Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 15:12

"And all the multitude kept silence; and they hearkened unto Barnabas and Paul rehearsing what signs and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles through them." — Acts 15:12 (ASV)

Luke’s reference to the silence of the assembly after Peter spoke implies that the turning point had come. Though resisted at Jerusalem for almost a decade, the precedent of Cornelius’s conversion had opened the way for Barnabas and Paul’s report of God’s validation of their missionary policy through “miraculous signs and wonders.” It was a report not of their successes but of how God had acted, and its implication was that by his acts God had revealed his will. Barnabas is mentioned first here (cf. v.25), probably because he enjoyed greater confidence at Jerusalem.