And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greetings unto the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia:
All Commentaries on Acts 15:23 Go To Acts 15
John Chrysostom
AD 407
where the disease had its birth. Observe how they say nothing harsher (φορτικώτερον) against those men, but look to one thing only, namely, to undo (the mischief) which has been done. For this would make even the movers of the faction there to confess (that they were wrong). They do not say, The seducers, the pestilent fellows, or suchlike: though where need is, Paul does this, as when he says, O full of all guile Acts 13:10: but here, the point being carried, there was no need. And observe, they do not put it, That certain from us ordered you to keep the Law, but, Troubled you with words, subverting your souls,— nothing could be more proper (κυριώτερον) than that word: none (of the other speakers) has so spoken of the things done by those men. The souls, he says, already strongly established, these persons are ἀ νασχευάζοντες as in speaking of a building, taking them down again: displacing them (μετατιθέντες) from the foundation). To whom, he says, we gave no such commandment. It seemed good therefore to us being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you together with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have hazarded their lives for the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
