Paragraph 15:6–11

15:6

After the challenge in 15:5, there was then an official meeting of the church leaders to discuss this argument and make a decision about it. Connect 15:5 to 15:6 in a way that is natural in your language. For example:

Then
-or-
So (New Living Translation (2004))

In some languages it is not necessary to use a conjunction here.

So the apostles and elders met to look into this matter: The apostles and elders were the ones who had the authority to make a decision about this matter. So only they are mentioned here. However, the meeting probably was open for other believers to attend, as indicated by “the whole assembly” (15:12) and “the whole church” (15:22). In some languages, it will be more natural to mention them here. For example, at the end of 15:6, you could say:

Other believers were there listening.

to look into this matter: In Greek, this is literally “to see about this matter.” It refers to discussing and deciding whether or not Gentile believers must be circumcised and obey all the law of Moses. Other ways to translate this are:

to decide about this dispute
-or-
to discuss this problem about Gentiles (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
to decide about circumcising Gentile believers and making them obey the laws of Moses
-or-
to look into the matter (New Jerusalem Bible)

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