Acts 15:41

15:36-41 Here we have a private quarrel between two ministers, no less than Paul and Barnabas, yet made to end well. Barnabas wished his nephew John Mark to go with them. We should suspect ourselves of being partial, and guard against this in putting our relations forward. Paul did not think him worthy of the honour, nor fit for the service, who had departed from them without their knowledge, or without their consent: see ch.

Syria and Cilicia; where there were several brethren by reason of the dispersion that was upon Stephen’s death, Acts 11:19 ; and unto whom also the before recited letter was written, Acts 15:23 . Confirming the churches; puting them in mind of the gospel of Christ, which they had heard and believed; and encouraging of them to persevere in the profession of it, and being ready to answer any objection that could be brought against it.

41. and he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches—"It is very likely that Paul and Barnabas made a deliberate and amicable arrangement to divide the region of their first mission between them; Paul taking the continental, and Barnabas the insular, part of the proposed visitation. If Barnabas visited Salamis and Paphos, and if Paul (travelling westward), after passing through Derbe, Lystra, and Iconium, went as far as Antioch in Pisidia, the whole circuit of the proposed visitation was actually accomplished, for it does not appear that any converts had been made at Perga and Attalia" [Howson]. "This second missionary tour appears to have proceeded at first solely from the desire of visiting the churches already planted. In the end, however, it took a much wider sweep, for it brought the apostle to Europe" [Olshausen].

Verse 41. - Syria and Cilicia (see ver. 23). This rather looks as if the "some days after" of ver. 36 did not cover a very long time, because the special mention of "the Churches of Syria and Cilicia" indicates that St. Paul's visit had some connection with the epistle addressed to them by the apostles and elders of the Church of Jerusalem (ver. 23), as we see from Acts 16:4 was the case. Confirming ; as Acts 14:22 ; Acts 15:32 ; Acts 18:22 (T.R.). In the passive voice ἐπιστηρίζομαι means to "lean upon," as in 2 Samuel 1:6 , LXX., and in classical Greek. Renan thus indicates their probable route: "They traveled by land northwards across the plain of Antioch, went through the 'Syrian Gates,' coasted the gulf of the Issus, crossed the northern branch of the Issus through the 'Amanean Gates,' then,, traversing Cilicia, went perhaps through Tarsus, crossed Mount Taurus through the 'Cilician Gates,' one of the most terrible passes in the world, and thus reached Lycaonia, going as far as Derbe, Lystra, and Iconium" ('St. Paul,' p. 123). Acts 15:41

41 . Syria and Cilicia ] These were the districts in which the teaching of the Judaizers had been most active, and the presence of Paul, with Silas as a representative of the church in Jerusalem, would allay all doubts and questionings, and lead to those results which are mentioned Acts 16:5 , the establishing of the churches, and their daily increase. in numbers. This duty St Paul first discharged before he went on to visit any of the churches which himself had founded.

(41) He went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches. —Cilicia, it will be remembered, had not been visited on St. Paul’s first journey with Barnabas, and the churches must accordingly have been founded at some earlier period, probably during St. Paul’s residence at Tarsus before he came to Antioch ( Acts 9:30 ; Acts 11:25 ). Confirming is, it need hardly be said, used in the general sense of “strengthening,” but as the bestowal of spiritual gifts by the laying-on of hands was a chief part of the work so done, it, at least, approximates to the idea of “confirming” in the later and more technical sense of the term.

Syria and Cilicia - These were countries lying near to each other, which Paul, in company with Barnabas, had before visited. Confirming the churches - Strengthening them by instruction and exhortation. It has no reference to the rite of confirmation. See the notes on Acts 14:22. In regard to this unhappy contention between Paul and Barnabas, and their separation from each other, we may make the following remarks: (1) That no apology or vindication of it is offered by the sacred writer. It was undoubtedly improper and evil. It was a melancholy instance in which even apostles evinced an improper spirit, and engaged in improper strife. (2) in this contention it is probable that Paul was, in the main, right. Barnabas seems to have been influenced by attachment to a relative; Paul sought a helper who would not shrink from duty and danger. It is clear that Paul had the sympathies and prayers of the church in his favor Acts 15:40, and it is more than probable that Barnabas departed without any such sympathy, Acts 15:39. (3) there is reason to think that this contention was overruled for the furtherance of the gospel. They went to different places, and preached to different people. It often happens that the unhappy and wicked strifes of Christians are the means of exciting their mutual zeal, and of extending the gospel, and of establishing churches.

But no thanks to their contention; nor is the guilt of their anger and strife mitigated by this. (4) this difference was afterward reconciled, and Paul and Barnabas again became traveling companions, 1 Corinthians 9:6; Galatians 2:9. (5) there is evidence that Paul also became reconciled to John Mark, Colossians 4:10; Plm 1:24; 2 Timothy 4:11. How long this separation continued is not known; but perhaps in this journey with Barnabas John gave such evidence of his courage and zeal as induced Paul again to admit him to his confidence as a traveling companion, and as to become a profitable fellow-laborer. See 2 Timothy 4:11, "Take Mark, and bring him with thee; for he is profitable to me for the ministry." (6) this account proves that there was no collusion or agreement among the apostles to impose upon mankind. Had there been such an agreement, and had the books of the New Testament been an imposture, the apostles would have been represented as perfectly harmonious, and as united in all their views and efforts. What impostor would have thought of the device of representing the early friends of the Christian religion as divided, and contending, and separating from each other? Such a statement has an air of candor and honesty, and at the same time is apparently so much against the truth of the system, that no impostor would have thought of resorting to it.

Acts 15:41 . διήρχετο , see above on Acts 13:6 .— Συρίαν καὶ Κιλικίαν : as Barnabas had turned to Cyprus, the scene of his early labours in the Gospel, and perhaps also his own home, so Paul turned to Syria and Cilicia, not only because his home was in Cilicia, but also because he had worked there in his early Christian life and labours, Galatians 1:21 ; Galatians 1:23 . It is a coincidence with the notice in Gal. that St. Luke here and in Acts 15:23 presupposes the existence of Churches in Syria and Cilicia, although nothing had been previously said of their foundation, whilst the presence of Saul at Tarsus is twice intimated, Acts 9:30 , Acts 11:25 . Moreover the commencement of the letter, Acts 15:22-23 , indicates that these regions had been the centre of the teaching of the Judaisers, and St. Paul’s presence, together with the fact that Silas, a prominent and leading member of the Jerusalem Church, was his colleague, would doubtless help to prevent further disquiet. On the addition to the verse in the Bezan text see critical note. Additional note (1). Amongst recent writers on the Acts , Mr. Rendall has stated that the evidence for the identification of Acts 15 with Galatians 2:1-10 is overwhelming, Appendix to Acts, pp. 357, 359.

If we cannot fully endorse this, it is at all events noticeable that critics of widely different schools of thought have refused to regard the alleged differences between the two as irreconcilable; in this conservative writers like Lechler, Godet, Belser, Knabenbauer and Zahn, Einleitung , ii., 627, 628; scientific critics, as we may call them, like Reuss, B. Weiss; and still more advanced critics like Lipsius and H. Holtzmann are agreed. This general agreement is recognised and endorsed by Wendt, p. 255 (1899), see also K. Schmidt, “Apostelkonvent,” in Real-Encyclopädie für protest. Theol. (Hauck), p. 704 ff. Amongst English writers Lightfoot, Hort, Sanday, Salmon, Drummond, Turner may be quoted on the same side (so too McGiffert, Apostolic Age , p. 208), (see for the points of agreement, Lightfoot, Galatians , p. 123; Drummond, Galatians , p. 73 ff.; Salmon, “Galatians,” B.D.2; Reuss, Geschichte des h. . des N. T. , p. 60, sixth edition, and very fully in Belser, Die Selbstvertheidigung der h. Paulus im Galaterbriefe , p. 83 ff., 1896; for the difficulty in identifying Galatians 2 with any other visit of St. Paul to Jerusalem, cf. Salmon, Lightfoot, u. s. , and Zahn, u. s. , Felten, Introd. to Apostelgeschichte , p. 46). But the recent forcible attempt of Professor Ramsay to identify Galatians 2:1-10 with St.