Acts 11:29

Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judaea:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(29) Then the disciples, every man according to his ability.—Literally, as each man prospered. It is obviously implied that the collection was made at once, as a provision against the famine, in consequence of the prophecy, before the famine itself came. We may well believe that Saul and Barnabas were active in stirring up the Gentiles to this work of charity. It was the beginning of that collection for the “poor saints at Jerusalem” which was afterwards so prominent in the Apostle’s labours (Acts 24:17; Romans 15:25-26; 1Corinthians 16:1; 2Corinthians 9:1-15; Galatians 2:10), and which he regarded as a bond of union between the Jewish and Gentile sections of the Church. It is probable that the generous devotion and liberality of the converts of Jerusalem in the glow of their first love had left them more exposed than most others to the pressure of poverty, and that when the famine came it found them to a great extent dependent on the help of other churches.

Determined to send relief.—The Greek gives the more specific to send as a ministration, the half-technical word which St. Paul uses in Romans 15:31; 2Corinthians 9:1.

Benson Commentary

Acts 11:29-30. Then the disciples — Foreseeing the distress they would otherwise be in, on account of that famine; determined to send relief unto the brethren in Judea — Καθως ηυπορειτο τις, according as each was prospered, or, according to the abundance which each had; these disciples being, doubtless, some in more plentiful circumstances than others. “This their determination was extremely proper; for the churches of Judea being more exposed than other churches to persecution, and the rapacity of the Roman officers, and to those outrages which the populace, under weak and corrupt governments, commit upon the objects of their hatred, the brethren in Judea could not have supported this dearth, if they had not been assisted from abroad.” — Macknight. These disciples, therefore, at Antioch, having made collections for them, sent the money, not to the apostles, (for they had now given up the management of the funds of the church in Jerusalem to others,) but to the elders — Or rulers of that church, chosen, perhaps, out of the one hundred and twenty, on whom the Holy Ghost fell at first. And these were to deliver it to the deacons, or otherwise to make distribution thereof to the brethren, according to their need. By sending this seasonable gift to the brethren in Judea, the disciples at Antioch, among whom were many Gentile proselytes, gave proof of the reality of their conversion, and did what they could to conciliate the good-will of the Jewish believers. And this mark of their regard seems to have been well received by them.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

11:25-30 Hitherto the followers of Christ were called disciples, that is, learners, scholars; but from that time they were called Christians. The proper meaning of this name is, a follower of Christ; it denotes one who, from serious thought, embraces the religion of Christ, believes his promises, and makes it his chief care to shape his life by Christ's precepts and example. Hence it is plain that multitudes take the name of Christian to whom it does not rightly belong. But the name without the reality will only add to our guilt. While the bare profession will bestow neither profit nor delight, the possession of it will give both the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. Grant, Lord, that Christians may forget other names and distinctions, and love one another as the followers of Christ ought to do. True Christians will feel for their brethren under afflictions. Thus will fruit be brought forth to the praise and glory of God. If all mankind were true Christians, how cheerfully would they help one another! The whole earth would be like one large family, every member of which would strive to be dutiful and kind.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Then the disciples - The Christians at Antioch.

According to his ability - According as they had prospered. It does not imply that they were rich, but that they rendered such aid as they could afford.

Determined to send relief - This arose not merely from their general sense of obligation to aid the poor, but they felt themselves particularly bound to assist their Jewish brethren. The obligation to relieve the temporal needs of those from whom important spiritual mercies are received is repeatedly enforced in the New Testament. Compare Romans 15:25-27; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2; 2 Corinthians 9:1-2; Galatians 2:10.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

29. Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief, &c.—This was the pure prompting of Christian love, which shone so bright in those earliest days of the Gospel.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Every man according to his ability; which is the measure whereby we must mete out unto others: we are to give alms of such things as we have, or according as we are able, Luke 11:41.

These brethren, or believers, in Judea, were very poor, by reason of the extraordinary malice and persecution of the Jews against them, and therefore recommended by St. Paul unto them of Achaia, (especially to the Corinthians), and to the believers in Macedonia.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Then the disciples,.... That were at Antioch,

every man according to his ability; whether rich or poor, master or servant, everyone according to the substance he was possessed of; whether more or less, which was a good rule to go by:

determined to send relief to the brethren which dwelt in Judea; either because that Agabus might have suggested, that the famine would be the severest in those parts; or because that the Christians there had parted with their substance already, in the support of one another, and for the spread of the Gospel in other parts; and therefore the Christians at Antioch, in gratitude to them for having received the Gospel, and Gospel ministers from them, resolved to help them with their temporal things, when in distress.

Geneva Study Bible

{8} Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send {b} relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judaea:

(8) All congregations or churches make one body.

(b) That is, that the deacons might help the poor with it: for it was appropriate and helpful to have all these things done orderly and decently, and therefore it is said that they sent these things to the elders, that is, to the governors of the Church.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Acts 11:29-30. That, as Neander conjectures and Baumgarten assumes, the Christians of Antioch had already sent their money-contributions to Judaea before the commencement of the famine, is incorrect, because it was not through the entirely general expression of Agabus, but only through the result (ὅστις καὶ ἐγένετο ἐπὶ Κλαυδ.), that they could learn the definite time for sending, and also be directed to the local destination of their benevolence; hence Acts 11:29 attaches itself, with strict historical definiteness, to the directly preceding ὅστις … Κλαυδίου. Comp. Wieseler, p. 149. The benevolent activity on behalf of Judaea, which Paul at a later period unweariedly and successfully strove to promote, is to be explained from the dutiful affection toward the mother-land of Christianity, with its sacred metropolis, to which the Gentile church felt itself laid under such deep obligations in spiritual matters, Romans 15:27.

The construction of Acts 11:29 depends on attraction, in such a way, namely, that τῶν δὲ μαθητῶν is attracted by the parenthesis καθὼς ηὐπορεῖτό τις (according as every one was able, see Kypke, II. p. 56; comp. also 1 Corinthians 16:2), and accordingly the sentence as resolved is: οἱ δὲ μαθηταὶ, καθὼς ηὐπορεῖτό τις αὐτῶν, ὥρισαν. The subsequent ἕκαστος αὐτῶν is a more precise definition of the subject of ὥρισαν, appended by way of apposition. Comp. Acts 2:3.

πέμψαι] sc. τι.

The Christian presbyters, here for the first time mentioned in the N. T., instituted after the manner of the synagogue (זקנים),[268] were the appointed overseers and guides of the individual churches, in which the pastoral service of teaching, Acts 20:28, also devolved on them (see on Ephesians 4:11; Huther on 1 Timothy 3:2). They are throughout the N. T. identical with the ἐπισκοποί, who do not come into prominence as possessors of the chief superintendence with a subordination of the presbyters till the sub-apostolic age—in the first instance, and already very distinctly, in the Ignatian epistles. That identity, although the assumption of it is anathematized by the Council of Trent, is clear from Acts 20:17 (comp. Acts 11:28; Titus 1:5; Titus 1:7; 1 Peter 5:1 f.; Php 1:1). See Gabler, de episcopis primae eccl., Jen. 1805; Münter in the Stud. u. Krit. 1833, p. 769 ff.; Rothe, Anfänge d. chr. K. I. p. 173 ff.; Ritschl, altkath. K. p. 399 ff.; Jacobson in Herzog’s Encykl. II. p. 241 ff. Shifts are resorted to by the Catholics, such as Döllinger, Christenth. u. K. p. 303, and Sepp, p. 353 f.

The moneys were to be given over to the presbyters, in order to be distributed by them among the different overseers of the poor for due application.

According to Galatians 2:1, Paul cannot have come with them as far as Jerusalem;[269] see on Galatians 2:1. In the view of Zeller, that circumstance renders it probable that our whole narrative lacks a historical character—which is a very hasty conclusion.

[268] We have no account of the institution of this office. It probably shaped itself after the analogy of the government of the synagogue, soon after the first dispersion of the church (Acts 8:1), the apostles themselves having in the first instance presided alone over the church in Jerusalem; while, on the other hand, in conformity with the pressing necessity which primarily emerged, the office of almoner was there formed, even before there were special presbyters. But certainly the presbyters were, as elsewhere (Acts 14:23), so also in Jerusalem (Acts 15:22, Acts 21:18), chosen by the church, and apostolically installed. Comp. Thiersch, p. 78, who, however, arbitrarily conjectures that the coming over of the priests, Acts 6:7, had given occasion to the origin of the office.—We may add that the presbyters do not here appear as almoners (in opposition to Lange, apost. Zeitalt. II. p. 146), but the moneys are consigned to them as the presiding authority of the church. “Omnia enim rite et ordine administrari oportuit,” Beza. Comp. besides, on Acts 6:3, the subjoined remark.

[269] Ewald’s hypothesis also—that Paul had, when present in Jerusalem, conducted himself as quietly as possible, and had not transacted anything important for doctrine with the apostles, of whom Peter, according to Acts 12:17, had been absents—is insufficient to explain the silence in Galatians 2. concerning this journey. The whole argument in Galatians 2. is weak, if Paul, having been at Jerusalem, was silent to the Galatians about this journey. For the very non-mention of it must have exposed the journey, however otherwise little liable to objection, to the suspicions of opponents. This applies also against Hofmann, N. T. I. p. 121; and Trip, Paulus nach d. Apostelgesch., p. 72 f. The latter, however, ultimately accedes to my view. On the other hand, Paul had no need at all to write of the journey at Acts 18:22 to the Galatians (in opposition to Wieseler), because, after he had narrated to them his coming to an understanding with the apostle, there was no object at all in referring in this Epistle to further and later journeys to Jerusalem.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Acts 11:29. καθὼς ηὐπορεῖτό τις: only here in N.T., and the cognate noun in Acts 19:25, but in same sense in classical Greek; cf. Leviticus 25:26; Leviticus 25:28; Leviticus 25:49, and Wis 10:10 (but see Hatch and Red-path on passages in Lev.). “According to his ability,” so A. and R.V., i.e., as each man prospered, in proportion to his means. The expression intimates that the community of goods, at least in a communistic sense, could not have been the rule, cf. 1 Corinthians 16:2, but a right view of “the community of goods” at Jerusalem invokes no contradiction with this statement, as Hilgenfeld apparently maintains, Zeitschrift für wissenschaft. Theol., p. 506, 1895. On the good effect of this work of brotherly charity and fellowship, this practical exhibition of Christian union between Church and Church, between the Christians of the mother-city and those of the Jewish dispersion, see Hort, Ecclesia, p. 62; Ramsay, u. s., p. 52; Baumgarten (Alford, in loco).—εἰς διακονίαν: “for a ministry,” R.V. margin, cf. Romans 15:31, 2 Corinthians 9:1, etc., Acta Thomæ, 56; “contributions for relief” Ramsay, see further below; on the construction and complexity of the sentence see especially Page’s note, and Wendt.—ἀδελφοῖς: not merely as fellow-disciples, but as brethren in the One Lord.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

29. Then the disciples] i.e. of the Church of Antioch.

relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea] No doubt the Christian Church in Judæa would be much impoverished. At first the poorer converts had been sustained by the common fund, but persecution had driven away great numbers of the Christians, and those would be most likely to depart who possessed means to support themselves in other places. Thus the mother-church would be deprived of those members who were best able to give relief in such a severe time of distress.

Bengel's Gnomen

Acts 11:29. Μαθητῶν, each of the disciples) Luke does not say, of the Christians. At the commencement the name, disciples, continued the customary one among themselves: others distinguished them (the same persons) by the name, Christians, especially the more friendly lookers-on.—ὥρισαν, determined) They who determine, the more readily afterwards give effect to their determination: Acts 11:30.—ἐν τῇ Ἰουδαίᾳ, in Judea) The bounty of the believers at Antioch very much assured the Jews as to the reality of the conversion of the former.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 29. - And for then, A.V.; that for which, A.V. This is the first example of the practice, so much encouraged by St. Paul, of the Gentile Churches contributing to the wants of the poor Christians of the mother Church of Jerusalem (Romans 15:25-27; 1 Corinthians 16:1; 2 Corinthians 9; Galatians 2:10, etc.). Acts 11:29

Vincent's Word Studies

According to his ability (καθὼς ηὐπορεῖτό τις)

Lit., according as any one of them was prospered. The verb is from εὔπορος, easy to pass or travel through ; and the idea of prosperity is therefore conveyed under the figure of an easy and favorable journey. The same idea appears in our farewell; fare meaning originally to travel. Hence, to bid one farewell is to wish him a prosperous journey. Compare God-speed. So the idea here might be rendered, as each one fared well.

To send relief (εἰς διακονίαν πέμψαι)

Lit., to send for ministry.