The Acts of the Apostles

200 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
but St. Peter then dwells upon the manifest inability
of even the Jews and Jewish Christians to bear the
yoke of the Law, and passes on to speak of the
grace of the Lord Jesus which brings redemption to
those who believe ; while St. James dwells upon the
fact that the Law is everywhere proclaimed in the
synagogues (and is accordingly assured of its position
of due respect within the ancient nation ^).^
We shall return to the Apostolic Decree in Chapter
VI. It may therefore be set aside for the present.
And yet it is not possible to give a final decision as
to the date of the Antiochean source before this Decree
has been discussed. Neglecting it, however, for the
moment, we find in the source nothing that demands a
late date of composition, while the excellent accounts
^ The *' synagogues " of xv. 21 can only mean purely Jewish
synagogues, not those in which Jews and Jewish Christians were
found together.
2 So these words of somewhat doubtful significance are to be
understood. The other explanations {vide Wendt on this passage)
almost all include the Jewish Christians here, and regard the words
as a declaration of conditions to be imposed. They, however, read
into the text a significance which is quite foreign to it, and which
if it were intended must have been expressly stated. The opinions
delivered by St. Peter and St. James really complete one another ;
the former calls attention to the absolute impossibility of keeping
the Law, and points out that in consequence everything depends
upon faith in the grace of the Lord Jesus; St. James declares that
the Law still retains its inviolable character for the Jews, and that
thus its rights were preserved. St. James does not intend by his
words to commend the positive side of the so-called Apostolic
Decree, but, like St. Peter, merely its negative side (fj.r) vapevo-xXeiv).
What St. Peter says and what St. James says could also have been
said by St. Paul, for even according to his teaching the Jews were
still bound to keep the Law ; but it is important for the standpoint
of St. James that this is just the point which he emphasises.