Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Acts · About this commentary
It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us
Acts 15:22-35
22 Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole assembly, to choose men out of their company, and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas: Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, chief men among the brothers. · WEB
The decision is sent in writing and by hand, and the letter withdraws the demand, disowns the men who made it, and names its own first author.
The decision is taken by the apostles and the elders, with the whole assembly. The congregation is not informed of a ruling; it is part of the body that makes it. And the church does not rely on a document alone — it chooses Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, chief men among the brothers, to carry the letter and say the same things aloud. A document can be disputed; two respected men from Jerusalem standing in the room cannot.
The letter itself is a small masterpiece of church correspondence. Its address is to the brothers who are of the Gentiles — they are brothers before anything else is said, and the disputed status is granted in the salutation.
Its first substantive sentence disowns the troublemakers completely: some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, "You must be circumcised and keep the law," to whom we gave no commandment. The Jerusalem church takes responsibility for where the men came from and states plainly that they carried no authority. Nobody is protected.
The letter then goes out of its way to honor the men it might have been expected to restrain, describing Barnabas and Paul as men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. A church settling a controversy makes a point of commending the party whose practice was being questioned.
And the formula that carries the ruling has been quoted ever since: For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay no greater burden on you than these necessary things. The order of the two parties is the claim. The Spirit is named first, and the men second, and the two are joined rather than opposed. This is a real deliberation — long discussion, competing arguments, evidence, Scripture — and the church says the outcome was the Spirit's before it was theirs. Nothing in the account describes a revelation. What is described is a body seeking God's mind honestly and then saying whose mind it turned out to be.
The phrase no greater burden also confirms how the four items were understood by the men who wrote them. They are a lightening, not a code.
The reception at Antioch is one line and it is the right one: When they had read it, they rejoiced over the encouragement. Not relief at a verdict survived — encouragement. The letter was written to a church that had been told it was not saved, and it read as good news.
Judas and Silas, who are prophets themselves, stay a while and strengthen the brothers with many words, and are then sent back in peace. Some English Bibles add a sentence here noting that Silas remained; the oldest copies do not carry it, and Silas is in any case back in Antioch within a few verses.
The closing note is ordinary and, after a chapter of controversy, welcome. Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also. The two are still together. It is the last verse in which they are.
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