Acts 18:15 - Clarke's commentary and critical notes on the Bible

But if it be a question of words and names, and of your law, look ye to it; for I will be no judge of such matters. But if it be a question of words - Περι λογου, Concerning doctrine and names - whether the person called Jesus be the person you call the Messiah. And of your law - any particular nicety, concerning that law which is peculiar to yourselves: Look ye to it - settle the business among yourselves; the Roman government does not meddle with such matters, and I will not take upon me to - decide in a case that does not concern my office. As if he had said: "The Roman laws give religious liberty to Jews and Greeks; but, if controversies arise among you on these subjects, decide them among yourselves, or dispute about them as much as you please." A better answer could not be given by man; and it was highly becoming the acknowledged meekness, gentleness, and benevolence of this amiable man. He concluded that the state had no right to control any man's religious opinion; that was between the object of his worship and his own conscience; and therefore he was not authorized to intermeddle with subjects of this nature, which the law left to every man's private judgment. Had all the rulers of the people in every country acted as this sensible and benevolent Roman, laws against liberty of conscience, concerning religious persecution, would not be found to be, as they not are, blots and disgraces on the statute books of almost all the civilized nations of Europe.