Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
No small dissension and disputation - Paul and Barnabas were fully satisfied that God did not design to bring the converted Gentiles under the yoke of circumcision: they knew that Jesus Christ was the end of the law for righteousness (justification) to every one that believed, and therefore they opposed the Judaizing teachers. This was one of the first controversies in the Christian Church; but, though the difference of sentiment was considerable, it led to no breach of Christian charity nor fellowship among themselves.
They determined that Paul, etc. - This verse is read very differently in the Codex Bezae: ͅ ͅ ͅ ͅ . ̔ ̔, Ϛ, ̈́. ̔ ̔, , ͅ ͅ ͅ ͅ , Ϛ ̔, ̔ ' ( ) . But when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, Paul said, with strong assurance, that they should remain so as they had believed. But those who came from Jerusalem charged Paul and Barnabas and certain others to go up to the apostles and elders to Jerusalem, that a determination might be made by them concerning this question.
And certain other of them - If this be the journey to which St. Paul alludes, Galatians 2:1-5, then he had Titus with him; and how many elders went from the Church of Antioch we cannot tell. This journey was 14 years after Paul' s conversion, and was undertaken by express revelation, as he informs us, Galatians 2:2, which revelation appears to have been given to certain persons in the Church of Antioch, as we learn from this verse, and not to Paul and Barnabas themselves.
Other Adam Clarke entries containing Acts 15:2:
Acts 8:1
Acts 21:25
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