Ok, I looked up that passage:Bernard Muller wrote: ↑Sat Feb 20, 2021 1:32 pm "brethren" can also mean members of the church of Jerusalem:
Acts 11:29 "Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judaea:"
The next "brethren" is in Acts12:17: "But he, beckoning unto them with the hand to hold their peace, declared unto them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, Go shew these things unto James, and to the brethren. And he departed, and went into another place."
So it looks that "brethren" are the same as is 11:29.
"In those days some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up and predicted through the Spirit that a great famine would sweep across the whole world.e (This happened under Claudius.) So the disciples, each according to his ability, decided to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. This they did, sending their gifts to the elders with Barnabas and Saul."
When I saw the reference to Barnabas and Saul, my mind flashed to the scene in Galatians where the "esteemed pillars" asked Paul to remember the poor in Jerusalem. And of course, I think the "James" of the pillars--who asked Paul to remember the pillars--I think of James as "son of Alphaeus" of the 12, who is mentioned in Acts too. It is a circular logic, you could say.
The passage is ambiguous, and that means filling some gaps. Earlier in Acts, there is a scene where the audience addresses Peter and the apostles as men-brothers:
"When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers (ἄνδρες ἀδελφοί), what shall we do?" Acts 2:37
Since "Peter and the apostles" are called "brothers," Peter could have been describing his fellow apostles as "James and the brothers."