For Moses of old time has in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.
All Commentaries on Acts 15:21 Go To Acts 15
John Chrysostom
AD 407
This above all quieted them. (ἀ νέπαυσεν) (a) For this cause I affirm that it is good (so to write to them.) Then why do we not write the same injunctions to Jews also? Moses discourses unto them. See what condescension (to their weakness)! Where it did no harm, he set him up as teacher, and indulged them with a gratification which hindered nothing, by permitting Jews to hear him in regard of these matters, even while leading away from him them of the Gentiles. See what wisdom! He seems to honor him, and to set him up as the authority for his own people, and by this very thing he leads away the Gentiles from him! Being read in the synagogues every sabbath day. Then why do they not learn (what is to be learned) out of him, for instance * *? Through the perversity of these men. He shows that even these (the Jews) need observe no more (than these necessary things). And if we do not write to them, it is not that they are bound to observe anything more, but only that they have one to tell them. And he does not say, Not to offend, nor to turn them back, which is what Paul said to the Galatians, but, not to trouble them: he shows that the point (κατόρθωμα) if carried is nothing but a mere troubling. Thus he made an end of the whole matter; and while he seems to preserve the Law by adopting these rules from it, he unbinds it by taking only these. (c) There was a design of Providence in the disputation also, that after the disputation the doctrine might be more firm. Then pleased it the Apostles to send chosen men of their own company, etc., no ordinary persons, but the leading men; having written (letters) by them after this manner. To those in Antioch, it says, and Syria and Cilicia.
