[80:1] Luke xxiii. 43.
[80:2] Ps. ii. 12.
[80:3] Acts xv. ii.
[81:1] Acts xv. 2.
[81:2] Acts xv. 23, 24, 41.
[81:3] Acts xvi. 4.
[81:4] Paul and Barnabas, with the other deputies, were sent "to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders" (Acts xv. 2); "when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders" (Acts xv. 4); and the decrees are said to have been ordained "of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem" (Acts xvi. 4); but not one of these statements necessarily implies that these rulers were exclusively elders of the Church of Jerusalem.
[82:1] It has been argued by Burton ("Lectures," vol. i. p. 122), that the first visit of Paul to Jerusalem after his conversion took place about the time of one of the great festivals, as he is said, on the occasion, to have "disputed against the Grecians" (Acts ix. 29), who were likely then to have been very numerous in the city. If he arrived now at the time of the same festival, the interval must have been precisely fourteen years.
[82:2] Gal. ii. 1. Some make these fourteen years to include the three years mentioned Gal. i. 18, but this interpretation does violence to the languages of the apostle. The system of chronology here adopted requires no such forced expositions. Paul came to Jerusalem three years after his conversion, that is, in A.D. 37; and fourteen years after, that is, in A.D. 51, he was at this Synod.
[82:3] Acts ix. 26.