Acts 11:18

When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.

When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, [ edoxazon (G1392)] - the imperfect tense, implying more than a momentary burst of praise: their mouths, shut to find fault, were immediately opened to glorify God,

Saying, Then [ ara (G686 ) ge (G1065 )] ... granted (rather, 'So, thee, God hath granted to the Gentiles also') repentance unto life - a very different spirit this from what the same party afterward showed when Paul adduced equally resistless evidence in favour of the same line of procedure followed by him. The expression "repentance unto life," means 'repentance, whose proper issue is life.' Compare 2 Corinthians 7:10, "repentance unto salvation." To 'grant' this is something more than what Grotius makes it, to be willing to grant pardon upon repentance. The case of Cornelius was so manifestly one of grace reigning in every stage of his religious history, that we can hardly doubt that this very thing was meant to be conveyed here; and this is just the grace that reigns in every real conversion.

For Remarks on this section, see those at Acts 10:19.

RISE OF GENTILE CHRISTIANITY AT ANTIOCH-THE LABOURS THERE OF BARNABAS AND SAUL-THEIR MISSION TO JERUSALEM WITH A CONTRIBUTION FROM ANTIOCH FOR THE FAMINE-STRICKEN DISCIPLES THERE

Immediately after the martyrdom of Stephen, we were told that there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; "that the disciples were all scattered abroad except the apostles;" and that "they that were scattered abroad went," not only "throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria," but "everywhere preaching the word" (Acts 8:1; Acts 8:4). To what distant localities some of these dispersed disciples carried the word, our historian would seem to a cursory reader not to state. But he only reserves it until he has recorded the triumphs of the Gospel in Samaria, and the accession of the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:1); the conversion, and first evangelistic labours and perils of Saul of Tarsus, followed by some notices of the progress of the Gospel in Palestine (Acts 9:1); the introduction of Cornelius and his Gentile friends into the Christian Church through the instrumentality of Peter (Acts 10:1); and the happy meeting on this subject which took place at Jerusalem (Acts 11:1). These matters disposed of, our historian returns back to the point from which he started-the travels and labours of the dispersed disciples immediately after the martyrdom of Stephen.

Evangelistic Travels of the Scattered Disciples-At Antioch the Gospel is Preached for the First Time to the Gentiles, and with Signal Success (11:19-21)