[83:5] Gal. ii. 12.

[83:6] Gal. ii. 2.

[83:7] Acts xvi. 4, xxi. 25.

[84:1] Acts xv. 12.

[84:2] Acts xv. 22.

[84:3] Acts xv. 23.

[84:4] The expression here used—­“the multitude” ([Greek:  to plethos])—­is repeatedly applied in the New Testament to the Sanhedrim, a court consisting of not more than seventy-two members.  See Luke xxiii. 1; Acts xxiii. 7.  There were probably more individuals present at this meeting.

[84:5] Acts xv. 2.

[84:6] 1 Cor. xii. 28; Eph. iv. 11.

[84:7] In Acts xi. 27, we read of “prophets” who came “from Jerusalem unto Antioch.”

[84:8] Acts xv. 23.  “The apostles, and elders, and brethren.”

[84:9]The context may appear to be favourable to this interpretation, for the two deputies now chosen—­“Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas”—­who are said to have been “chief men among the brethren” (ver. 22), are likewise described as “prophets also themselves” (ver. 32).  In Acts xviii. 27, “the brethren” appear to be distinguished from “the disciples.”

[85:1] This reading, which is adopted by Mill in the Prolegomena to his New Testament, as well as by Lachmann, Neander, Alford, and Tregelles, is supported by the authority of the Codex Vaticanus, the Codex Alexandrinus, the Codex Ephraemi, and the Codex Bezae.  It is likewise to be found in by far the most valuable cursive MS. yet known.  It is confirmed also by the early testimony of Irenaeus, and by the Latin of the Codex Bezae, a version more ancient than the Vulgate, as well as by the Vulgate itself.  The reading in the textus receptus may be accounted for by the growth of the doctrine of apostolical succession; as, when the hierarchy was in its glory, transcribers could not understand how the apostles and elders could be fellow presbyters.

[85:2] It is worthy of note that Peter, fourteen or fifteen years afterwards, speaks in the style here indicated.  Thus he says—­“The elders which are among you, I exhort, who am also an elder” ([Greek:  sumpresbuteros]).—­(l Pet. v. 1.)

[85:3] Acts xv. 28.

[86:1] Gal. iii. 2.

[86:2] Acts xv. 8-10.

[86:3] Acts xi. 15, 17.

[86:4] This style of speaking was used by councils in after-ages, and often in cases when it was singularly inappropriate.

[87:1] Acts xv. 29.

[87:2] See 1 Cor. x. 23, 31, 32.

[88:1] “Since the eating of such food, as Paul expressly teaches (1 Cor. x. 19, 33), was not sinful in itself, and yet to be avoided out of tenderness to those who thought it so, the abstinence here recommended must be understood in the same manner.”—­Alexander on the Acts, ii. 84.

[89:1] Gal. ii. 12.

[89:2] Gal. ii. 9.

[89:3] Gal. ii. 13.

[90:1] Acts xvi. 9.

[90:2] Acts xvi. 12.

[91:1] “The Jus Italicum raised provincial land to the same state of immunity from taxation which belonged to land in Italy.”—­Conybeare and Howson, i. 302, note.