Albert Barnes Commentary Acts 15:24

"Forasmuch as we have heard that certain who went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls; to whom we gave no commandment;" — Acts 15:24 (ASV)

Forasmuch. Since we have heard.

That certain. That some (Acts 15:1).

Have troubled you with words. With doctrines. They have disturbed your minds and produced contentions.

Subverting your souls. The word used here (anaskeuazontes) occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It properly means to collect together the household furnishings for removal. It is applied to marauders, robbers, and enemies who remove and carry off property, thereby producing distress, confusion, and disorder. It is thus used in the sense of disturbing or destroying; and here it denotes that they unsettled their minds—that they produced anxiety, disturbance, and distress—by these doctrines about Moses.

To whom we gave no such commandment. They went, therefore, without authority. Self-appointed and self-sent teachers often produce disturbance and distress. If the apostles had been consulted on this subject, the difficulty would have been avoided. By saying that they had not given them a command to teach these things, they practically assured the Gentile converts that they did not approve of the course taken by those who went from Judea.

• Certain: meaning "Some."
• Which went out: Compare Acts 15:1.
• Troubled you: Compare Galatians 5:12.
• Subverting your souls: Compare Galatians 5:4.
• Saying: meaning "Unsettling your minds."
• To whom we gave: Compare Galatians 2:4.