Acts 13:42-14:28
I didn’t comment directly on Paul’s speech yesterday (Acts 13:16-41), but his speech in Antioch is pretty much his standard talk to a Jewish crowd in a synagogue. We’ll see different speeches on different occasions down the road as he finds himself in different situations. I’m thinking particularly of his speech in Athens to an intellectual Gentile crowd. (See Acts 17:22, ff.)
But the Jews…drove them out of their district. (v. 50) A bit of geography here… Yesterday’s speech and today’s initial event occurred in Pisidian Antioch. So when the Jews drove them “out of their district”, Luke was literally referring to “out of their district”, in that their destination, Iconium is more than 100 miles from Antioch! Further in today’s reading, in the next chapter Lystra is another 20 miles from Iconium and Derbe is another 60 miles from Lystra. So Paul and Barnabas are doing a great deal of traveling for their missionary activity. NOTE: A typical day’s journey, walking, was about 30 miles. And with all that travel, Jews from Antioch felt it necessary to trail them and harass them along the way! (See Acts 14:19.)
Paul and Barnabas on their way back to Syrian Antioch: And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia. (v.25) Typically we think of Paul’s first missionary journey as Cyprus, Antioch, and Galatia (Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe). But this small item in verse 25 points out that Paul was preaching Jesus wherever he went! Pisidian Antioch is more than 100 miles inland from Perga, so three or four days’ travel for Paul and Barnabas upon their arrival in Asia Minor – no doubt preaching to fellow travelers they met along the way. In addition there is another 3-4 days’ travel from Antioch to the Galatian cities and further travel within Galatia. All that on their “inbound” travel. Then they reverse their route (verse 21: When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch…), no doubt again preaching wherever they went. It’s a good model for us to follow – “preaching” wherever we go!
See also: February 23 / Acts 13:42-52; February 24 / Acts 14:1-7; February 25 / Acts 14:8-18; February 26 / Acts 14:19-28
Thank you, Fred, for the information (last year) about the devout women of high standing. I am glad to hear that this was an isolated instance of rejection in Acts.
Retracing their steps in Galatia to identify elders for the new churches there, with prayer and fasting. It is so important to disciple new believers! I wonder who these were. Had some heard the Gospel earlier in Jerusalem and are part of the diaspora from persecution, so Paul and Barnabas were building on previous exposure or knowledge of OT? Could be Jews or Gentile converts mentioned earlier who were receptive.
The letter to Galatians was written before the next chapter in Acts, as a follow-up to this first trip. I am finally getting some of the sequence!