And they abode no small time with the disciples.
παραγενομενοι δε και συναγαγοντες την εκκλησιαν ανηγγειλαν οσα εποιησεν ο θεος μετ αυτων και οτι ηνοιξεν τοις εθνεσιν θυραν πιστεως
4 Church Fathers comment on this verse
They did not speak of what they themselves had done, but of “what God had done with them.” It seems to me that they spoke of their temptations. They did not come here in vain, nor in order to rest. They were prudently guided by the Spirit, so that the preaching among the Gentiles might be more firmly established.
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.
Having gathered the Church: that is, having especially assembled the Antiochian Christian community for this important occasion (cf. Acts 15:30), Paul and Barnabas related all that God had done with them.
They did not relate what they themselves had done during their journey, but what God, Who was with them, had done through them. This was a humble consciousness of their own nothingness. God did everything, not they.
The door of faith: a figurative expression for reception into the bosom of the Church of Christ, or for the conversion of the Gentiles from their false gods to Christ (cf. 1 Cor 16:9; 2 Cor 2:12; Col 4:3).
They related it: “Through this a great matter is arranged. It was finally necessary to preach freely to the Gentiles. Therefore they come to announce it, so that those men might know about it, for it happened that those who forbade speaking with the Gentiles also came at that time” (Chrysostom).
The arrival of Paul and Barnabas in Antioch, of course, soon became known to everyone, all the more because the apostles themselves informed some people. And when, as far as possible, all the leaders and members of the Church of Antioch had gathered, they related what God had done through them among the Gentiles, opening to them also an entrance into the Church.
Since the apostles remained there for a long time, they undoubtedly spoke more than once about what had been arranged among those converted from paganism. But the historian is silent for now about how the Antiochian Christians received this.
Probably those who heard the missionaries’ accounts were reserved, because many had perplexities about this. These became evident later, as is clear from what follows.
“Why do they come again to Antioch?” asks Saint John Chrysostom. “To announce what had happened. Besides this, a great matter is arranged through it. It was finally necessary to preach freely to the Gentiles.
Therefore they come to announce it, so that those men might know about it. For it happened that those who forbade speaking with the Gentiles also came at that time. Then, after receiving confirmation from Jerusalem, they could go to the Gentiles with greater confidence.
When they came, they showed both their boldness and their obedience, because they informed them of it. Having accomplished such things, they were not puffed up.”
“The apostles’ account was filled with deep meaning and edification. ‘Everything we have accomplished,’ they seem to say, ‘is not our work, but the work of Almighty God. The hand of the Lord did everything (see Acts 11:21), God through us, or that grace of God to which we were entrusted before the beginning of the work.’
‘I labored more abundantly than they all,’ as though we hear the Apostle’s voice, ‘yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me’ (1 Cor 15:10). The Almighty opened the doors of faith to the Gentiles.
At the same time, through the inward action of grace, He placed in them both the need and the disposition to believe. This was the Apostle’s conviction. And the historian instills this thought.”
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 20 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS