KJV: That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.
YLT: to abstain from things offered to idols, and blood, and a strangled thing, and whoredom; from which keeping yourselves, ye shall do well; be strong!'
Darby: to abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what is strangled, and from fornication; keeping yourselves from which ye will do well. Farewell.
ASV: that ye abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication; from which if ye keep yourselves, it shall be well with you. Fare ye well.
| ἀπέχεσθαι | to abstain |
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Parse: Verb, Present Infinitive Middle Root: ἀπέχω Sense: have. |
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| εἰδωλοθύτων | from things sacrificed to idols |
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Parse: Adjective, Genitive Neuter Plural Root: εἰδωλόθυτος Sense: sacrificed to idols, the flesh left over from the heathen sacrifices. |
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| αἵματος | from blood |
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Parse: Noun, Genitive Neuter Singular Root: αἷμα Sense: blood. |
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| πνικτῶν | from what is strangled |
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Parse: Adjective, Genitive Neuter Plural Root: πνικτός Sense: suffocate, strangled. |
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| πορνείας | from sexual immorality |
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Parse: Noun, Genitive Feminine Singular Root: πορνεία Sense: illicit sexual intercourse. |
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| ὧν | these |
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Parse: Personal / Relative Pronoun, Genitive Neuter Plural Root: ὅς Sense: who, which, what, that. |
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| διατηροῦντες | keeping |
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Parse: Verb, Present Participle Active, Nominative Masculine Plural Root: διατηρέω Sense: to keep continually or carefully. |
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| ἑαυτοὺς | yourselves |
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Parse: Reflexive Pronoun, Accusative Masculine 3rd Person Plural Root: ἑαυτοῦ Sense: himself, herself, itself, themselves. |
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| εὖ | well |
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Parse: Adverb Root: εὖ Sense: to be well off, fare well, prosper. |
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| πράξετε | you will do |
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Parse: Verb, Future Indicative Active, 2nd Person Plural Root: ἀναπράσσω Sense: to exercise, practise, to be busy with, carry on. |
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| Ἔρρωσθε | Farewell |
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Parse: Verb, Perfect Imperative Middle or Passive, 2nd Person Plural Root: ῥώννυμι Sense: to make strong, strengthen. |
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Greek Commentary for Acts 15:29
Ye shall fare well. A classical idiom used here effectively. The peace and concord in the fellowship of Jews and Gentiles will justify any slight concession on the part of the Gentiles. This letter is not laid down as a law, but it is the judgment of the Jerusalem Christians for the guidance of the Gentiles (Acts 16:4) and it had a fine effect at once (Acts 15:30-35). Trouble did come later from the Judaizers who were really hostile to the agreement in Jerusalem, but that opposition in no way discredits the worth of the work of this Conference. No sane agreement will silence perpetual and professional disturbers like these Judaizers who will seek to unsettle Paul‘s work in Antioch, in Corinth, in Galatia, in Jerusalem, in Rome. [source]
Valete. Perfect passive imperative of αναγκη rhōnnumi to make strong. Common at the close of letters. Be made strong, keep well, fare well. Here alone in the N.T. though some MSS. have it in Acts 23:30. [source]
Lit., be strong, like the Latin valete. Compare the close of Claudius Lysias' letter to Festus (Acts 23:30). [source]
Because in the blood was the animal's life, and it was the blood that was consecrated to make atonement. See Genesis 9:6; Leviticus 17:10-14; Deuteronomy 12:23, Deuteronomy 12:24. The Gentiles had no scruples about eating blood; on the contrary, it was a special delicacy. Thus Homer:“At the fireAlready lie the paunches of two goats, Preparing for our evening meal, and both-DIVIDER- Are filled with fat and blood. Whoever shows-DIVIDER- Himself the better man in this affray,-DIVIDER- And conquers, he shall take the one of these-DIVIDER- He chooses.”Odyssey, xviii., 44 sq.The heathen were accustomed to drink blood mingled with wine at their sacrifices. [source]
Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Acts 15:29
Only here and Acts 15:29. The preposition διά ,through, indicates close, faithful, persistent keeping, through all the circumstances which might have weakened the impression of the events. Compare Genesis 37:11. [source]
See on Acts 15:29. [source]
A word not found in classical Greek, and only here in the New Testament. The kindred verb ἀλισγεῖν , to pollute, occurs in the Septuagint, Malachi 1:7, and both times in the sense of defiling by food. Here the word is defined by things sacrificed to idols (Acts href="/desk/?q=ac+15:29&sr=1">Acts 15:29); the flesh of idol sacrifices, of which whatever was not eaten by the worshippers at the feasts in the temples, or given to the priests, was sold in the markets and eaten at home. See 1 Corinthians 10:25-28; and Exodus 34:15. [source]
From αλισγεω alisgeō only in the lxx and this substantive nowhere else. The word refers to idolatrous practices (pollutions) and things sacrificed to idols (ειδωλυτων eidōluthōn) in Acts 15:29, not to sacrificial meat sold in the market (1 Corinthians 10:27), a matter not referred to here. Cf. Leviticus 17:1-9. All the four items in the position of James (accepting πνικτου pniktou) are mentioned in Leviticus 17, 18. [source]
The genitive of the articular infinitive of purpose, present middle (direct) of απεχω apechō old verb, to hold oneself back from. The best old MSS. do not have απο apo but the ablative is clear enough in what follows. James agrees with Peter in his support of Paul and Barnabas in their contention for Gentile freedom from the Mosaic ceremonial law. The restrictions named by James affect the moral code that applies to all (idolatry, fornication, murder). Idolatry, fornication and murder were the outstanding sins of paganism then and now (Revelation 22:15). Harnack argues ably against the genuineness of the word πνικτου pniktou (strangled) which is absent from D Irenaeus, Tertullian, Cyprian. It is a nice point, though the best MSS. have it in accord with Leviticus 17:10-16. The problem is whether the words were added because “blood” was understood as not “murder,” but a reference to the Mosaic regulation or whether it was omitted to remove the ceremonial aspect and make it all moral and ethical. The Western text omits the word also in Acts 15:29. But with the word retained here and in Acts 15:29 the solution of James is not a compromise, though there is a wise concession to Jewish feeling. Pollutions of idols (αλισγηματων alisgēmatōn). From αλισγεω alisgeō only in the lxx and this substantive nowhere else. The word refers to idolatrous practices (pollutions) and things sacrificed to idols (ειδωλυτων eidōluthōn) in Acts 15:29, not to sacrificial meat sold in the market (1 Corinthians 10:27), a matter not referred to here. Cf. Leviticus 17:1-9. All the four items in the position of James (accepting πνικτου pniktou) are mentioned in Leviticus 17, 18. [source]
Lasciviousness was habitually associated with idol-worship. The two are combined, Acts 15:29. A thousand priests ministered at the licentious rites of the temple of Venus at Corinth. [source]
See Acts 15:29; note on 1 Corinthians 8:1, note on 1 Corinthians 8:4 [source]
Climactic qualitative pronoun showing the revolting character of this particular case of illicit sexual intercourse. Πορνεια Porneia is sometimes used (Acts 15:20, Acts 15:29) of such sin in general and not merely of the unmarried whereas μοιχεια moicheia is technically adultery on the part of the married (Mark 7:21). [source]
Present passive indicative of ακουω akouō to hear; so literally, it is heard. “Fornication is heard of among you.” Probably the household of Chloe (1 Corinthians 1:11) brought this sad news (Ellicott). And such (και τοιαυτη kai toiautē). Climactic qualitative pronoun showing the revolting character of this particular case of illicit sexual intercourse. Πορνεια Porneia is sometimes used (Acts 15:20, Acts 15:29) of such sin in general and not merely of the unmarried whereas μοιχεια moicheia is technically adultery on the part of the married (Mark 7:21). As is not even among the Gentiles Height of scorn. The Corinthian Christians were actually trying to win pagans to Christ and living more loosely than the Corinthian heathen among whom the very word “Corinthianize” meant to live in sexual wantonness and license. See Cicero pro Cluentio, v. 14. That one of you hath his father‘s wife (ωστε γυναικα τινα του πατρος εχειν hōste gunaika tina tou patros echein). “So as (usual force of ωστε hōste) for one to go on having (εχειν echein present infinitive) a wife of the (his) father.” It was probably a permanent union (concubine or mistress) of some kind without formal marriage like John 4:8. The woman probably was not the offender‘s mother (step-mother) and the father may have been dead or divorced. The Jewish law prescribed stoning for this crime (Leviticus 18:8; Leviticus 22:11; Deuteronomy 22:30). But the rabbis (Rabbi Akibah) invented a subterfuge in the case of a proselyte to permit such a relation. Perhaps the Corinthians had also learned how to split hairs over moral matters in such an evil atmosphere and so to condone this crime in one of their own members. Expulsion Paul had urged in 2 Thessalonians 3:6 for such offenders. [source]
In the A.V. the word is rendered in four different ways: meats offered to idols (Acts 15:29): things offered to idols (Acts 21:25): things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols (1 Corinthians 8:4); and as here Rev., uniformly, things sacrificed to idols. The eating of idol meats, which was no temptation to the Jewish Christian, was quite otherwise to the Gentile. The act of sacrifice, among all ancient nations, was a social no less than a religious act. Commonly only a part of the victim was consumed as an offering, and the rest became the portion of the priests, was given to the poor, or was sold again in the markets. Hence sacrifice and feast were identified. The word originally used for killing in sacrifice ( θύειν ) obtained the general sense of killing (Acts 10:13). Among the Greeks this identification was carried to the highest pitch. Thucydides enumerates sacrifices among popular entertainments. “We have not forgotten,” he says, “to provide for our weary spirits many relaxations from toil. We have regular games and sacrifices throughout the year” (ii., 38). So Aristotle: “And some fellowships seem to be for the sake of pleasure; those of the followers of Love, and those of club-diners; for these are for the sake of sacrifice and social intercourse” (“Ethics,” viii., 9,5). Suetonius relates of Claudius, the Roman Emperor, that, on one occasion, while in the Forum of Augustus, smelling the odor of the banquet which was being prepared for the priests in the neighboring temple of Mars, he left the tribunal and placed himself at the table with the priests (“Claudius,” 33). Also how Vitellius would snatch from the altar-fire the entrails of victims and the corn, and consume them (“Vitellius,” 13). Thus, for the Gentile, “refusal to partake of the idol-meats involved absence from public and private festivity, a withdrawal, in great part, from the social life of his time.” The subject is discussed by Paul in Romans 14:2-21, and 1 Corinthians 8:1-11:1. The council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) forbade the eating of meat offered to idols, not as esteeming it forbidden by the Mosaic law, but as becoming a possible occasion of sin to weak Christians. In his letter to the Corinthians, among whom the Jewish and more scrupulous party was the weaker, Paul, in arguing with the stronger and more independent party, never alludes to the decree of the Jerusalem council, but discusses the matter from the stand-point of the rights of conscience. While he admits the possibility of a blameless participation in a banquet, even in the idol-temple, he dissuades from it on the ground of its dangerous consequences to weak consciences, and as involving a formal recognition of the false worship which they had renounced at their baptism. “In the Epistle to the Romans we see the excess to which the scruples of the weaker brethren were carried, even to the pitch of abstaining altogether from animal food; as, ill the Nicolaitans of the Apocalyptic churches, we see the excess of the indifferentist party, who plunged without restraint into all the pollutions, moral as well as ceremonial, with which the heathen rites were accompanied” (Stanley, “On Corinthians”). “It may be noted as accounting for the stronger and more vehement language of the Apocalypse, considered even as a simply Human book, that the conditions of the case had altered. Christians and heathen were no longer dwelling together, as at Corinth, with comparatively slight interruption to their social intercourse, but were divided by a sharp line of demarcation. The eating of things sacrificed to idols was more and more a crucial test, involving a cowardly shrinking from the open confession of a Christian's faith. Disciples who sat at meat in the idol's temple were making merry with those whose hands were red with the blood of their fellow-worshippers, and whose lips had uttered blaspheming scoffs against the Holy Name” (Plumptre). -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- In times of persecution, tasting the wine of the libations or eating meat offered to idols, was understood to signify recantation of Christianity. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- [source]
Second aorist active infinitive of εστιω esthiō and the verbal adjective (from ειδωλον eidōlon and τυω thuō), quoted here from Numbers 25:1., but in inverse order, repeated in other order in Revelation 2:20. See Acts 15:29; Acts 21:25; 1 Corinthians 8:1. for the controversy over the temptation to Gentile Christians to do what in itself was harmless, but which led to evil if it led to participation in the pagan feasts. Perhaps both ideas are involved here. Balaam taught Balak how to lead the Israelites into sin in both ways. [source]
See note on Revelation 2:6 for the Nicolaitans. The use of ομοιως homoiōs (likewise) here shows that they followed Balaam in not obeying the decision of the Conference at Jerusalem (Acts 15:20, Acts 15:29) about idolatry and fornication, with the result that they encouraged a return to pagan laxity of morals (Swete). Some wrongly hold that these Nicolaitans were Pauline Christians in the face of Colossians 3:5-8; Ephesians 5:3-6. [source]
“Men holding” (present active participle of κρατεω krateō).The teaching of Balaam (την διδαχην αλααμ tēn didachēn Balaam). Indeclinable substantive Balaam (Numbers 25:1-9; Numbers 31:15.). The point of likeness of these heretics with Balaam is here explained.Taught Balak Imperfect indicative of διδασκω didaskō Balaam‘s habit, “as the prototype of all corrupt teachers” (Charles). These early Gnostics practised licentiousness as a principle since they were not under law, but under grace (Romans 6:15). The use of the dative with διδασκω didaskō is a colloquialism rather than a Hebraism. Two accusatives often occur with διδασκω didaskō cast a stumbling-block Second aorist active infinitive (accusative case after εδιδασκεν edidasken) of βαλλω ballō regular use with σκανδαλον skandalon (trap) like τιτημι σκανδαλον tithēmi skandalon in Romans 14:13. Balaam, as Josephus and Philo also say, showed Balak how to set a trap for the Israelites by beguiling them into the double sin of idolatry and fornication, which often went together (and do so still).To eat things sacrificed to idols (παγειν ειδωλοτυτα phagein eidōlothuta). Second aorist active infinitive of εστιω esthiō and the verbal adjective (from ειδωλον eidōlon and τυω thuō), quoted here from Numbers 25:1., but in inverse order, repeated in other order in Revelation 2:20. See Acts 15:29; Acts 21:25; 1 Corinthians 8:1. for the controversy over the temptation to Gentile Christians to do what in itself was harmless, but which led to evil if it led to participation in the pagan feasts. Perhaps both ideas are involved here. Balaam taught Balak how to lead the Israelites into sin in both ways. [source]
Imperfect indicative of διδασκω didaskō Balaam‘s habit, “as the prototype of all corrupt teachers” (Charles). These early Gnostics practised licentiousness as a principle since they were not under law, but under grace (Romans 6:15). The use of the dative with διδασκω didaskō is a colloquialism rather than a Hebraism. Two accusatives often occur with διδασκω didaskō cast a stumbling-block Second aorist active infinitive (accusative case after εδιδασκεν edidasken) of βαλλω ballō regular use with σκανδαλον skandalon (trap) like τιτημι σκανδαλον tithēmi skandalon in Romans 14:13. Balaam, as Josephus and Philo also say, showed Balak how to set a trap for the Israelites by beguiling them into the double sin of idolatry and fornication, which often went together (and do so still).To eat things sacrificed to idols (παγειν ειδωλοτυτα phagein eidōlothuta). Second aorist active infinitive of εστιω esthiō and the verbal adjective (from ειδωλον eidōlon and τυω thuō), quoted here from Numbers 25:1., but in inverse order, repeated in other order in Revelation 2:20. See Acts 15:29; Acts 21:25; 1 Corinthians 8:1. for the controversy over the temptation to Gentile Christians to do what in itself was harmless, but which led to evil if it led to participation in the pagan feasts. Perhaps both ideas are involved here. Balaam taught Balak how to lead the Israelites into sin in both ways. [source]