Acts 18:15

Translations

King James Version (KJV)

But if it be a question of words and names, and of your law, look you to it; for I will be no judge of such matters.

American King James Version (AKJV)

But if it be a question of words and names, and of your law, look you to it; for I will be no judge of such matters.

American Standard Version (ASV)

but if they are questions about words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves; I am not minded to be a judge of these matters.

Basic English Translation (BBE)

But if it is a question of words or names or of your law, see to it yourselves; I will not be a judge of such things.

Webster's Revision

But if it is a question of words and names, and of your law, look ye to it: for I will be no judge of such matters.

World English Bible

but if they are questions about words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves. For I don't want to be a judge of these matters."

English Revised Version (ERV)

but if they are questions about words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves; I am not minded to be a judge of these matters.

Clarke's Acts 18:15 Bible Commentary

But if it be a question of words - Περι λογου, Concerning doctrine and names - whether the person called Jesus be the person you call the Messiah. And of your law - any particular nicety, concerning that law which is peculiar to yourselves: Look ye to it - settle the business among yourselves; the Roman government does not meddle with such matters, and I will not take upon me to - decide in a case that does not concern my office. As if he had said: "The Roman laws give religious liberty to Jews and Greeks; but, if controversies arise among you on these subjects, decide them among yourselves, or dispute about them as much as you please." A better answer could not be given by man; and it was highly becoming the acknowledged meekness, gentleness, and benevolence of this amiable man. He concluded that the state had no right to control any man's religious opinion; that was between the object of his worship and his own conscience; and therefore he was not authorized to intermeddle with subjects of this nature, which the law left to every man's private judgment. Had all the rulers of the people in every country acted as this sensible and benevolent Roman, laws against liberty of conscience, concerning religious persecution, would not be found to be, as they not are, blots and disgraces on the statute books of almost all the civilized nations of Europe.

Barnes's Acts 18:15 Bible Commentary

Of words - A dispute about words, for such he would regard all their controversies about religion to be.

And names - Probably he had heard something of the nature of the controversy, and understood it to be a dispute about names; that is, whether Jesus was to be called the Messiah or not. To him this would appear as a matter pertaining to the Jews alone, and to be ranked with their other disputes arising from the difference of sect and name.

Of your law - A question respecting the proper interpretation of the Law, or the rites and ceremonies which it commanded. The Jews had many such disputes, and Gallio did not regard them as coming under his cognizance as a magistrate.

Look ye to it - Judge this among yourselves; settle the difficulty as you can. Compare John 18:31.

For I will be no judge ... - I do not regard such questions as pertaining to my office, or deem myself called on to settle them.

Wesley's Acts 18:15 Bible Commentary

18:15 But if it be - He speaks with the utmost coolness and contempt, a question of names - The names of the heathen gods were fables and shadows. But the question concerning the name of Jesus is of more importance than all things else under heaven. Yet there is this singularity (among a thousand others) in the Christian religion, that human reason, curious as it is in all other things, abhors to inquire into it.