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28. ἔδοξεν γὰρ τῷ πνεύματι τῷ ἁγίῳ καὶ ἡμῖν, for it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us. A third time in this clause of the narrative from 22–29 does this official word occur, from which is derived the noun dogma. It had been promised that to the Apostles there should be given the Spirit of truth, who should guide them into all truth (Joh 16:13), and the historian of the Acts often speaks of them as ‘filled with the Spirit.’ They put forward therefore this unerring guide as the warrant for their decree. And as they at the suggestion of the Spirit were laying aside their long-standing prejudices against intercourse with Gentiles, they claim that the Gentiles in their turn should deal tenderly with the scruples of Jews.
The co-ordination of the Divine Spirit and the human instruments in the preamble of the decree is not a little remarkable.
On tins verse Chrysostom says: καὶ τὶνος ἕνεκεν εἷπεν, ἔδοξε τῷ ἁγίῳ πνεύματι; ἵνα μὴ νομίσωσιν ἀνθρώπινον εἷναι· τὸ δὲ ἡμῖν ἵνα διδαχθῶσιν ὅτι καὶ αὐτοὶ ἀποδέχονται καὶ ἐν περιτομῇ ὄντες.
μηδὲν πλέον ἐπιτίθεσθαι ὑμῖν βάρος, to lay upon you no greater burden. The Christian-Jews could now speak thus of the load of legal observances (cf. above, Act 15:10). Now they had selected but a small part thereof, which the circumstances of the time made necessary to be observed.