‘Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men out of their company, and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren, and they wrote thus by them,'
Having come to their conclusions the church meeting closed. They had heeded the request of their sister church and would now send them details of their conclusions. It should be noted that this was not an official council, although it was undoubtedly a little more than just a regular church meeting. It was a gathering particularly designed to help a sister church who were having difficulties, and at the same time to decide a crucial question for them. It was a kind of enquiry made primarily to the Apostles, but including the elders of the mother church who had been responsible for the establishing of the church at Antioch.. It would make little difference to the behaviour and attitude of the Jerusalem church, living in the midst of an increasingly nationalistic Judaism, except for those who had to travel into the wider world. It was rather in order to offer fellowship help between the churches of Jerusalem and Antioch, so that the church of Antioch might be at peace, even though it would certainly have wider implications. For no doubt all present recognised that they had become a forum in which they had sorted out their own position with respect to Gentiles, something which would clearly affect any similar decisions in the future. It had set a precedent (just as the enquiry over what Peter had done had in Acts 11:1-18). It had become an important milestone in the advance of the word, and confirmed all that Paul and Barnabas, and others like them, were doing.
In the light of the inward looking and enflamed nationalistic zeal and exclusivism which was growing up among the Jews themselves, for they were gradually building up towards the soon-coming rebellion against Rome that would result in the destruction of Jerusalem, it was a brave letter. It went against the trend. Once known, and the details would no doubt soon spread, it would unquestionably set the Christian Jews at odds with their more zealous Jewish fellow-citizens. They would be in danger of being looked on as traitors. But it was to their credit that they did not consider that. It was God's will that they had wanted to know. And it was a clear expression of how Jesus Christ had completely transformed their own attitudes that this did not hinder them for a moment from sending the letter.
The conclusions were put in writing out of consideration for the whole church at Antioch. It was a message from church group to church group. Note the stress on who were involved. It was from ‘the Apostles and the elders, with the whole church'. They wanted Antioch to know that all were in agreement and that the whole church of Jerusalem were involved, and were with them on the question. Interestingly the Qumran community similarly made their decisions on the basis of the combined contribution of the leadership and the community members.
Furthermore, in order to give the letter extra solidity two prominent prophets from the church at Jerusalem, who were considered to be ‘chief men', were sent with them to add their backing to the letter. They recognised that the living voice would give greater emphasis to what was being said, would assure any doubters and would give the opportunity to any who wished to do so to clarify anything in the letter. And it would assure them of their brotherly love. Papias later tells us how much emphasis was placed on ‘the living voice' in the 1st century AD.
One of these ‘chief men' was Judas Barsabbas. He was possibly related to Joseph Barsabbas, who had been a disciple of Jesus from the beginning (Acts 1:23), (although Barsabbas was a fairly common name), and is possibly, with his very Jewish name, to be seen as very much a representative of the Hebrew wing of the church, although as one with a warm heart towards his brother Gentiles.
In contrast it would seem from what follows later that Silas was a Roman citizen (Acts 16:37). He might therefore be seen as representing the more cosmopolitan and Hellenistic wing of the Jerusalem church. If this is so, like the earlier appointment of Barnabas, this brings out how carefully they thought about their messengers and how much they sought God's wisdom in their choices. With the two wings of the Jerusalem church being represented, once they arrived in Antioch all portions of the church would then be catered for and would recognise that they were being taken into account.
‘And they wrote thus by them.' Judas and Silas would deliver the letter personally. This is the first example we have of one Christian group writing to another. It does not begin with a formal ‘the church of Jerusalem', it basically begins, ‘the Apostles and elders, (who are) brothers (to you), to the brothers who are of the Gentiles'. It is warm in feeling and designed to make the Gentile recipients aware of the love of all their Jewish ‘brothers'.