Acts 11:1
XI. (1) AND THE APOSTLES AND BRETHREN THAT WERE IN JUDÆA... — The context implies that the tidings travelled, while Peter remained at Cæsarea, first probably to Joppa and Lydda, and afterwards to Jerusalem.... [ Continue Reading ]
XI. (1) AND THE APOSTLES AND BRETHREN THAT WERE IN JUDÆA... — The context implies that the tidings travelled, while Peter remained at Cæsarea, first probably to Joppa and Lydda, and afterwards to Jerusalem.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY THAT WERE OF THE CIRCUMCISION CONTENDED WITH HIM. — The conversion of the Gentiles at Cæsarea had given a new significance to the name of “those of the circumcision.” From this time forth they are a distinct section, often a distinct party, in the Church, and here we have the first symptom of t... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU WENTEST IN TO MEN UNCIRCUMCISED. — The words cannot well be translated otherwise, but the Greek (literally, _men with a foreskin_) is somewhat more expressive of scorn than the merely negative form of the English. The same word is commonly used by St. Paul where he discusses the relation betwee... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT PETER REHEARSED THE MATTER FROM THE BEGINNING. — Better, perhaps, the word “rehearse” having grown into a different shade of meaning, _began and set forth the matter._ The translators seem to have paraphrased the participle “having begun” somewhat more fully than its actual meaning admits. The a... [ Continue Reading ]
IT CAME EVEN TO ME. — The variations in the narrative are few and of little importance. There is, perhaps, a touch of the vividness of personal recollection in the description of the sheet as coming “even to me,” as compared with its being let down “to the earth” in Acts 10:11.... [ Continue Reading ]
UPON THE WHICH WHEN I HAD FASTENED MINE EYES, I CONSIDERED. — Here again we trace the same kind of vividness as in the previous verse. The Apostle recalls the intense eager gaze with which he had looked on the strange vision.... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL WERE DRAWN UP AGAIN INTO HEAVEN. — Once more there is a slight increase of vividness in the word which expresses a rapid upward movement, as compared with “the vessel was received up into heaven,” in Acts 10:16.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SPIRIT BADE ME GO WITH THEM, NOTHING DOUBTING. — The Greek verb has a special force as being the same as that for “contended” in Acts 11:2. Peter, guided by the Spirit, raised no debate such as they were raising.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREBY THOU AND ALL THY HOUSE SHALL BE SAVED. — The words are not found in the report of the angel’s speech in Acts 10:4, but may legitimately be thought of as implied in it. The prayer of Cornelius had been for salvation, and when he was told, in answer to that prayer, to send for one who should s... [ Continue Reading ]
AND AS I BEGAN TO SPEAK... — It is, perhaps, a trait of individual character that the Apostle speaks of what is recorded in Acts 10:34 as the mere beginning of what he had meant to say. AS ON US AT THE BEGINNING. — The words are spoken, it will be remembered, to apostles and disciples who had been... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN REMEMBERED I THE WORD OF THE LORD. — The special promise referred to was that recorded in Acts 1:5. Then it had seemed to refer only to the disciples, and the Day of Pentecost had appeared to bring a complete fulfilment of it. Now Peter had learnt to see that it had a wider range, that the gift... [ Continue Reading ]
FORASMUCH THEN... — More accurately, _If then._ UNTO US, WHO BELIEVED ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. — The Greek construction gives a somewhat different meaning: _If then God gave to them an equal gift as to us, upon their believing_... That condition was sufficient in their case for the greater gifts,... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY HELD THEIR PEACE, AND GLORIFIED GOD. — The difference of tenses in the two Greek verbs implies that they first held their peace, and then began a continuous utterance of praise. The fact was obviously one of immense importance in its bearing on the question at issue between St. Paul and the Jud... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW THEY WHICH WERE SCATTERED ABROAD. — A new and important section begins with these words. We are carried back to the date of the persecution of which Stephen was the chief victim. THE PERSECUTION THAT AROSE ABOUT STEPHEN. — The MSS. vary in their reading, some giving the case which would be rende... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SOME OF THEM WERE MEN OF CYPRUS AND CYRENE. — Better, _But some._ These were, from the nature of the case, Hellenistic or Greek-speaking Jews. Who they were we can only conjecture. Possibly Lucius of Cyrene, who appears in the list of prophets in Acts 13:1; possibly Simon of Cyrene, of whom we h... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SENT FORTH BARNABAS. — The choice was probably determined, we may believe, by the known sympathies of the Son of Consolation for the work which was going on at Antioch. The friend of Paul, who had been with him when he was at Jerusalem (Acts 9:27), must have known his hopes and convictions on t... [ Continue Reading ]
AND EXHORTED THEM ALL. — The tense implies continuous action; and the verb in the Greek is that from which Barnabas took his name as the “Son of Comfort” or “Counsel.” (See Note on Acts 4:36.) WITH PURPOSE OF HEART. — The preacher had seen the grace of God, and had rejoiced at it; but he knew, as a... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR HE WAS A GOOD MAN. — Words of praise of this kind are comparatively rare in this history, and we may, perhaps, think of them here as expressing St. Luke’s personal estimate of the character of the preacher, which he was all the more anxious to place on record because he had to narrate before lon... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN DEPARTED BARNABAS TO TARSUS. — The act is every way significant. It indicates the assurance that Saul would approve of the work which had been going on at Antioch, and the confident belief that he was the right person to direct and organise it. It probably implies also some intercourse with the... [ Continue Reading ]
THE DISCIPLES WERE CALLED CHRISTIANS FIRST IN ANTIOCH. — The term for “were called” is not the word usually so rendered. Better, perhaps, _got the name of Christians._ The Emperor Julian (_Misopog.,_ p. 344) notes the tendency to invent nicknames, as a form of satire, as characteristic of the popula... [ Continue Reading ]
CAME PROPHETS FROM JERUSALEM. — The mission thus described was obviously a further sanction given by the Church at Jerusalem to the work that Saul and Barnabas were carrying on at Antioch. If we adopt the view suggested in the Note on Luke 10:1, that the Seventy were the representatives of the proph... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE STOOD UP ONE OF THEM NAMED AGABUS. — The same prophet appears again in Acts 21:10 as coming down from Jerusalem to Cæsarea. Nothing more is known of him. The prophecy of the “dearth” or “famine” was in part an echo of Matthew 24:7. THROUGHOUT ALL THE WORLD. — Literally, _the inhabited earth,_... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN THE DISCIPLES, EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS ABILITY. — Literally, _as each man prospered._ It is obviously implied that the collection was made at once, as a provision against the famine, in consequence of the prophecy, before the famine itself came. We may well believe that Saul and Barnabas wer... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SENT IT TO THE ELDERS BY THE HANDS OF BARNABAS AND SAUL. — The elders of the Church are here named for the first time, and appear henceforth as a permanent element of its organisation, which in this respect followed the arrangements of the Synagogue. Officers filling like functions were known in... [ Continue Reading ]