And some coming down from Judea, taught the brethren: That except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved.2 And when Paul and Barnabas had no small contest with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain others of the other side, should go up to the apostles and priests to Jerusalem about this question.3 They therefore being brought on their way by the church, passed through Phenice, and Samaria, relating the conversion of the Gentiles; and they caused great joy to all the brethren.4 And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received by the church, and by the apostles and ancients, declaring how great things God had done with them.5 But there arose some of the sect of the Pharisees that believed, saying: They must be circumcised, and be commanded to observe the law of Moses.6 And the apostles and ancients assembled to consider of this matter.
The reason why the Holy Spirit did, when the apostles at that time were consulting, relax the bond and yoke for us, was that we might be free to devote ourselves to the shunning of idolatry.
He then cursorily touches on his own conversion from a persecutor to an apostle-confirming thereby the Acts of the Apostles, in which book may be found the very subject of this epistle, how that certain persons interposed, and said that men ought to be circumcised, and that the law of Moses was to be observed; and how the apostles, when consulted, determined, by the authority of the Holy Ghost, that "a yoke should not be put upon men's necks which their fathers even had not been able to bear." Now, since the Acts of the Apostles thus agree with Paul, it becomes apparent why you reject them.
I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord.2 Our feet were standing in thy courts, O Jerusalem.3 Jerusalem, which is built as a city, which is compact together.4 For thither did the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord: the testimony of Israel, to praise the name of the Lord.4 For thither did the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord: the testimony of Israel, to praise the name of the Lord.5 Because their seats have sat in judgment, seats upon the house of David.
These are the feet that David washes in spirit when he teaches you how to keep them unsoiled, saying, "Our feet have been standing in your courts, O Jerusalem." Certainly, here "feet" is to be understood not as of the body but as of the soul. For how could a person on earth have his physical feet in heaven? Since Jerusalem, as Paul tells you, is in heaven, he also shows you how to stand in heaven when he says, "But our abode is in heaven": 2 the "abode" of your behavior, the "abode" of your deeds, the "abode" of your faith.
I am the true vine; and my Father is the husbandman.2 Every branch in me, that beareth not fruit, he will take away: and every one that beareth fruit, he will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit.†3 Now you are clean by reason of the word, which I have spoken to you.4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me.†5 I am the vine: you the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing.6 If any one abide not in me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and case him into the fire, and be burneth.†7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done unto you.8 In this is my Father glorified; that you bring forth very much fruit, and become my disciples.
(ix. de Trin) He rises in haste to perform the sacrament of His final passion in the flesh, (such is His desire to fulfil His Father’s commandment:) and therefore takes occasion to unfold the mystery of His assumption of His flesh, whereby He supports us, as the vine doth its branches: I am the true vine.
(ix. de Trin) But He wholly separates this humiliation in the flesh from the form of the Paternal Majesty, by setting forth the Father as the diligent Husbandman of this vine: And My Father is the Husbandman.
About CSB. A personal translation of the New Testament, rendered directly from the public-domain Greek in a literary style — not a scholarly critical edition, and not for liturgical or doctrinal authority. It is one reader's work, offered for enjoyment; where it matters, weigh it against an established translation. (Placeholder text — final wording to come.)