Acts 15:21

Of old time. Rather, “from ancient generations.” James apparently had no other thought than that the Jewish Christians would retain all that the Judaism had given them, and that they would not separate from the Jewish synagogue.

In the synagogues. On the program of the synagogue worship, see Vol. V, pp. 56-58. Jewish Christians were still in attendance at the synagogue services. The connection of this verse with the preceding may be understood in various ways. Some take it as meaning that the Jewish Christians need not fear that Gentile freedom would encroach on their observance of the Mosaic laws, for they and their children would continue to be admonished in the law every Sabbath as they attended the synagogue. Others understand this verse as a basis for James’s prohibitions in this sense, that inasmuch as Moses is read in the synagogue, the Gentiles should at least abstain from the things he enumerates. Still others see it as meaning that the Gentile Christians would certainly not find James’s prohibitions difficult, since they already were familiar with them from their contacts with the synagogues, where the law was regularly read.