Acts 11:19-26

Another Account of the Early Gentile Mission. Antioch. This connects with Acts 8:2. It was the Hellenists at Jerusalem, whose mouthpiece Stephen was, who were driven away at his death. There, they were scattered over Judæ a and Samaria; here, they go further, to Cyprus and Antioch, but preach to Jews only. Some of them, however, men of Cyprus, as Barnabas was, and of Cyrene in N. Africa (cf. Lucius of Cyrene, Acts 13:1) took the further step, when they came to Antioch, of addressing the Greeks, not the Hellenists as in AV (Græ cians, cf. RVm Grecian Jews), which would mean the Greek-speaking Jews, but the Greeks who were not Jews (p. 768). To them they preached the Lord Jesus. The title Lord is used here with accuracy. It is not much used in Ac. where the history is on Jewish ground; other titles were there thought of for Jesus; Christ, the Servant, and once the Son of God. The title which offered itself most readily for Him in Gentile lands was Lord. The Roman emperor is Lord, as Oriental monarchs had been, and no title expressed more readily the entire devotion that was due to Jesus. (See RTP, x. 313; Morgan, Religion and Theology of Paul, pp. 46 ff.)

Antioch, the capital of Syria, was the third city of the empire, a centre of art and science, and had a large Jewish population. Now it becomes the capital of Gentile Christianity.

Acts 11:21. The growth of the Church is noted as elsewhere (Acts 5:14; Acts 8:6; Acts 8:12); here it means not only that the number grew larger but that converts of a new order were added.

Acts 11:22. The Mother Church hears of the new step, (Acts 8:14; Acts 11:1) and sends an envoy to the spot. Barnabas is chosen for this; a Cyprian, he was interested in the doings of Cyprians (Acts 11:20) and he stood well at Jerusalem; the apostles had given him his new name (Acts 4:36). He saw nothing to disapprove of; his counsel to all, Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians alike, was that they should uphold their common cause, cleave to the Lord.

Acts 11:24. a good man: i.e. thorough, efficient; cf. the character of Joseph (Luke 23:50), and of Stephen (Acts 6:8). much people: lit. a considerable number; they might be Jews or Gentiles.

Acts 11:25. D and other early authorities read: and hearing that Saul is at Tarsus he went out to seek for him; and on meeting him he urged him to come to Antioch. Tarsus: for the geographical position of Tarsus, its connexion with the interior of Asia Minor, and its changeful history, see Ramsay, Cities of St. Paul, also pp. 768, 805. Tarsus had a notable school of philosophy, and if Paul had attended its lectures he would have heard Stoicism ably set forth. Nor could he fail to be acquainted with the orgiastic cults which formed the living religion of Asia Minor. But he would devote himself to the studies of his own race while he lived at home. Cf. Bö hlig, Die Geisteskultur von Tarsos im augusteischen Zeitalter, 1913.

Acts 11:26. At Antioch Barnabas and Saul went to the church meetings. The name Christian may have come into use first at Antioch, at a somewhat later time. The word does not occur otherwise in NT except in Acts 26:28 and 1 P. (1 Peter 4:16), which is a post-Pauline work. The followers of Christ would at first be confounded with the Jews, with whom they had so much in common; the name Christians would be applied to them by the Gentiles when their difference from the Jews became clearly apparent; it is regularly formed like the names of sects or parties, Herodians, Cæ sarians, Valentinians, etc.