Acts 15:35

Note

The council's letter has reached Antioch, and the church has rejoiced at its encouragement. This verse sums up, in one sentence, the time Paul and Barnabas then spent there.

Judas and Silas came down with Paul and Barnabas, carrying the decision from Jerusalem, and when the church read the letter, "they rejoiced at its encouraging message" (Acts 15:31). The two, who were prophets, "said much to encourage and strengthen the brothers" (Acts 15:32). After this verse Paul proposes revisiting the towns of their first journey, and he and Barnabas part company in a sharp disagreement over Mark (Acts 15:36–39). Between the council and the quarrel, the verse records a stretch of ordinary days.

The verb is euangelizomai (εὐαγγελίζομαι), present participle euangelizomenoi, paired with didaskontes, "teaching," and both depend on the imperfect dietribon, "they were staying." The object is "the word of the Lord" (ton logon tou kuriou). The same pair, teaching and bringing good news, described the apostles in Jerusalem at 5:42; now it describes the church at Antioch. The church has spread from Jerusalem to Antioch, but its work is the same. It is common to divide the two, as though teaching were for believers and the gospel for outsiders, but Luke sets them side by side here, at 5:42, and of Jesus Himself in the temple (Luke 20:1): the same word of the Lord is taught and is told as good news. "Along with many others" is worth noticing too. The church at Antioch already had a number of prophets and teachers (Acts 13:1).

Here the KJV and the BSB agree word for word: "teaching and preaching the word of the Lord." Only the LSV shows the gospel in the verb: "teaching and proclaiming good news—with many others also—the word of the LORD." The KJV also prints just before this a verse the BSB does not have, "Notwithstanding it pleased Silas to abide there still" (15:34), which is missing from many of the oldest manuscripts.

Matthew Henry fastens on the "many others": "Where many labour in the word and doctrine, yet there may be opportunity for us: the zeal and usefulness of others should stir us up, not lay us asleep" Matthew Henry. Wesley places another event in these months: "it was during this time that Peter came down from Jerusalem, and that St. Paul withstood him to the face, for separating himself from the Gentiles" Wesley. Paul's own account says he saw that they "were not walking in line with the truth of the gospel" (Galatians 2:14). Some place that clash before the council; if Wesley is right, teaching the gospel at Antioch included guarding its truth.

There was no council and no journey in those days, yet in Antioch the same word was being taught and told as good news. Most people still hear the gospel that way, on an ordinary day and alongside teaching.