Acts 16:6-8

Acts 16:6-8. Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia. Phrygia denoted at this time broken portions of a territory under the jurisdiction of three or four distinct governors. It roughly represented the great central space of Asia Minor. Its chief cities mentioned in the books of the New Testament are Colossae, Laodicaea, and Hierapolis. Josephus speaks of numerous Jews who had settled in Phrygia in the times of the Maccabees.

And the region of Galatia. This was a great midland district of Asia Minor inhabited by the descendants of those Gauls who invaded Greece and Asia in the third century B.C. Many of these seem to have settled and become mixed with the Greeks in the centre of Asia Minor. Galatia became a formal province of Rome A.D. 26. Its principal cities were Ancyra, the capital, Tavium, and Pessinus. It was in this missionary journey, accompanied by Silas and Timothy, that Paul laid the foundation of the flourishing Galatian Church. The grave sickness of the apostle, alluded to in such touching terms in the Galatian letter, must have attacked Paul during this sojourn in the country so briefly alluded to in this sixth verse.

It has been often asked why the writer of the ‘Acts' passes over thus abruptly the story of one of Paul's most successful missionary works. Various reasons have been suggested for this silence, such as the absence of any record of this period; the definite plan of the ‘Acts,' which was to recount the march of Christianity from Jerusalem to Rome a plan which would exclude all relations of events outside the track marked out. One commentator suggests there were no Jewish residents in these districts, but the argument of the Galatian Epistle plainly contradicts this latter hypothesis. Whatever may have been the reason which determined the writer of the ‘Acts to omit the preaching to and founding of the Galatian Church, it is plain that the writer, under the inspiration of the Spirit, exercised his discretion concerning what acts of Paul and Peter's life he wove into his history, which we clearly see only professes to recount but a very small portion of the ‘Acts' of the more distinguished servants of Christ in the early days of the faith.

Were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, Acts 16:7. They assayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not. Acts 16:9. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us. Among the supernatural signs which were vouchsafed to the first generation of believers, and, with very rare exceptions, to the first generation only, to men and women, many of whom, be it remembered, had seen Jesus, and had had personal contact with Him, must be reckoned those mysterious intimations of the will of the Holy Spirit which guided and directed the course of the infant Church. These intimations came apparently in varied forms to the ‘Twelve,' in the form of the fiery tongues (Acts 2:1-12), when the house rocked as though under the influence of an earthquake, and the Spirit filled each one present in the praying assembly (Acts 4:31); when the Spirit spoke to Peter on the occasion of the conversion of Cornelius when he was in a trance (Acts 10:16), and then when he was awake and musing on the vision (Acts 10:19-20); when Paul was on his Second Missionary Journey, on the three occasions discussed in this note; through a prophet (as in Acts 21:10-14), etc. See also Paul's own words in Acts 20:23, where he refers to many such voices and heavenly intimations.

Underlying the brief relation contained in Acts 16:6-9, we can trace a wish of the apostle to preach his Master's Gospel in eastern lands in preference to the unknown West. Nothing was more natural than such a desire. For an Oriental to pass, on such a mission as Paul was bent, into far western lands, was indeed a difficult and hazardous under-taking. The conditions under which hitherto he had carried out so successfully his arduous task, would have at once been changed; in the western countries across that broad Mediterranean AEgean Sea which washed the land of his forefathers, he knew that he would have to face, in addition to the perils and obstacles which hitherto he had combated with success, new difficulties which would meet him, such as difference of climate, changed habits of life, another race, another language, ideas all strange to him, very formidable considerations to an oriental Jew like Paul, whose life-work was to make known a new religion. The eastern stranger naturally shrank at first from doing this in the far western countries across the sea.

Three distinct intimations from Heaven seem to have been necessary to show Paul in this juncture in his life what was the will of his Master. The first mentioned is in Acts 16:6, where Paul was forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in ‘Asia,' Asia here signifying the western portion only of the great peninsula known now as ‘Asia Minor.' It roughly included the ancient provinces of Lydia, Mysia, and Caria, and perhaps a portion of the broad region in the interior known as Phrygia.

Some such Divine intimation as we read of in Acts 4:31 was probably given to the apostle and his companions, on which occasion we read, as they prayed, they were filled with the Holy Ghost.

The second supernatural sign of direction seems to have been a more definite one, and is alluded to in Acts 16:7 as the Spirit of Jesus, for that is the reading of the older authorities. We can form no conception respecting the nature of this special warning voice. The expression, ' Spirit of Jesus, does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament. Ewald refers to Revelation 19:10 as giving us a possible hint as to the manner in which the warning revelation was given to Paul.

The third voice from heaven to Paul came in the visions of the night, when by him there stood a ‘man of Macedonia,' or more accurately rendered, ‘a certain man of Macedonia.' Various explanations have been suggested respecting this supernatural visitant. Commentators have asked how Paul recognised the country of which his heavenly visitor was a representative? Some have suggested the peculiar dress, others the ‘affecting words' spoken by him to Paul, ‘Come over,' or better rendered, ‘Cross over into Macedonia and help us.' Grotius suggests, not without reason, that ‘the one who appeared to him was the representative or guardian angel of Macedonia, as the “Prince of Persia,” in Daniel 10 ' It was no doubt an angel sent by the King of Heaven to directly guide His devoted servant into western countries.