Acts 11:19Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

When Stephen had been killed, when Paul had twice been in danger, when the Apostles had been scourged, and when they had often been driven out, then the Gentiles were received. Then the Samaritans were received.

Paul also proclaims this when he says: "Then Paul and Barnabas spoke boldly and said, 'It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first. Since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles'" (Acts 13:46).

Thus they traveled, speaking also with the Gentiles. Yet they also departed to Cyprus, where there was greater safety and more quiet.

"Speaking the word to no one," the writer says, "except Jews." They did this not from fear of men, which they counted as nothing, but because they wished to observe the law and still show condescension to them.

"They traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch." These men did not greatly concern themselves with the Jews.

The Lord is our merciful Father. He knows what each person needs, whom to appoint, where, and when. Therefore He governs our destiny beyond our expectations, sometimes grieving our calculations and dreams.

Yet He sees what is better for us from afar, for our soul, if not for our outward life. The Lord humbles and exalts, raises and casts down, gives life and brings death.

Not one little bird is forgotten before Him (Lk 12:6). Will He leave a believing Christian without His love? The sorrows of a Christian are for his own benefit and for that of his neighbors.

An example of this is the history now presented from the Acts of the Apostles. You heard today that, after the Jews, especially the Pharisees, killed the first martyr, the Christian archdeacon Stephen, with stones in Jerusalem, it became dangerous for other Christians to remain in that city.

They too could be attacked, tortured, and torn apart. According to Christ's word, they had to save themselves by flight (Mt 10:23). So they left their houses, families, and households, perhaps not without sadness.

They went to various unfamiliar places. God knows how they would be received there. Agree that being persecuted for no reason at all is a painful thing.

To be in exile and dispersion, far from one's relatives and from the community of fellow believers, and not knowing for how long, is very grievous for a loving heart.

But there is no evil without some good. Everything is for the best. First, by this flight the first Christians preserved their life, which was precious for the world.

Second, those scattered by the persecution after Stephen went out from Jerusalem into different lands, east, west, north, and south. They even went beyond Judea and Palestine, as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching there the word about Christ (Acts 11:19).

This means that, without the persecution in Jerusalem, Christianity would not have reached foreign places so quickly. A soul delivered from the power of Satan and from paganism is an acquisition for the Church of Christ.

Thus the exiles became the first enlighteners of foreigners sitting in darkness. They became agents of their salvation, and by such preaching prepared for themselves an unfading crown of glory.

Is it not true, then, that everything is for the best? These preachers of the Gospel, of course, were Jews. At first, because of the prevailing conviction about the superiority of the Jew and his faith over any pagan, they preached the word to no one except Jews (Acts 11:19).

But this view of the work of Christianity is incomplete and one-sided. Christianity is a universal religion. It proclaims to all and each that it does not cast out the one who comes to Christ.

It proclaims that in the Church of Christ there is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female (Gal 3:28). Therefore to limit the preaching about Christ to Jews alone was unjust and offensive to the rest of the world.

Some went to Phoenicia, the Syrian province where Tyre and Sidon were located. Others went to the famous island of Cyprus. Some went to the great and populous city of Antioch, first among the eastern cities of that time.

Many Jews lived in these places. Some others, though they did not live there, often came there.

These holy disciples of Christ taught the word of faith to them alone, and not to the Gentiles. In this they fulfilled the commandment of their Teacher, who gave them the command to give preference to the Jews and to preach the Gospel to them first.

"Do not go into the way of the Gentiles," the Lord said to them, "and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Mt 10:5-6).

Therefore blessed Paul also said to the Jews who did not receive the preaching of the Gospel: "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first. But since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles" (Acts 13:46).

The Jewish people received this preference because, in view of the knowledge of God which they possessed, to them first belonged "the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises" (Rom 9:4).

From this race came the forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets. From this race came Christ Himself according to the flesh. Therefore they had been prepared beforehand to receive the truth of the Gospel.

The churches situated in Palestine were later visited and confirmed by the Apostles themselves. Thus the word of the Lord was fulfilled here also: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (Jn 12:24).

After the vision given to Peter in Joppa, and after the baptism of Cornelius, a centurion from the Gentiles, in Caesarea of Palestine, the Church of Jerusalem acquired new daughters in the churches formed here and there from the Gentiles.

Besides Caesarea, the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles also in Antioch, the capital of Syria. Therefore the Church of Jerusalem sent there one of her most active members, though not one of the Twelve Apostles, Barnabas.

So widely had the net of the fishermen of the Gospel been cast, ten or twelve years after the first Christian day of Pentecost.

This was, of course, because they shared with all the other Christians from the Jews the thought that Gentiles could not be received into the Church of Christ unless they first became Jews in faith and life.

But then the event of the conversion to the Christian faith of the Gentiles in Caesarea took place. It was accomplished by the direct command and indication of the Spirit of God through the chief Apostle.

This now gave all Christians the lesson that Gentiles too could be received into the Church of Christ, and without the mediation of Judaism.

The Christians from the Hellenists understood and assimilated this divine lesson before others. Living in Gentile lands, far from the strict zealots of Judaism, the Pharisees, they were more inclined and able to accept the thought of Christian freedom from the yoke of the law.

They were more ready than their kinsmen who, under the influence of the Jerusalem scribes and Pharisees, had cultivated in themselves a special zeal for the Law of Moses.

Some of these Christian Hellenist preachers, Cypriots and Cyrenians by birth, were Jews from Cyprus and Cyrene, a city in Africa. They had lived in Jerusalem before the persecution, and when persecution came they departed from there with the other believers.

They came to Antioch and preached the Gospel to the Hellenes, that is, to the Gentiles. The Lord visibly favored the work of these preachers, for a great number of Gentiles believed and turned to the Lord.

"The persecution brought no small benefit to the preaching of the Gospel. If the enemies had deliberately tried to spread the Church, they would have done nothing other than this. I mean the scattering of the teachers" (Chrysostom).

The events briefly depicted in the few verses under consideration in fact required no little time. They probably occurred at the same time as the events described in chapters 8-10.

It is difficult, however, to indicate their precise place among those events, because chronological data are lacking.

Only one thing can be said with more than probability. The preaching of Christ to the Antiochene Gentiles (v. 20) came after Peter's preaching to the first Gentiles in Caesarea.

It may even have occurred under the influence of this latter event. Then it became clear to all who could receive news of it that Gentiles were to be received into the Church of Christ without the mediation of Jewish rites and customs.

The subsequent accounts of the activity there of Barnabas and Saul, whom Barnabas had already brought from Tarsus, fully confirm this supposition.

"After Stephen". The Greek expression admits a twofold translation: either the persecution that arose because of Stephen, or the persecution after Stephen. Both translations may be accepted, and the thoughts expressed by them may even be joined, as completing one another.

"As far as Phoenicia": a coastal region north of Galilee, once independent, but at that time subject to the Romans. It had once-famous cities, Tyre and Sidon. See the note on Mt 11:22.

"Cyprus": a large island not far from the Syro-Phoenician shore of the Mediterranean Sea. See the note on Acts 4:36.

"And Antioch": a large and flourishing city at that time in northwestern Syria, on the Orontes River, six hours' journey from the sea, about thirty versts.

It had been founded by Antiochus, father of Seleucus Nicator, the founder of the Seleucid kingdom. It was one of the numerous Greek colonies founded in the East as a result of the Macedonian conquests there.

This colony grew quickly and became one of the great and famous cities. Its population was Greek, but many Jews also lived there. Greek culture and the Greek language predominated in the city.

They preached the word, that is, the Gospel, to no one except Jews. In the first Christian Church, with regard to the spread of the Gospel, the rule long remained which the Apostle Paul once expressed.

The word of God had to be preached first to the Jews (Acts 13:46), and only afterward to the Gentiles. This remained until the revelation to Peter (ch. 10) clarified and hastened the work of receiving the Gentiles into the Church.

"They did this not from fear of men, which they counted as nothing, but because they wished to observe the law and still show condescension to them" (Chrysostom).

Therefore one may say that the enemies of the Church, wishing to do her evil, did good for her, though they did not wish it.

The places mentioned here are not far from one another. Cyprus is an island in the Mediterranean Sea, not far from Phoenicia, famous for the cities of Tyre and Sidon.

Antioch was a new Greek colony on the Orontes River, founded by Seleucus Nicator in honor of his father Antiochus. In it, Greek culture had many different representatives.

It is therefore not surprising that Cypriots and Cyrenians were drawn there. They were probably Hellenists who had recently believed in Jesus Christ.

They desired to share the spiritual treasure they had found with persons who, like them, were seeking Him and were wholly dissatisfied with what the paganism of that time offered.

According to the explanation of Saint John Chrysostom, "all this happened when Paul had twice been in danger, when the Apostles were being scourged, when they had repeatedly been driven out, and when the Gentiles had already been received."

Those who knew Greek preached to them. "There were many such in Antioch."