Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

15:6 The apostles and the elders provided the main leadership at the council, but v. 22 indicates that "the whole church" was present for the occasion and apparently also gave consent to the decision.

15:7 and after there had been much debate. This important theological issue in the early history of the church was not decided by a sudden decree spoken by a prophet but by careful reasoning and thoughtful argumentation based on Scripture. Peter's reference to the Gentiles hearing the gospel . . . by my mouth . . . in the early days refers to his witness at the house of Cornelius (10:34-43), c. a.d. 38, as many as 10 years before the Jerusalem council.

15:9 Peter's reference to God having cleansed their hearts by faith may allude to the content of his vision prior to visiting Cornelius (see v. 7): "What God has made clean, do not call common" (10:15; 11:9). The faith of the Gentiles at Cornelius's house is only implicit in chs. 10-11, but Peter referred to it explicitly here: they were saved by faith in their hearts, not by circumcision in their flesh. The argument here recalls points made in Acts 11:15-17.

15:10-11 The rabbis often used the metaphor of a yoke with reference to the law, and Peter's reference to "yoke" here refers not just to circumcision but to the whole of the Mosaic law (see note on v. 1). By speaking of the law as an unbearable yoke, Peter was not denying that the law was God's gift to Israel. Rather, he was arguing that Israel was unable to fulfill it perfectly and that salvation could not be obtained through the law (cf. Rom. 2:17-24). Only one means of salvation exists for both Jew and Gentile: God's "grace" (Acts 15:11) in Jesus Christ. Paul also refers to any requirement to keep the OT laws as "a yoke of slavery" (Gal. 5:1). By contrast, Jesus calls people to take his new "yoke" upon them, a yoke that is easy (see note on Matt. 11:29).