For before that certain came from James ( πρὸ τοῦ γὰρ ἐλθεῖν τινὰς ἀπὸ ἰακώβου). Since the apostle writes "from James," and not "from Judaea" (as Acts 15:1) or "from Jerusalem," the surmise suggests itself that these men had a mission from St.
James. Alford's view appears probable, that St. James, while holding that the Gentile converts were not to have the observance of the Law forced upon them, did nevertheless consider that the Jewish believers were still bound to keep it.
Possibly he had sent them to Antioch to remind the Jewish Chris-liens of the city of their obligations in this respect. This would be in no way inconsistent with Acts 15:10, where the emphatic words, "them which from the Gentiles turn to God, tacitly imply that the obligations of Jewish believers continued the same as before (comp.
Acts 21:18-25). He did eat with the Gentiles ( μετὰ τῶν ἐθνῶν συνησθιεν). The Greek expression is no doubt equivalent to τοῖς ἔθνεσι συνήσθιεν. There appears to be no ground for restricting this "caring with" them to uniting with them at the agape or at the Lord's Supper.
The words in Acts 11:3, spoken some ten years before this, "Thou wentest in ( εἰσῆλθες) to men still in their uncircumcision, and didst eat with them," pointed to a social participation of food rather than to one merely religious; though, it must be confessed, these two things were not as yet so sharply distinguished from each other as it was afterwards found necessary that they should be (1 Corinthians 11:34).
While thus eating with Gentiles, St. Peter may well have fortified his mind with the thought, that the Lord Jesus had been wont to hold, not merely teaching converse, but social intercourse also, with persons whom "the scribes and the Pharisees" regarded as themselves unclean and by contact polluting (Luke 5:30; Luke 15:2; Luke 19:7).
Christ, it is true, both himself observed the Law and taught his disciples to observe it. He wore "the border" ( κράσπεδον) attached to his garment; but he did not wear the "border" unnecessarily "enlarged."
On the contrary, the rabbinical exaggerations of legal prescriptions, inconsistent with charity or with reason, he was wont emphatically to repudiate. But when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself ( ὅτε δὲ ἦλθον ὑπέστελλε καὶ ἀφώριζεν ἑαυτόν); but when they came, he began to shrink back and separate himself from them.
ἑαυτὸν is governed by ὑπέστελλεν as well as by ἀφώριζεν ὑπέστελλεν ἑαυτὸν being equivalent to ὑπεστέλλετο, the use of which middle voice is illustrated by Acts 20:27. The Gentile converts could not but perceive that his manner with them was less openly cordial than heretofore.
He was no longer so ready to go to their houses. In public, he shrank from being seen with them on terms of frank and equal companionship. Fearing them which were of the circumcision ( φοβούμενοβ τοὺς ἐκ περιτομῆς); fearing the brethren drawn from the circumcision If the apostle had written φοβ.
τὴν περιτομήν, the expression would have taken in the not-believing Jews as well; whereas the preposition ἐκ, like ἀπὸ in Acts 15:19, indicates the branch of mankind from which the converts had come (Acts 10:45; Acts 11:2; Colossians 4:11; Titus 1:10).