Will any of the Twelve travel to Antioch Syria from Jerusalem? Or will the Apostles send their Epistle to the Gentiles with other reliable messengers?
A.D. 49 – Jerusalem Judea in Roman occupied Syria
Who are these Apostles to the Gentiles?
Recall that the current crisis of the Church involves both Jews and Gentiles and that the Church at Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem to clarify the Law of Moses.
A Council of Church Leaders meets under leadership of the Apostles of Jesus, the risen Christ witnessed my the Twelve and many leading men of Jerusalem.
Acts 15:
22 Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers..
ἀπόστολος – apostolos – apostle
a delegate, messenger, one sent forth with orders
This is exactly what the Council of Jerusalem has ordered.
in a broader sense applied to other eminent Christian teachers
- of Barnabas
- of Timothy
- and Silvanus
They SEND these apostles with their epistle of encouragement and specific instructions to the Church and its other leading men in Antioch, obeying Christ’s command to go into all the world — theirs, a gentile world — with the Gospel.
- ἀπόστολος – Apostle
- a delegate, messenger, one sent forth with orders
- specifically applied to the twelve apostles of Christ
- ἀπόστολος apóstolos, ap-os’-tol-os; from G649; a delegate; specially, an ambassador of the Gospel; officially a commissioner of Christ (“apostle”) (with miraculous powers):—apostle, messenger, he that is sent.
ἔθνος – ethnos
The KJV translates Strong’s G1484 in the following manner: Gentiles (93x), nation (64x), heathen (5x), people (2x).
We have recently spent time on this on Paul’s first missionary journey, but for clarity definitions which apply here:
- in the OT, foreign nations not worshipping the true God, pagans, Gentiles
- Paul uses the term for Gentile Christians
Paul
The Church is already quite familiar with Saul of Tarsus or Paul; who following his first mission from Antioch to the Gentiles along with Joseph of Cypress (Barnabas) has precipitated this Council in Jerusalem.
In a later Epistle of Paul to the Romans he writes:
Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them.
Letter of Paul to the Romans 11:13-14 ESV
Think about it, my fellow gentile brothers and sisters in Christ.
- Paul identifies himself as an apostle. The Council sent both Paul and Barnabas as apostles for this next mission to the Gentiles.
- The Apostle Paul also magnifies his mission is to the Gentiles (although a remnant of Jews will be saved).
On their first missionary journey the Apostle Paul had proclaimed Christ to the Jews first and then preached the Gospel to the Gentiles.
Barnabas
Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
It was Barnabas, a trusted Jew of the priestly line, who brought Paul to the Apostles after his encounter with the risen Christ (and having heard their former nemesis preach Christ crucified and risen to the Jews in Damascus).
When a report came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem after some men of Cyprus and Cyrene spoke to the Hellenists in Antioch (and a great number turned to the Lord), they sent Barnabas to Antioch. – from Acts 11:20
Judas called Barsabbas
Βαρσαβᾶς – Lexicon :: Strong’s G923 – barsabas
Barsabas [or Barsabbas] (i. e. son of Saba)
(Not to be confused with another important disciple and deacon of the church in Jerusalem * possibly also present with its leading men of the Council, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus [Acts 1:23] put forth along with Mathias as a candidate to replace Judas Iscariot in the Twelve Apostles.)
2. the surname of a certain Judas: Acts 15:22, (B. D. under the word Judas Barsabas].
* Could Luke’s wording indicate that both were present & this Barsabbas is Judas son of Saba rather than Joseph son of Saba? (And might they even be biological brothers? [again, my speculation])
Silas
Σιλᾶν – Lexicon :: Strong’s G4609 – silas
Contraction for Σιλουανός (G4610) – Silvanus, the same man who in Acts is called Σιλᾶς (which see): 2 Corinthians 1:19; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:1; 1 Peter 5:12.
Silas or Silvanus is a Roman Citizen (as is Paul) sent with the Apostle to the Gentiles on this second mission and other journeys to preach the Gospel to all the world of the Roman Empire.
A.D. 49 – 51 Secondary Missionary Journey with Paul
The Council Adjourns
Acts 15:22b-29 Text of the Council’s Epistle
They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers,
23 with the following letter:
“The brothers, both the apostles and the elders,
to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings.
Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements:
that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”
30 So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch…
ACTS of the Apostles TO BE CONTINUED…
in Antioch Syria…
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