Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/530

 *pany Paul and Barnabas to Antioch, and thus by their special commission, enforce the decision of the apostolic and presbyterial council. The decision of the council was therefore committed to writing, in a letter which bore high testimony to the zeal and courage of Barnabas and Paul, as "men who had hazarded their lives for the sake of the gospel,"—and it was announced as the inspired decision of the apostles, elders and brethren, that the Gentile converts should not be troubled with any greater burden than these necessary things:—"That you abstain from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication;" and if they should only keep themselves from these, they would do well. Jude and Silas were the envoys commissioned with the charge of this epistle, and accordingly accompanied Paul and Barnabas back to Antioch.

"Those who maintained this position were Jews, of the sect of the Pharisees, Acts, xv. 5, converted to Christianity, but still too zealous for the observance of the law; and their coming immediately from Judea might make it rather believed, that the necessity of circumcision, in order to salvation, was a tenet of the apostles. The Jews themselves indeed were of different opinions in this matter, even as to the admission of a man into their religion. For some of them would allow those of other nations who owned the true God, and practised moral duties, to live quietly among them, and even without circumcision, to be admitted into their religion; whilst others were decidedly opposed to any such thing. Thus Josephus tells us that when Izates, the son of Helen, queen of Adiabene, embraced the Jews' religion, Ananias, who converted him, declared that he might do it without circumcision; but Eleazer, another eminent Jew, maintained, that it was a great impiety in such circumstances, to remain uncircumcised; and this difference of opinion continued among the Jewish Christian converts, some allowing Gentiles to become converts to Christianity, without submitting to circumcision and the Jewish law: whilst others contended that without circumcision, and the observance of the law, their profession of the Christian faith would not save them." (Stackhouse from Whitby and Beausobre.)

"It is very evident, that this is the same journey to which the apostle alludes in Gal. ii. First, from the agreement of the history here and the apostle's relation in the epistle, as that 'he communicated to them the gospel, which he preached among the Gentiles,' Gal. ii. 2. which he now did, Acts xv. 4. That circumcision was not then judged necessary to the Gentiles, ver. 3, as we find, Acts xv. 24., 'that, when they saw the gospel of uncircumcision was committed to him, they gave to him and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship,' Gal. ii. 9., as they did here, sending their very decree with one consent to the Gentiles, by the hands of Paul and Barnabas,' Acts xv. 22, 25., who were received by the whole church,' ver. 4., and styled beloved,' ver. 25.

"Secondly, it appears unlikely that the apostle, writing this epistle about nine years after this council, should make no mention of a thing so advantageous to a cause he is pleading here, and so proper to confute the pretenses of the adversaries he disputes against. And,

"Thirdly, James, Peter, and John, being all the apostles now present at the council, the mention of their consent to his doctrine and practice was all that was necessary to his purpose to be mentioned concerning that council, It is no objection to this opinion, that we find no mention, in Acts xv. of Titus's being with him; for he is not mentioned in the whole of the Acts, during which interval the journey must have happened." (Whitby.)

"The Council of Jerusalem was assembled in the fourteenth year after St. Paul's conversion. For the apostle adverts to this same journey, and determinately specifies the time in Gal. ii. 1, 2. Grotius is of opinion that four years should be here written instead of fourteen; who, nevertheless, allows, that the one mentioned in