Acts 13:48Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"When the Gentiles heard this." This also made the apostles themselves more zealous, because the Gentiles were receiving what the Jews ought to have received by listening. It grieved the Jews even more. "When the Gentiles heard this," says the writer, "they rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed." That is, they had been chosen beforehand by God. He does not speak simply of "the Gentiles," but of all. This is precisely what the words "were appointed to eternal life" signify. This is a sign that they were accepted according to the will of God. He said "appointed" to show that it was not by compulsion. For he says, "Whom He foreknew, He also predestined" (Rom 8:29).

"As many as were appointed to eternal life." They were appointed not by force, for it is said: "Whom He foreknew, He also predestined." "And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed." Although they were destined or predestined to eternal life according to foreknowledge, they believed by their own desire and by their own will. The foreknowledge of God does not destroy the freedom of our will. Before the foundation of the world, Paul was destined, according to God's foreknowledge, to be a chosen vessel. Yet he did not become one immediately after birth, nor in youth, but after a considerable time, when an understanding of his calling and his virtues had been formed in him.

The report of the new gospel teaching spread throughout the whole city before the following Sabbath. Gentiles, in a great crowd, rushed to the synagogue, as did the Jews.

This sight alone was enough to arouse anger in the Jews. They were filled with a high opinion of themselves as the chosen people, and they nourished contempt for everything Gentile.

Therefore this present preaching was not received with the same goodwill and calm as the first. Paul was interrupted by contradictions and mockery.

In response, he observed that since they did not wish to receive the proclaimed salvation and were turning away from it of themselves, the preachers were free to turn to the Gentiles, who showed greater disposition toward the Gospel.

From Paphos Paul and his companions sailed to the peninsula of Asia Minor and came to Perga in Pamphylia. John Mark returned from there to Jerusalem, while Paul, with his other companions, continued the journey and went deeper into the interior regions of Asia Minor. He came to Antioch of Pisidia.

Here the preaching of the Apostle Paul concerning Christ made a powerful impression on the inhabitants of the city and turned many Jews and Gentiles to Christ.

Yet the majority of the Jews remained deaf to the apostles’ preaching. They even stirred up a disturbance against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of the city.

Therefore the apostles went on farther, shaking off the dust from their feet against them, according to Christ’s commandment (Mt 10:14).

With joy and thanksgiving the Gentiles welcomed the preaching, by which great blessings were now offered especially to them, without the legalistic demands of Judaism. All who, by the grace of God, resolved to enter the ranks of those thirsting for eternal life accepted the faith. The word of the Lord began to spread more and more.

The result of Paul and Barnabas’s activity in Antioch of Pisidia was the Gentiles’ favorable disposition toward the gospel preaching and the hardening of the Jews.

The Gentiles who had gathered to hear the word of God from Paul’s mouth (v. 44), together with whom proselytes are probably also meant, "hearing this," that is, the decree of God proclaimed by the apostles concerning the reception of Gentiles into the Church of Christ, rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord.

That is, they glorified the Gospel in the sense that they praised the new faith preached by the apostles and preferred it to every other faith.

As a result of such disposition toward the apostolic preaching, all who were appointed to eternal life believed in Christ.

The conversion of the Gentiles in Antioch of Pisidia was most abundant, and not only in the city, but throughout the whole region.

It is worthy of note here that the writer of Acts says that those believed who had been appointed beforehand. That is, they had been predestined by God and prepared for this through their personal life and disposition of soul (see Jn 6:44; Rom 8:29-30).

This partly shows that the number of those who believed was apparently much greater than the number of those who proved worthy of being received into the bosom of the Church.