Acts 16:6Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

In turn, the messenger from Macedonia, whom we consider to be the angel of that people, asks that the apostles caring for other lands be given to him as crumbs from the master’s table; cf. Mt 15:21-27.

Gregory the Great, Homilia in Evangelia 1.4.1, PL 76:1089.

“In the Acts of the Apostles it says: ‘Having passed through Phrygia and the Galatian country, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia.

“‘When they had come to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them’; Acts 16:6-7.

“Many times in other places of Holy Scripture there is also mention of God’s manifestation to men.

“Now some say, ‘These passages are incomprehensible. Could people really have seen God so plainly?’ But there is nothing incomprehensible here.

“This lack of understanding occurred because we have departed from the simplicity of the first Christian knowledge.

“Under the pretext of enlightenment, we have entered such darkness of ignorance that what the ancients understood so clearly now seems hard for us to grasp.

“Even in ordinary conversations, the notion of God’s manifestation among men did not seem strange to them.

“Thus Job, when his friends reproached him as though he blasphemed God, answered them: ‘How can this be, when I feel the breath of the Almighty in my nostrils?’

“That is, how can I blaspheme God when the Holy Spirit abides with me? If I blasphemed God, the Holy Spirit would depart from me. Yet I feel His breath in my nostrils.

“In exactly the same way it is said of Abraham and Jacob that they saw the Lord and conversed with Him. Jacob even wrestled with Him.

“Moses saw God, and all the people with him, when he was counted worthy to receive from God the tablets of the Law on Mount Sinai.

“The pillar of cloud and fire, or what is the same, the manifest grace of the Holy Spirit, served as guides for the people of God in the wilderness.

“People saw God and the grace of His Holy Spirit not in sleep, not in fantasy, and not in a rapture of disordered imagination, but truly and openly.

“We have become very inattentive to the work of our salvation. From this it follows that we receive many words of Holy Scripture in a sense other than we should.

“And all this is because we do not seek the grace of God. Through the pride of our mind we do not allow it to dwell in our souls.

“Therefore we do not have true enlightenment from the Lord, which is sent into the hearts of people who hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness with all their heart.”

From there Paul went north into Galatia. Many Jews lived in this province. Therefore it is very probable that Paul first addressed his preaching to them and to the proselytes among them.

But the poor reception he met among the Jews opened the way to the Gentiles. The Gentiles received him with great goodwill, Gal 4:13-14: "you received me as an apostle of God, as Jesus Christ."

The infirmities in the flesh, the trial in the flesh, which the Galatian Christians did not despise, were probably his recent sufferings for the cause of Christ. He speaks of them in detail in 2 Cor 11:23-26.

Or else they were an illness of the flesh, from which he asked God three times to deliver him, but received no relief. This was so that the power of God might be made more clearly perfect in his weakness.

In the present case, his weakness was not an obstacle to the spread of the Gospel. Rather, it drew the hearts of the converts to him still more.

Seeing his zeal in the work of the Gospel, despite illness and suffering, they became all the more attached to Christ's teacher. As the apostle says, they were ready to give their own eyes for him.

Paul struggled greatly with bodily ailments, as can be seen from certain hints in his epistles. There he speaks of how the feeling of human weakness weighed upon him.

This should not seem strange. Even when he was a Pharisee, striving to attain legal holiness, he did not spare his body. His new calling allowed him still less to spare himself.

At one and the same time he had to earn his food by the labors of his hands and strain all his strength according to the duty of apostolic ministry. He had to endure so many dangers, insults, and beatings.

Even a strong body could soon have fallen beneath such a weight. Yet with the feeling of human weakness, the consciousness of a higher power became stronger in him. This power rose above everything human strength can do.

He knew how to distinguish it from everything he recognized in himself as merely human. It was that victorious power of God which appeared through his preaching of the Gospel.

Feeling his human weakness, he nevertheless rose still more above himself through inner revelations and communications with the higher world, of which he was deemed worthy.

He had one especially grievous illness, which even checked the impulses of his exalted spirit. He regarded it as an instruction in humility sent by God. It was a balancing means against the moments of inner illumination allotted to him.

He said that three times he asked the Lord to free him from this grievous illness. But the voice of God answered that he should not ask to be delivered from the feeling of human weakness.

It should be enough for him to know the grace given to him. For the power of God shows itself as such precisely where human weakness also makes itself felt.

This was revealed especially during his activity in Galatia. His body was weighed down by illness. Yet the divine power of his words and actions stood in complete contrast to the weak organ that served as its instrument.

For this reason it made an even stronger impression on hearts already disposed toward it. The fiery zeal of love, sacrificing everything, compelled him to endure all things joyfully in his very sufferings for the salvation of others.

This had to draw hearts to him with still greater power. Therefore he could speak of the Galatians' disposition toward him as he does, 4:14-15.

The Galatian churches consisted chiefly of natural Gentiles. Some were proselytes, for whom Judaism was a transition to Christianity. Others had turned to Christianity directly from paganism.

To this fundamental composition of the Church were added certain Jews, who differed from the greater mass of their unbelieving countrymen by their receptivity to the Gospel.

Through proselytes and Christians from among the Jews, relations with the Jews did not cease in this Church. From this source we must derive the movements that we later see in the Galatian churches.

When Paul left Galatia, he wanted to take a southwesterly direction into proconsular Asia, where Ephesus lay on the Aegean shore. But by an inner voice, or in a vision, the command of the Spirit of God was announced to him. It restrained him from this direction.

They became fanatical worshipers of Cybele, the mother of the gods. Her idolatry was accompanied by the most vile orgies, which had an irresistible attraction for this frivolous and impressionable people.

In Galatia the apostle was detained for a rather long time, namely by an attack of a particular illness from which he often suffered.

He saw in it a deliberately given “thorn in the flesh,” 2 Cor 12:8, so that he might feel his nothingness and not be exalted.

According to the most probable supposition, this was severe eye pain. At times it subjected the apostle to terrible sufferings, made him completely helpless, and deprived him of the possibility of any activity.

The preaching in Galatia was successful. Responsive to everything new and good, the Galatians quickly accepted the Gospel and were baptized.

Yet their inconstancy caused the apostle no small number of griefs, about which he complains in his epistle to them.

These were Mysia, Lydia, and Caria, the whole western coast of Asia Minor along the Mediterranean Sea. But they were not permitted by the Holy Spirit to preach there.

By actions of the Spirit, external or internal, not specified by the writer of Acts, the apostles were forbidden to preach Christ in all this Proconsular Asia.

The apostles clearly recognized or perceived these actions precisely as special and immediate actions of the Holy Spirit, and not as their own assumptions, plans, or calculations.

For unknown reasons; cf. Chrysostom, they were forbidden to preach there. This happened when they had come to one of the provinces included in Proconsular Asia, namely Mysia.

Because of this, they intended to go into Bithynia, the northwestern region of Asia Minor bordering Mysia. But the Spirit again did not permit them to go there.

In this situation they were on the borders of Mysia and Bithynia. The Holy Spirit did not permit them to preach in either one.

As is clear from what follows, they were being called to activity in Europe. This was pleasing to the Holy Spirit.

Certainly not without His special inspiration, they resolved to draw nearer to the borders of Asia Minor with Europe.

Blessed Theophylact thinks that "the Spirit forbade the apostles to preach in Asia and Bithynia because He foresaw that the heresy of the Pneumatomachi would take possession of the inhabitants there."

Bishop Michael writes: "This happened when they had reached one of the provinces belonging to proconsular Asia, Mysia. As a result, they intended to go into Bithynia, the northwestern region of Asia Minor bordering Mysia, but the Spirit again did not permit them to go there.

In this situation they were on the borders of Mysia and Bithynia. In neither region did the Holy Spirit permit them to preach. As is clear from what follows, they were being called to labor in Europe.

This was pleasing to the Holy Spirit. Of course, not without His special inspiration, they decided to move closer to the borders of Asia Minor with Europe.

Therefore, having passed by Mysia, that is, having gone through it or along its border without preaching, they came down to the coastal city of Troas, in Mysia. From there it was not far to cross by sea into Europe."

The account here of the journey through Phrygia and Galatia is brief. Yet there is a supposition that at this very time the Apostle Paul founded those churches in Galatia to which he wrote one of his most important epistles. The Phrygian churches in Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis were likewise founded then.

"After the death of Amyntas, king of the Galatians, Galatia was understood to include Galatia proper, Pisidia, and Lycaonia. But Acts is hardly following the political division here rather than the ethnographic one.

One may rightly think that in verse 6 Galatia means not the Roman province, but Galatia in the proper sense. It is also clear why it is mentioned after Phrygia, for it lies beyond Phrygia.

The author of Acts had to mention Lystra and Derbe because they lay on the road from Cilicia to Phrygia.

One may also reasonably conjecture why the author of Acts describes Paul's intermediate passage from Cilicia to Derbe not by the name of the region, Lycaonia, but by the cities belonging to it.

The author's intention was to report that Saint Timothy joined Paul during his passage through Lycaonia, and to give rather detailed information about him. It was natural for the author to indicate more precisely Saint Timothy's homeland, the city from which he came, and not be limited to naming the country.

"That the Spirit mentioned in verse 6 was the Third Person of the Holy Trinity is proved most clearly by this. The prohibition received from Him by Paul and his companions was wholly unexpected to them and contrary to their desire.

The reason for this prohibition cannot be sought either in the religious and moral condition of this province, or in its political condition. Yet taking into account that, after being refused entry into Asia, Paul preached in Phrygia and Galatia, one may think that the prohibition against going to Asia was given to Paul and his companions for the sake of these churches' arising."

With the reference to the apostle's preaching in Galatia in mind, D. Glagolev cites, as far as possible, everything said about the enlightenment of the Galatians in the Apostle Paul's Epistle to them.

Since the Apostle Paul endured great sorrows and illnesses there in his labors, D. Glagolev examines in detail the apostle's well-known saying: "a thorn was given me in the flesh" (2 Cor 12:7).