Acts Chapter 15 verse 7 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 7. - Questioning for disputing, A.V., as in ver. 2; brethren for men and brethren, A.V., as in Acts 7:2, etc.; you for us, A.V. and T.R.; by my mouth the Gentiles for the Gentiles by my mouth, A.V. Questioning. It was a repetition of the same scene that took place at Antioch. Peter, etc. It seems to have been wise on Peter's part to allow the meeting to exhaust itself by fruitless disputations before he rose to speak. His rising, with all the authority of his person and position, commanded immediate attention. A good while ago; literally, from ancient days, or still more exactly, from the days of the beginning of the gospel (ἡμεραὶ ἀρχαίαι), days belonging to the beginning (ἀρχή) of the Church's existence, and dating far back in Peter's own apostolic life. Nothing can be more natural than this allusion to the conversion of Cornelius, and the gift of the Holy Ghost to the Gentile inmates of his house, as related in Acts 10:44.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(7) When there had been much disputing.--This implies a full discussion, in which the Judaising teachers, probably, though not certainly, presbyters, on the one side, and the advocates of freedom, on the other, took part. Light is thrown on the character of the debate by St. Paul's account of the matter in Galatians 2:2-10. He did not even then bring out what he held and taught, in its fulness. He shrank from startling and offending the prejudices of his countrymen, and was content to argue that circumcision and the Law were not binding upon the Gentiles, to press the precedent of the case of Cornelius and the analogy of the proselytes of the gate. Privately, in interviews with Peter, James, and John, he had gone further, and had declared his convictions that for Jew and Gentile alike circumcision and the Law were hindrances, and not helps, to the spiritual life, and that faith working by love was everything. And they, as the history of the Council and yet more their Epistles show, accepted his teaching. Of all doctrines as to the development of the Christian Church that which sees in Peter, James, and John the leaders of a Judaising anti-Pauline party is, perhaps, the most baseless and fantastic. The fact that their names were unscrupulously used by that party, both in their lifetime and, as the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies and Recognitions show, after their death, cannot outweigh their own deliberate words and acts.Peter rose up, and said unto them.--The position of the Apostle is one of authority, but not of primacy. He does not preside, nor even propose, as we should say, a definite canon or resolution. His authority is that of personal and moral influence, that of a vir pietate gravis, but nothing more.Men and brethren.--Better, as before, Brethren only, and so again in Acts 15:13.Ye know how that a good while ago . . .--Literally, of ancient days. Ten or twelve years had passed since the conversion of Cornelius. Where Peter had been in the meantime, and what he had done, we have no record. We can hardly believe, as the Romish theory implies, that he came from the imperial city to attend the Council. It will be noted, as has been said before (see Note on Acts 11:20), that the Apostle speaks of this as having been the first admission of the Gentiles.