Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Bengel Commentary - Acts 15:10 - 15:10
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Act 15:10. Νῦν) now in particular (now at last), as if τὰ ἀρχαῖα, those ancient things [that good while ago, when God made choice that the Gentiles by me should hear the Gospel], Act 15:7, saith Peter, are of no weight. An apostrophe to the Pharisees, and a severe reproof.-τί πειράζετε ἐπιθεῖσαι ζυγὸν, κ.τ.λ., why do ye try to impose a yoke?) After πειράζετε most editions insert τὸν Θεὸν, according to the very frequent phraseology of Scripture. But the shorter reading, τί πειράζετε ἐπιθεῖναι ζυγὸν; gives a mode of expression and a sense very free from difficulty. Comp. App. Crit., Ed. ii., on this passage.[85]-ζυγὸν, a yoke) Comp. Isa 10:27, “His (the Assyrian’s) burden (βάρος) shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck:” see Act 15:28, below. Peter does not call circumcision in itself a yoke, but the whole law, of which circumcision formed a leading feature; and when the latter was abrogated, the Pharisees were apprehensive for the whole law. Therefore he connects the consequence (which is expressed in the form of a Metonymy of the consequent for the antecedent, as in ch. Act 5:9; Gal 2:14, at the end) in this way: Whilst ye establish the principle, that salvation cannot be obtained without circumcision, ye impose the yoke of the whole law on the necks of the disciples. Comp. Gal 5:1, note. [Circumcision was regarded by the Jews more as a part of the law of Moses, than as a sign of the promise given to Abraham. In itself it was not a yoke; but the law, of which it is used as the sign, was the yoke, to which Christ and grace are opposed.] And since they were not averse from this imposition of the whole yoke (which afterwards was the very root of the Galatian error), Peter cut off this also, and opposes to circumcision, and still more to the yoke of the whole law, the saving grace of Christ, which was not altogether perceived by them: premising also the example of the Cæsareans, who obtained justification both without circumcision and without the law.-τῶν μαθητῶν, of the disciples) They are already disciples; they need not now at last (by the receiving of circumcision) to become so.-ὃν οὔτε, which neither) The cause of the abrogation of the law.-οὔτε οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν, nor our fathers) upon whom notwithstanding the law was imposed; the reason for which Paul everywhere shows. Unless it had been imposed at some time or other, no one would have been sensible that it is a yoke which cannot be borne. He does not mean in this place Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to whom circumcision was the seal of the promise, not a yoke; but the Israelites under Moses.-οὔτε ἡμεῖς, neither we) especially after having once tasted liberty.
[85] ABCDEde Vulg. Rec. Text and Iren. all have τὸν Θεόν: Hilary, Dominum. Jerome, and a few MSS. of the Vulg., are the only good authorities for omitting these words.-E. and T.