Acts 11:19

THE GOSPEL BEING PREACHED TO GENTILES AT ANTIOCH ALSO BARNABAS IS SENT THITHER FROM JERUSALEM, WHO HAILS THEIR ACCESSION AND LABORS AMONG THEM. (Act 11:19-24) they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen--and who "went everywhere preaching the word" (Act 8:4). travelled as far as Phenice--that part of the Mediterranean coast which, commencing a little north of CÃ&brvbrsarea, stretches northwards for upwards of one hundred miles, halfway to Antioch. and Cyprus--(See on Act 4:36). An active commercial intercourse subsisted between Phenice and Cyprus. and Antioch--near the head of the northeast coast of the Mediterranean, on the river Orontes, and containing a large colony of Jews, to whose religion there were there numerous proselytes. "It was almost an Oriental Rome, in which all the forms of the civilized life of the empire found some representative; and through the two first centuries of the Christian era it was what Constantinople became afterwards, 'the Gate of the East'" [HOWSON].

We have here an account of the planting and watering of a church at Antioch, the chief city of Syria, reckoned afterwards the third most considerable city of the empire, only Rome and Alexandria being preferred before it, next to whose patriarch that of Antioch took place. It stood where Hamath or Riblah did, which we read of in the Old Testament. It is suggested that Luke, the penman of this history, as well as Theophilus, to whom he dedicates it, was of Antioch, which may be the reason why he takes more particular notice of the success of the gospel at Antioch, as also because there it was that Paul began to be famous, towards the story of whom he is hastening. Now concerning the church at Antioch observe, I. The first preachers of the gospel there were such as were dispersed from Jerusalem by persecution, that persecution which arose five or six years ago (as some compute), at the time of Stephen's death (Act 11:19): They travelled as far as Phenice and other places preaching the word. God suffered them to be persecuted, that thereby they might be dispersed in the world, sown as seed to God, in order to their bringing forth much fruit. Thus what was intended for the hurt of the church was made to work for its good; as Jacob's curse of the tribe of Levi (I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel) was turned into a blessing. The enemies designed to scatter and lose them, Christ designed to scatter and use them. Thus the wrath of man is made to praise God. Observe, 1. Those that fled from persecution did not flee from their work; though for the time they declined suffering, yet they did not decline service; nay, they threw themselves into a larger field of opportunity than before. Those that persecuted the preachers of the gospel hoped thereby to prevent t…

11:19-26 The persecution that followed Stephen’s death forced believers into other areas (8:1-3), and they traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. • Antioch of Syria was a thriving cosmopolitan city, the third-largest in the Roman Empire after Rome and Alexandria. Antioch was of central importance in the spread of the Christian message to the Gentile world.