And they wrote letters by them. — Literally, wrote letters by their hands. What follows, unless we assume a deliberate fraud, is clearly the transcript of a document — the first in the long list of decrees and canons and encyclical letters which mark the Church’s history.
The apostles and elders and brethren. — The MSS. present a singular variation of readings, some of the earliest omitting the conjunction and article before the last noun, and giving “the Apostles and elders, brethren.” Such a mode of speech, however, is foreign to the usage of the New Testament, and it is probable that this reading originated in a desire to bring the text into harmony with the later practice of the Church, which excluded the laity from all participation in its synods. (See Note on Acts 15:22.)
Send greeting. — Literally, wish joy. The formula was common in Greek epistles, but is not used in the New Testament, except here and in James 1:1. As it is reasonable to suppose that this letter was written or dictated by him, its occurrence is primâ facie evidence of the authorship of the Epistle that bears his name, and which, on the view taken in these Notes, had been already written to the Church of the Circumcision.
Unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles. — The letter was therefore addressed to them exclusively (see Note on Acts 15:20), as the Epistle of St. James had probably been previously addressed to the Jews of the “dispersion,” and not to the Gentiles.
In Antioch and Syria and Cilicia. — The mention of the latter country is important as showing the extent of St. Paul’s work there prior to his joining Barnabas at Antioch (Acts 11:25). There also he had founded churches in which Gentile converts were admitted as such to full communion.