Acts 15:5

Rose up. Perhaps this rising up of the Judaizers necessitated the convening of a more formal council meeting.

Sect. Gr. hairesis (see on ch. 5:17). Some from the Pharisees had become Christians. They accepted Jesus as a teacher sent from God (see John 3:2), which had been proved by His resurrection from the dead. Accordingly, they expected Him to become head of the kingdom that was to transmit to mankind a restored, glorified Judaism, with the law and the Temple in their rightful place, and Gentiles admitted as a favor, upon circumcision. It was these who now stood up and protested against what Paul and Barnabas had been doing. Perhaps the general issue was debated in terms of an individual case, that of Titus (see Gal. 2:3), a Gentile who had not gone through the transitional stage of proselytism. Titus’ involvement in the present controversy prepared him later to contend against the Judaizers’ insistence upon the obsolete forms of religion (cf. Titus 1:10,14,15).

The law of Moses. See on ch. 6:13. Circumcision was not the only requirement the Judaizers proposed to make of Christians. It was only their entering wedge.