---
title: Acts 16:4
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/acts-16-4/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/acts-16-4.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Acts 16:4
testament: NT
section: Acts
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Acts 16:4

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> As they went from town to town, they delivered the decisions handed down by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey.

## JW Usage

The Watchtower points to Acts 16:4 — "As they went through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decrees that had been decided upon by the apostles and older men who were in Jerusalem" — as proof that an ongoing flow of "decrees" (dogmata) issued from the first-century governing body. JWs treat this as the pattern for the modern circuit overseer work flowing from Warwick.

## Protestant Usage

The dogmata delivered here are the *specific* Acts 15 decision about Gentile-Jewish fellowship — abstaining from food sacrificed to idols, blood, things strangled, and sexual immorality. Paul delivers *those* decrees, once, to the relevant Gentile congregations. Then the pattern stops. Paul plants churches across Asia Minor and Europe for the next fifteen years and never once delivers further Jerusalem decrees. He writes Romans, the Corinthian letters, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, the Thessalonian letters, and the pastorals — every one of them under his own apostolic authority, addressing church problems directly. If Acts 16:4 were the start of ongoing circuit work under a central body, we would expect Acts 18 and 20 to describe Paul delivering new decrees. They do not. One-off delivery, one-off decision, one-off council.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Acts 15 — A One-Time Council, Not a Standing Body](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/acts15-one-time-not-template.md) — The Jerusalem meeting never reconvened, never legislated again, never appointed successors [Authority]