Acts 15 - Acts 15

Acts 15 is the fifteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records the journey of Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem and the Council of Jerusalem. The book containing this chapter is anonymous but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke composed this book as well as the Gospel of Luke.

Text

The original text is written in Koine Greek and is divided into 41 verses. Some most ancient manuscripts containing this chapter are:

• Codex Vaticanus (AD 325-350)
• Codex Sinaiticus (330-360)
• Codex Bezae (c. 400)
• Codex Alexandrinus (c. 400-440)
• Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (c. 450)
• Papyrus 127 (5th century; extant: verses 29-31, 34-36, (37), 38-41)
• Codex Laudianus (c. 550)
• Papyrus 33 (c. 550)

Location

This chapter mentions the following places (in order of appearance):

• Judea
• Phoenicia
• Samaria
• Jerusalem
• Antioch, Syria
• Pamphylia
• Cyprus
• Cilicia

Timeline

The journey of Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem and the Council of Jerusalem is generally considered to have taken place around 48 - 50 AD.

Structure

This chapter can be grouped:

• Acts 15:1-5 = Conflict over Circumcision
• Acts 15:6-21 = Council of Jerusalem
• Acts 15:22-29 = The Jerusalem Decree
• Acts 15:30-35 = Continuing Ministry in Syria
• Acts 15:36-41 = Division over John Mark

Conflict over Circumcision

The Circumcision controversy began in Antioch, when 'certain men' (Greek: τινες, certain 'people' in the NIV translation) came from Judea teaching that salvation was dependent on circumcision according to the Mosaic law. The People's New Testament Commentary called them 'the Judaizing Teachers'; Paul called them and others with the same teaching 'false brethren secretly brought in'.

The dispute which arose resulted in a decision to send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem, to seek a resolution to the issue. In Jerusalem the pro-circumcision case was argued by 'some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed'.

Verse 13

And after they had become silent, James answered, saying, “Men and brethren, listen to me:”

The council listened to James because he was the first of the three pillars of church (see Galatians 2:9). He was the leader of the church in Jerusalem until he was stoned to death at the insistence of the high priest in AD 62. James was the Lord Jesus Christ's half brother, the one who did not believe until the Lord appeared to him privately after the Resurrection (see 1 Corinthians 15:7).