Acts 18:15

15 But if it is questions concerning a word and names and {your own law}, see to [it] yourselves! I do not wish to be a judge of these [things]."

Acts 18:15 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 18:15

But if it be a question of words
"Or of the word", what the Jews called the word of God, which Gallio did not pretend to understand: "and names"; as the names of God, of Jesus, and of Christ, whether he is God, and the Messiah:

and of your law;
concerning circumcision, whether these Christians, and the proselytes they make, are obliged unto it:

look ye to it;
suggesting that this was a matter that lay before them, and they were the proper judges of, and might determine for themselves, since they had the free exercise of their religion, and a right of judging of everything that respected that within themselves, and for which they were best furnished, as having a more competent knowledge of them; as the Arabic version renders it, "and ye are more learned in these things"; and most conversant with them:

for I will be no judge of such matters;
and it would be well if every civil magistrate would act the same part, and not meddle with religious affairs, any further than to preserve the public peace.

Acts 18:15 In-Context

13 saying, "This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law!"

14 But [when] Paul was about to open [his] mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, "If it was some crime or wicked villainy, O Jews, {I would have been justified in accepting} your complaint.

15 But if it is questions concerning a word and names and {your own law}, see to [it] yourselves! I do not wish to be a judge of these [things]."

16 And he drove them away from the judgment seat.

17 So they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, [and] began beating [him] in front of the judgment seat. And none of these [things] was a concern to Gallio.

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "the according to you law"
• [b] *Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation