Acts 15:13–21

Verse 18. To the Lord was known his own work. He bringeth it to pass, as he hath decreed, though his decrees are to us unknown. Witham.

Verse 19. Wherefore I judge, and join my judgment with Peter. Saint John Chrysostom thinks that James had a special authority in the Council, as bishop of Jerusalem, and because of the great veneration, which those zealous for the Jewish law had for him: but his power was certainly inferior to that of Saint Peter, who was head of all, as Saint John Chrysostom teacheth, hom. iii. on the Acts.

Verse 20. Things strangled and from blood. In these prohibitions, the Church indulged the particular feelings of the Jews, that the bond of union between them and the Gentiles might be more closely united; the latter in these two instances giving way to the prejudices of the former, who in their turn gave up much, by submitting to the abolition of the ceremonial law of Moses. This prohibition was of course only temporary, and to cease with the reasons, which gave rise to it. Menochius.—The Jews had such a horror of blood, that they considered those who eat it as defiled, and violators of the law of nature. The Lord had in effect from the beginning forbidden the use of blood to Noe, (Genesis 9:4) which he likewise reported in the strongest terms in Leviticus 8:26. By this we see the great authority of God’s Church, and Councils which may make permanent or temporary decrees, such as are fitting for the state of the times or peoples, without any express Scripture at all, and by this authoritative exaction, things become of strict obligation, which previous to it, were in themselves indifferent. B.

Verse 21. For Moses … hath in every city. Not only the Jews, but the Christians converted from Judaism, still followed the ceremonies of the law of Moses. Witham.—Let not the Jews complain, that we abandon Moses, and destroy the law by this regulation. No: it shall subsist for ever in a more perfect state, read in the synagogue, and revered by the Church. Calmet.—Others give a different explanation of this verse. Let the Jews, say they, follow Moses, and hear him in their assemblies; we have other laws, and enjoy other privileges. Tirinus.