Gentiles.
   • God purified the Gentiles' hearts by faith.
10. 15:10
    • Peter asked why they tempt God.
    • Peter described their action as putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples.
    • Peter said neither their fathers nor they themselves were able to bear that yoke.
11. 15:11
    • Peter said they believe they shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
    • Peter said they shall be saved in the same manner as the Gentiles.
12. 15:12
    • All the multitude kept silence.
    • The multitude listened to Barnabas and Paul.
    • Barnabas and Paul declared what miracles and wonders God had worked among the Gentiles through them.
13. 15:13
    • Barnabas and Paul finished speaking.
    • James answered.
    • James addressed them as men and brethren.
    • James told them to listen to him.
14. 15:14
    • James said Simeon had declared how God first visited the Gentiles.
    • James said God visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name.
15. 15:15
    • James said the words of the prophets agree with this.
    • James said it is written as follows.
16. 15:16
    • The Lord said that after this he will return.
    • The Lord said he will build again the tabernacle of David.
    • The tabernacle of David has fallen down.
    • The Lord said he will build again its ruins.
    • The Lord said he will set it up.
17. 15:17
    • The purpose is that the residue of men might seek after the Lord.
    • The purpose includes all the Gentiles upon whom the Lord's name is called.
    • The Lord says this.
    • The Lord does all these things.
18. 15:18
    • All God's works are known to God from the beginning of the world.
19. 15:19
    • James said his judgment is that they should not trouble those Gentiles who are turned to God.
20. 15:20
    • James said they should write to the Gentiles.
    • James said the Gentiles should abstain from pollutions of idols.
    • James said the Gentiles should abstain from fornication.
    • James said the Gentiles should abstain from things strangled.
    • James said the Gentiles should abstain from blood.
21. 15:21
    • Moses has from old times those who preach him in every city.
    • Moses is read in the synagogues every sabbath day.
22. 15:22
    • It pleased the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men from their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas.
    • The men chosen were Judas surnamed Barsabas and Silas.
    • Judas and Silas were chief men among the brethren.
23. 15:23
    • They wrote letters and sent them by these men.
    • The letter was from the apostles, the elders, and the brethren.
    • The letter sent greeting to the brethren of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia.
24. 15:24
    • They had heard that certain men who went out from them had troubled the Gentile believers with words.
    • These men were subverting their souls.
    • These men said the Gentiles must be circumcised and keep the law.
    • The apostles and elders gave these men no such commandment.
25. 15:25
    • It seemed good to them, assembled with one accord, to send chosen men to the Gentile believers.
    • The chosen men were to come with Barnabas and Paul.
    • They call Barnabas and Paul beloved.
26. 15:26
    • Barnabas and Paul have hazarded their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
27. 15:27
    • They have sent Judas and Silas.
    • Judas and Silas will tell the same things by word of mouth.
28. 15:28
    • It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to them to lay no greater burden on the Gentiles than these necessary things.
29. 15:29
    • The Gentiles are to abstain from meats offered to idols.
    • The Gentiles are to abstain from blood.
    • The Gentiles are to abstain from things strangled.
    • The Gentiles are to abstain from fornication.
    • If they keep themselves from these things, they will do well.
    • The letter ends with a farewell.
30. 15:30
    • The men were dismissed.
    • They came to Antioch.
    • They gathered the multitude together.
    • They delivered the letter.
31. 15:31
    • The people read the letter.
    • They rejoiced because of the consolation it gave.
32. 15:32
    • Judas and Silas were themselves also prophets.
    • They exhorted the brethren with many words.
    • They confirmed the brethren.
33. 15:33
    • They stayed there a period of time.
    • The brethren let them go in peace back to the apostles.
34. 15:34
    • It pleased Silas to remain there still.
35. 15:35
    • Paul and Barnabas continued in Antioch.
    • They taught and preached the word of the Lord.
    • Many others also taught and preached there.
36. 15:36
    • Some days later Paul spoke to Barnabas.
    • Paul proposed that they go again and visit the brethren in every city where they had preached the word of the Lord.
    • Paul proposed that they see how the brethren were doing.
37. 15:37
    • Barnabas determined to take John, surnamed Mark, with them.
38. 15:38
    • Paul thought it not good to take John with them.
    • John had departed from them from Pamphylia.
    • John had not gone with them to the work.
39. 15:39
    • The contention between them was so sharp that they separated from one another.
    • Barnabas took Mark.
    • Barnabas sailed to Cyprus.
40. 15:40
    • Paul chose Silas.
    • Paul departed.
    • The brethren commended Paul to the grace of God.
41. 15:41
    • Paul went through Syria and Cilicia.
    • Paul confirmed the churches.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

15:1

Circumcision was the cutting away of the foreskin, done to Jewish boys on the eighth day after birth. In the Hebrew scriptures it was the physical mark that a male belonged to the people of Israel and to the agreement God made with Abraham, and adult male converts received it too. "After the manner of Moses" means according to the law set out in the books of Moses. "Came down from Judaea" reflects standard travel language of the time: people spoke of going up to Jerusalem and its hill country and coming down from it, partly because of the altitude and partly because of the city's standing.

15:2

"Apostles" translates a Greek word meaning ones who have been sent; in Acts it usually means the circle Jesus commissioned. "Elders" translates a word meaning older men, which had long been the term for the senior men who governed a Jewish community and was carried over as a title for local church leaders. The King James "no small dissension" is understatement for effect: it means a very severe disagreement.

15:3

Phoenicia was the coastal strip north of Judea, the region of Tyre and Sidon, in modern Lebanon. Samaria was the territory between Judea and Galilee. "Gentiles" renders a word meaning the nations, that is, everyone who is not Jewish. "Conversion" here is simply the act of turning: the word pictures people turning around toward God.

15:5

The Pharisees were a Jewish movement known for precise observance of the law of Moses and of the body of oral tradition that had grown up around it. They were not priests but laymen, respected for their strictness. Luke notes that these men were believers in Jesus and still Pharisees; the two were not felt to be exclusive.

15:7

"Gospel" is an old English word meaning good news, and it translates a Greek word used for the public announcement of an important event, such as a victory or the accession of a ruler. Peter is referring back to the household of Cornelius in Acts 10.

15:8

"Holy Ghost" is the King James rendering of what modern versions call the Holy Spirit. "Ghost" in 1611 English simply meant spirit and carried none of the haunting sense it has now. The two phrases translate the same Greek words.

15:10

A yoke was the heavy wooden bar laid across the necks of a pair of oxen to harness them to a plow or cart. It was a standard image for an obligation a person is bound to carry, and Jewish teachers of the period spoke without complaint of taking up "the yoke of the law". "Tempt" in the King James means put to the test, not entice into wrongdoing; the sense of the English word has narrowed since 1611.

15:11

"Grace" translates a Greek word meaning favor freely given, a gift the receiver has not earned and cannot repay. The King James here reads "the grace of the LORD Jesus Christ", though many early manuscripts have simply "the Lord Jesus".

15:12

The King James "gave audience" means gave them a hearing, that is, listened. "Miracles and wonders" renders two Greek words, the first of which literally means signs: acts that point beyond themselves to something, rather than mere displays of power.

15:13

This James is not one of the two apostles of that name. Early sources identify him as the brother of Jesus, and in Acts he speaks as the recognized head of the Jerusalem church. The King James "answered" translates a Greek verb used broadly for taking up the discussion, not only for replying to a question.

15:14

"Simeon" is the Hebrew form of the name Simon, that is, Simon Peter, who has just spoken. James uses the older Jewish form of his colleague's name. "Did visit" translates a verb meaning to look in on someone with concern, the way one visits the sick, so the sense is that God turned his attention toward the Gentiles and acted for them.

15:15

Prophets were people who spoke God's messages to Israel. James is about to quote one named Amos, who lived hundreds of years earlier.

15:16

These lines quote the prophet Amos, chapter 9, verses 11 and 12, in the wording of the Greek version of the Hebrew scriptures, which differs at several points from the surviving Hebrew text. "Tabernacle" here is not the portable sanctuary of the wilderness but simply a tent or hut; the phrase is a figure for the fallen royal house and kingdom of David, pictured as a collapsed shelter to be put back up.

15:17

"The residue of men" means the rest of humanity, those left over beyond Israel. "Upon whom my name is called" is a Hebrew idiom for ownership: to have someone's name pronounced over you is to be marked out as belonging to that person, as a wife took a husband's name or a conquered city its ruler's.

15:18

The Greek here is uncertain and the early manuscripts vary. Some read this as the closing words of the quotation from Amos, meaning roughly "things known from long ago"; the King James follows a longer form of the text that makes it a separate sentence of James. The rendering above reflects that longer reading.

15:19

"My sentence" in 1611 English means my opinion or my judgment about the case, as a judge announces a finding. It does not mean a punishment.

15:20

The four items are the points at which Gentile daily life most visibly collided with Jewish practice. "Pollutions of idols" means meat that had been sacrificed in a pagan temple and then sold or served; most butchered meat in a Greek city had passed through a shrine. "Fornication" translates a broad Greek word covering sexual immorality generally, though some readers have understood it here of the marriages between close relatives that the law of Moses forbade. "Things strangled" means animals killed without draining the blood, which Jewish slaughter required. "Blood" means eating or drinking blood, forbidden in the law of Moses on the grounds that the life is in the blood.

15:21

"Moses" stands here for the five books attributed to him, which were read aloud in portions in every synagogue each week. A synagogue was the local assembly hall where Jewish communities met to read scripture and pray; the Sabbath was the seventh day, Saturday, kept as a day of rest. The point of the sentence is disputed in itself: it may mean that Jews everywhere already know these requirements, or that Gentile believers will hear the law expounded regularly wherever they live.

15:22

Antioch in Syria was a very large city, third or fourth in the Roman empire, and the base of the mission to Gentiles. "Surnamed" in 1611 English means additionally named, not a family name in the modern sense; Barsabas is an Aramaic byname meaning something like son of the Sabbath or son of the elder. "Chief men among the brethren" means leading figures among the believers.

15:23

The letter follows the standard form of a Greek letter of the period: sender, recipients, then the one word "greeting", which was the ordinary opening of any piece of correspondence. Syria and Cilicia were adjoining Roman territories north of Judea; Cilicia was Paul's home region, its chief city being Tarsus.

15:24

"Subverting your souls" translates a Greek word used of dismantling or unpacking a house, hence unsettling or upsetting someone. "To whom we gave no such commandment" means the men had no authorization from the Jerusalem leaders for what they taught.

15:26

"Hazarded their lives" means gambled with them, handed them over to risk. Paul had already been stoned and left for dead in one of the towns he preached in, so this is a description of events, not a compliment.

15:28

"It seemed good to us" was the formal wording used to announce the decision of a council or a city assembly in the Greek world, roughly equivalent to "it is hereby resolved." Putting the Holy Spirit first in that formula is the striking part.

15:29

"Meats" in 1611 English means food of any kind, not flesh specifically. "Fare ye well" translates the conventional closing of a Greek letter, a word meaning be strong or keep well, used much as we use goodbye.

15:30

"The multitude" here means the whole body of believers in the city gathered in one place. "Epistle" is simply the ordinary word for a letter.

15:31

"Consolation" means comfort. The letter settled the worry these believers had been carrying.

15:32

A prophet in the early church was a person who spoke messages believed to come from God to the gathered community. The role was not limited to predicting the future; as described here it consisted largely of encouragement and strengthening. "Confirmed" in the King James means made firm, steadied, rather than verified.

15:33

"Tarried there a space" means stayed there for a period of time. "Let go in peace" is a formal send-off, releasing them from their errand with a blessing.

15:34

This verse is absent from the earliest and best Greek manuscripts and is omitted by most modern translations, which is why the Berean and other versions skip from 33 to 35. It appears to be an early explanatory addition made by a copyist to account for Silas still being in Antioch in verse 40.

15:36

"Brothers" here does not mean boys from the same family. It means the other people who follow Jesus.

15:37

"Whose surname was Mark" means who was also called Mark. John was his Jewish name and Mark, from the Latin Marcus, his Roman one; many Jews in the empire carried both. Elsewhere he is described as a relative of Barnabas, which may bear on why Barnabas wanted him.

15:38

Pamphylia was a coastal region of southern Asia Minor, in modern Turkey. The reference is to Acts 13, verse 13, where John Mark left Paul and Barnabas there and returned to Jerusalem. Luke does not say why, and the sentence here does not tell us what Paul held against him beyond the departure itself.

15:39

"The contention was so sharp" translates a Greek noun meaning a violent irritation or provocation; the English word paroxysm comes from it. Cyprus is the large island off the Syrian coast; it was Barnabas's native place and the first stop of his earlier journey with Paul.

15:40

"Recommended" in 1611 English means commended or handed over into someone's keeping. The believers were formally entrusting Paul to God's care as he left.

15:41

Cilicia was Paul's home province; Tarsus, his birthplace, was its main city. "Confirming" here means strengthening or making firm, not verifying or agreeing with something.

Where the Manuscripts Differ

Worth knowing before you stand up: a listener following a modern translation may not have this verse in front of them.

15:34

Most modern translations leave this verse out. It is in the Greek text the King James translators worked from, but not in the older manuscripts found since, so scholars generally take it as a copyist’s addition rather than part of the original.