Acts 14:24Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Persecutions followed persecutions. Everywhere there were battles, pursuits, stoning. What comfort was there? How did they persuade them, speaking of sufferings at the very beginning? But here is another comfort.

“When they had ordained presbyters for them in every church, they prayed with fasting and commended them to the Lord in Whom they had believed.” Do you see Paul’s zeal? “They prayed,” he says, “with fasting and commended them to the Lord.”

Here is ordination with fasting. Again fasting, the purification of our souls. They taught them to fast amid temptations. But why, you ask, did they not appoint presbyters in Cyprus and Samaria?

After preaching here and in the vicinity of both Lystra and Derbe, they again visited the cities where they had first spread the faith. From these they had been forced to depart earlier than they wished because persecutions had arisen. They sought to confirm the new Christians in the faith and gave the newly founded churches a firm hierarchical organization. Then they returned to Antioch by the same road by which they had come.

After preaching the Gospel to this city and gaining quite a few disciples there, Paul and Barnabas undertook the return journey. They visited the Churches already founded in the regions of Asia Minor, confirming the young Christians in the faith and ordering Christian ecclesial life among them. Finally they returned to Syrian Antioch, from which they had undertaken their preaching journey. The Apostles remained in Antioch for no short time.

Through Pisidia and Pamphylia the apostles returned to Perga, the first city to which they had come after landing on the shore of Asia Minor. See Acts 13:13 and the note.

Having preached the word of the Lord there again, they went down to Attalia, a seaside city also in Pamphylia, southeast of Perga, near the mouth of the Cestrus. The city had been built by Attalus Philadelphus, king of Pergamum, and received its name from him.

From this seaside city they sailed through Seleucia to Syrian Antioch. From there they had gone forth to the work of preaching to the Gentiles, with the help of the grace of God (Acts 13:1-4).

Paul and Barnabas returned to Syrian Antioch, as far as possible, through the same places through which they had passed earlier. This was done, of course, in order to strengthen and instruct the Christians who were there.

The region of Pamphylia, with the cities of Attalia, founded by Attalus, king of Pergamum, and Perga (see Acts 13:13), lay by the Mediterranean Sea. By this sea they returned through Seleucia to Syrian Antioch, from which they had been sent for this evangelizing of the Gentiles (see Acts 13:1-4).

“So that the disciples would not lose heart, they came to them again and spoke with them. And note: first they depart to Derbe, in order to let them rest from their rage. Then they go again to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch.