Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 15:16

"After these things I will return, And I will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen; And I will build again the ruins thereof, And I will set it up:" — Acts 15:16 (ASV)

After this I will return.—It is a fact of some interest that the prophet from whom these words are taken (Amos 9:11–12) had already been quoted by Stephen (Acts 7:42). We may believe that those who listened to him then had been led to turn to the writings of Amos and to find meanings in them that had previously been hidden.

The fact that the inference drawn from the passage mainly turns on a clause in which the Septuagint version, which James quotes, differs from the Hebrew, shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that the discussion must have been conducted in Greek, and not in Hebrew.

At first, this may appear strange in a council held at Jerusalem, but the trial of Stephen presents a precedent (see Note on Acts 7:1). It is obvious that in a debate primarily concerning the interests of Greeks, and at which many of them and many Hellenistic Jews were likely present, the use of Greek—both in the debate and in the decree that resulted from it—was almost essential.

Greek and Hebrew were probably equally familiar to the inhabitants of Jerusalem (see Note on Acts 22:2).

The quotation suggests, perhaps even implies, a fuller interpretation than is given in the summary of James's speech. It assumes that the tabernacle of David, which to human eyes had been lying in ruins, was being rebuilt by Christ, the Son of David. This interpretation further assumes that Christ was accomplishing the work that Jehovah, in the prophecy, claimed as His own.