Acts 18:15

15 but if it is a question concerning words and names, and of your law, look ye yourselves [to it], for a judge of these things I do not wish to be,'

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 -- `Against the law this one doth persuade men to worship God;'

14 and Paul being about to open [his] mouth, Gallio said unto the Jews, `If, indeed, then, it was anything unrighteous, or an act of wicked profligacy, O Jews, according to reason I had borne with you,

15 but if it is a question concerning words and names, and of your law, look ye yourselves [to it], for a judge of these things I do not wish to be,'

16 and he drave them from the tribunal;

17 and all the Greeks having taken Sosthenes, the chief man of the synagogue, were beating [him] before the tribunal, and not even for these things was Gallio caring.