Acts 15:21Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Otherwise, the Sabbath reading of the Mosaic law in the synagogues will constantly and increasingly nourish and support antipathy among Jewish Christians toward Gentile Christians as unclean. It will implant and intensify mutual irritation between them. Or the saying under consideration may ground the thought that Gentile Christians must be freed from the yoke of the Mosaic law, verse 19. In that case its meaning will be this: despite the fact that the Mosaic law is read everywhere in the synagogues every Sabbath, few Gentiles, meaning proselytes, are disposed to accept it. It is accepted by few. This shows that when the Gentiles receive Christianity, it will only be a difficulty and an obstacle to the successful spread of Christianity among them. Therefore the Gentiles turning to Christ must be freed from its yoke. Or, finally, this saying may ground James's whole view, as expressed in his speech. It then serves as an answer to a presumed objection. The objection would be that if Christians are freed from fulfilling the Mosaic law, this divine law itself will fall into oblivion. In that case the meaning of the saying will be this: Gentile Christians must be free from observance of the Mosaic law, except for abstaining from what has been indicated above. At the same time, it is vain to fear that this God-given law will fall into oblivion, because it is read everywhere each week in the synagogues. Whichever of these explanations one accepts, the essence of the matter is not changed thereby. "Thus he resolved everything. In appearance, he commands observance of the law, because he borrows these precepts from it. Yet he also frees them from it, borrowing only this," says Chrysostom.

Moreover, since sensuality and vengeance were objects of religious veneration among many Gentiles, they should abstain from fornication and vengefulness. They should not do to others what they do not want done to themselves, see Mt 7:12 and Lk 6:31. In many Greek texts these final words are absent, but they are present in Reineccius's variants. As for the words about the weekly reading of the law in the synagogues, they were probably spoken to show how difficult the relationship would be. This concerns Christians who had not yet left the synagogues, and still more the Jews. It would be difficult if Gentile Christians did not observe the indicated chief rules of external religious and moral purity. They could no longer be granted any participation in the synagogues. Yet the readings there could, for a time, have a beneficial effect on all. Apart from them, the Jews could not beneficially act upon the Gentiles in fulfillment of the stated prophecy. Thus the Apostle James spoke about this, partly yielding, as it were, to the demands of the Judaizers. Yet he did so in an entirely different spirit, one of reconciliation, and in a different direction, religious and moral. According to Saint John Chrysostom's explanation, "James applies a medicine. Peter proved what needed to be laid down as a rule, that the law need not be observed. James speaks about what had already been allowed before. He especially dwells on what had not been proposed, so that by healing their mind through a reminder of what had been allowed, he might more easily prove what was required. Although this concerns bodily matters, it is necessary to abstain from them, because they produced great evil. And so that someone might not object, 'Why do we not prescribe the same to the Jews?' he adds, 'Moses has continually spoken to them about this.' See what condescension! Where the law caused no harm, the apostle left it as their instructor. Meanwhile, he granted grace that constrains nothing. He commanded the Jews to obey it in everything, yet did not subject the Gentile believers to it. Thus, by outwardly honoring it and preserving its authority over its own, he thereby removed the Gentiles from it." Blessed Theophylact, dwelling on the thought of the reading of the law, says: "Before the coming of the Savior, Moses was read every Sabbath only in the synagogues. Afterwards he was read without hindrance in the Churches of Christ, and is read to this day." Consequently, even now the law is honored. Through the prophecies all the nations of the world are drawn to faith and salvation. Thus, one may say, the word of the first bishop of the mother of the Churches is being unfailingly fulfilled. Even the Jews called him Just, as the ancient historian Eusebius reports.