Word Pictures in the New Testament - David Cox

Word Pictures in the NT [Acts: Chapter 15]
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15:1 {And certain men came down from Judea} (\kai tines
katelthontes apo t•s Ioudaias\). Evidently the party of the
circumcision in the church in Jerusalem (11:2) had heard of the
spread of the gospel among the Gentiles in Cyprus, Pamphylia, and
South Galatia (Phrygia, Pisidia, Lycaonia). Possibly John Mark
after his desertion at Perga (13:13) told of this as one of his
reasons for coming home. At any rate echoes of the jubilation in
Antioch in Syria would be certain to reach Jerusalem. The
Judaizers in Jerusalem, who insisted that all the Gentile
Christians must become Jews also, had acquiesced in the case of
Cornelius and his group (11:1-18) after plain proof by Peter
that it was the Lord's doing. But they had not agreed to a formal
campaign to turn the exception into the rule and to make
Christianity mainly Gentile with a few Jews instead of mainly
Jewish with a few Gentiles. Since Paul and Barnabas did not come
up to Jerusalem, the leaders among the Judaizers decided to go
down to Antioch and attack Paul and Barnabas there. They had
volunteered to go without church action in Jerusalem for their
activity is disclaimed by the conference (Ac 15:24). In Ga
2:4 Paul with some heat describes these Judaizers as "false
brethren, secretly introduced who sneaked in to spy out our
liberty." It is reasonably certain that this visit to Jerusalem
described in Ga 2:1-10 is the same one as the Jerusalem
Conference in Acts 15:5-29 in spite of the effort of Ramsay to
identify it with that in 11:29f. Paul in Galatians is not
giving a list of his visits to Jerusalem. He is showing his
independence of the twelve apostles and his equality with them.
He did not see them in 11:29f., but only "the elders." In Ac
15 Luke gives the outward narrative of events, in Ga 2:1-10
Paul shows us the private interview with the apostles when they
agreed on their line of conduct toward the Judaizers. In Ga 2:2
by the use of "them" (\autois\) Paul seems to refer to the first
public meeting in Acts before the private interview that came in
between verses 15:5-6. If we recall the difficulty that Peter
had on the subject of preaching the gospel to the heathen
(10:1-11:18), we can the better understand the attitude of the
Judaizers. They were men of sincere convictions without a doubt,
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Word Pictures in the New Testament
(Acts: Chapter 15)