What Does Acts 15:2 Mean?
When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small uprising and searching with them, they appointed that Paul and Barnabas, and some others of them, should go up to Jerusalem to the sent ones and elders about this inquiry.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question.THE KEY
“Disputation” and “question” grow from the same Greek seeking-root, so the conflict is part of the inquiry taking shape.
THE MEANING
The disagreement is real, and the question remains open. It becomes something the community carries together toward a wider hearing. The verse holds conflict and shared discernment in the same moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that serious disagreement makes shared discernment impossible: even amid sharp dispute, the people reach a shared decision to carry the question forward.
THE ROOT
ζητήσεως
zētēseōs
GROWS FROM
ζητέω (zēteō; ζητ-)
to seek, inquire
“searching” in this verse is zētēseōs. English gives the debate and its question different names, but both descend from ζητέω (zēteō, “to seek, inquire”). Their shared root makes the conflict part of the act of seeking: the question is worked through aloud and carried toward a wider hearing.
ALSO GROWS
zēteō: to seek, inquire
ζητέω
This is the verb beneath both forms, showing that the dispute and the question belong to one act of seeking.
zētēsis: inquiry, debate
ζήτησις
This is the word translated “disputation,” naming the active examination of the issue.
zētēma: question, matter for inquiry
ζήτημα
This is the word translated “question,” naming the issue the group carries forward.
THE PATTERN
A contested claim moves toward clarity through wider hearing and examination.
And when there had been much searching, Peter rose up, and said to them, Men and brethren, you know that from ancient days God picked out among us that the nations through my mouth should hear the word of the good news and trust.These were of nobler birth than those in Thessalonica, who received the word with all eagerness of heart, and sifted the writings daily, whether these things held so.The aligned one at the head of his own contention seems straight, but his neighbor comes and searches him out.THE THREAD
And when there had been much searching, Peter rose up, and said to them, Men and brethren, you know that from ancient days God picked out among us that the nations through my mouth should hear the word of the good news and trust.“Disputing” in this verse is ζητήσεως (zētēseōs, “inquiry, debate”), from the same seeking-family as “disputation” in Acts 15:2. The shared question continues as more voices enter the conversation.
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