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Acts 18:15

in Acts 18

But since it is a dispute about words and names and your own law, settle it yourselves. I refuse to be a judge of such things.”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

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.

KJV

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

This verse in Acts 18

Commentary

10 notes on this verse
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.

This site's exposition

a wrongdoing or vicious crime

on Acts 18:14-16

Gallio told the Jews to settle a dispute about their own law themselves. By treating it as a matter inside Judaism, he in effect gave the Christians the legal standing Judaism already held under Roman law.

This site's exposition

a dispute about words and names

Gallio was the elder brother of the philosopher Seneca, who praised his mild temper in his Natural Questions. The words and names he waved aside were the question whether Jesus was the Christ, Paul's claim since verse 5. A Roman judge heard it as a quarrel over terms.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

John Chrysostom

Homily on Acts 39 · Written before 407.

proposed

"Saying, This fellow seduceth men contrary to the law to worship God. And when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said: If indeed it were any wrong-doing or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you. But if it be a question of words and names, and of your law, look ye to it; for I will be no judge of such matters. And he drave them from the judgment-seat." This Gallio seems to me to have been a sensible man. Thus observe, when these had said, "Against the law he seduceth men to worship God," he "cared for none of these things": and observe how he answers them: "If indeed it were" any matter affecting the city, "any wrong-doing or wicked lewdness," etc. And observe how prudent he is: for he does not say straightway, I care not, but, "If," says he, "it were a matter of wrong-doing or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you; but if it be a question of doctrine and words and of your law, see ye to it, for I do not choose to be a judge of such matters." He taught them that not such are the matters which crave a judicial sentence, but they do all things out of order. And he does not say, It is not my duty, but, "I do not choose," that they may not trouble him again. Thus Pilate said in the case of Christ, "Take ye Him, and judge him according to your law." But they were just like men drunken and mad.

The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)

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.

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

Paul was going about to make his defence, and to show that he did not teach men to worship God contrary to the law; but the judge, being resolved not to pass any sentence upon this cause, would not give himself the trouble of examining it. He shows himself very ready to do the part of a judge in any matter that it was proper for him to take cognizance of.

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

): " If it be a question of words and names, and of your law, look you to it: end it among yourselves as you can, but I will be no judge of such matters; you shall neither burden my patience with the hearing of it, nor burden my conscience with giving judgment upon it;" and therefore, when they were urgent and pressing to be heard, he drove them from the judgment-seat (

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation

But if it be a question of words,....
2 more voices on this verse

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

when Gallio was the deputy--"the proconsul." See on Ac 13:7. He was brother to the celebrated philosopher SENECA, the tutor of Nero, who passed sentence of death on both.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

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.

The words behind it

21 Greek words

Every Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Titus 3:9

    But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, arguments, and quarrels about the law, because these things are pointless and worthless.

    it leads to

    • 2 Timothy 2:14

      Remind the believers of these things, charging them before God to avoid quarreling over words, which succeeds only in leading the listeners to ruin.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • 2 Timothy 2:23

      But reject foolish and ignorant speculation, for you know that it breeds quarreling.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • 1 Timothy 4:7

      But reject irreverent, silly myths. Instead, train yourself for godliness.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • 2 Timothy 2:16

      But avoid irreverent, empty chatter, which will only lead to more ungodliness,

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Titus 1:14

      and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of men who have rejected the truth.

  • Through

    2 Timothy 2:23

    But reject foolish and ignorant speculation, for you know that it breeds quarreling.

    it leads to

    • Titus 3:9

      But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, arguments, and quarrels about the law, because these things are pointless and worthless.

    • 1 Timothy 6:4–5

      he is conceited and understands nothing. Instead, he has an unhealthy interest in controversies and semantics, out of which come envy, strife, abusive talk, evil suspicions,

  • Through

    1 Timothy 6:4

    he is conceited and understands nothing. Instead, he has an unhealthy interest in controversies and semantics, out of which come envy, strife, abusive talk, evil suspicions,

    it leads to

    • 2 Timothy 3:4

      traitorous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

Where this verse is studied

About Acts

The Pentecost, El Greco, about 1600, Museo del Prado. Public domain.
The Pentecost, El Greco, about 1600, Museo del Prado. Public domain.
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); J. A. Alexander, The Acts of the Apostles Explained; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, Homily on Acts 39; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Seneca, Natural Questions, Book 4, preface and William Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen.