Acts 13:4

13:4-13 Satan is in a special manner busy with great men and men in power, to keep them from being religious, for their example will influence many. Saul is here for the first time called Paul, and never after Saul. Saul was his name as he was a Hebrew; Paul was his name as he was a citizen of Rome. Under the direct influence of the Holy Ghost, he gave Elymas his true character, but not in passion. A fulness of deceit and mischief together, make a man indeed a child of the devil. And those who are enemies to the doctrine of Jesus, are enemies to all righteousness; for in it all righteousness is fulfilled. The ways of the Lord Jesus are the only right ways to heaven and happiness. There are many who not only wander from these ways themselves, but set others against these ways. They commonly are so hardened, that they will not cease to do evil. The proconsul was astonished at the force of the doctrine upon his own heart and conscience, and at the power of God by which it was confirmed. The doctrine of Christ astonishes; and the more we know of it, the more reason we shall see to wonder at it. Those who put their hand to the plough and look back, are not fit for the kingdom of God. Those who are not prepared to face opposition, and to endure hardship, are not fitted for the work of the ministry.

Acts 13:4-5 . So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost — By his immediate direction. This seems to be added to signify, that though they were solemnly recommended to God by the prayers of their brethren, their authority was not derived from them, but from the Holy Spirit himself. Departed unto Seleucia — A considerable port on the Mediterranean sea; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus — The island so infamous for the worship of Venus, who was supposed to hold her peculiar residence there, and therefore was commonly called the Cyprian goddess. When they were at Salamis — Situated on the eastern part of the island, and consequently was nearest to the place from whence they came; they preached the word in the synagogues of the Jews — For there were great numbers of that people in Cyprus. They had also John for their minister — Who willingly waited on them, not pretending to a character by any means equal to theirs.

{3} So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto {d} Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus. (3) Paul and his companions first bring Cyprus to the subjection and obedience of Christ. (d) Seleucia was a city of Cilicia, so called after Seleucus, one of Alexander's successors.

Ac 13:4-12. Arriving in Cyprus They Preach in the Synagogues of Salamis—At Paphos, Elymas Is Struck Blind, and the Governor of the Island Is Converted. 4, 5. departed unto Seleucia—the seaport of Antioch, from which it lay nearly due west fifteen miles, and five from the Mediterranean shore, on the river Orontes. thence sailed to Cyprus—whose high mountain summits are easily seen in clear weather from the coast [Colonel Chesney in Howson]. "Four reasons may have induced them to turn in first to this island: (1) Its nearness to the mainland; (2) It was the native place of Barnabas, and since the time when Andrew found his brother Simon, and brought him to Jesus, and "Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus," family ties had not been without effect on the progress of the Gospel. (3) It could not be unnatural to suppose that the truth would be welcomed in Cyprus when brought by Barnabas and his kinsman Mark, to their own connections or friends. The Jews were numerous in Salamis. By sailing to that city, they were following the track of the synagogues; and though their mission was chiefly to the Gentiles, their surest course for reaching them was through the proselytes and Hellenizing Jews. (4) Some of the Cypriotes were already Christians. Indeed, no one place out of Palestine, except Antioch, had been so honorably associated with the work of successful evangelization" [Howson].

Verse 4. - Went down to for departed unto , A.V. ( κατῆλθον ). Seleucia was the sea-port of Antioch, about sixteen miles from it, and five miles north of the mouth of the Orontes. It was a free city by a grant from Pompey. It is now in ruins, but "the masonry of the once magnificent port of Seleucia is in so good a state that" it might be repaired and cleared out "for about £31,000" (Colonel Chesney, quoted in Lewin, 1. p. 119). They sailed to Cyprus. Barnabas, no doubt, took the lead, and was naturally drawn to his native island of Cyprus - within a hundred miles of Seleucia, and, on a clear day, visible from it. The number of Jews in the island, and the partial evangelization of it which had already taken place ( Acts 11:19, 20 ), and which promised them assistance and support, no doubt further influenced them. John Mark went with them, as we learn from the fifth and thirteenth verses, and possibly other brethren as deacons and ministers (see next note). They sailed straight to Salamis, "a convenient and capacious harbor ," in the center of the eastern end of the island, and the principal or one of the principal towns. It had a large population of Jews. It was destroyed in the reign of Trajan, in consequence of a terrible insurrection of the Jews, in which they massacred 240,000 of the Gentile population. No Jew was ever after allowed to land in Cyprus. Acts 13:4

4 . sent forth by the Holy Ghost ] A repetition which marks the solemn character which St Luke and also his informant attached to this new form of the Christian work. unto Seleucia ] which was the seaport of Antioch at the mouth of the Orontes. See Dictionary of the Bible . and from thence they sailed to Cyprus ] Probably, if not specially directed, the missionary Apostles were induced to take this route because Cyprus was the birthplace of one of them, and there were in the island already many Jews resident, and also some Cypriote Christians ( Acts 11:20 ), who perhaps had been in Jerusalem at the feast of Pentecost among the various nationalities then assembled, and who had, when driven away by persecution, turned their steps homeward and preached Jesus to their fellow-countrymen ( Acts 11:19 ).

(4) Being sent forth by the Holy Ghost. —The words may be only a summing up of the result of the previous facts, but looking to Acts 16:6-7 , it seems more probable that they refer to a fresh revelation, following on what we should call the “ordination” or “consecration” of the Apostles, and guiding them as to the direction of their journey. Departed unto Seleucia.—The town was situated at the mouth of the Orontes, about sixteen miles from Antioch, and served as the port for that city. It had been built by, and named after, Seleucus Nicator. Thence they sailed to Cyprus.—The population of the island was largely Greek, and the name of the chief town at the east end recalled the history or the legend of a colony under Teucer, the son of Telamon, from the Salamis of the Saronic gulf. It owned Aphrodite, or Venus, as its tutelary goddess, Paphos being the chief centre of her worship, which there, as elsewhere, was conspicuous for the licentiousness of the harlot-priestesses of her temple. The copper-mines (the metal Cuprum took its name from the island), and its nearness to Syria, had probably attracted a considerable Jewish population, among whom the gospel had been preached by the Evangelistœ of Acts 11:19.

An interesting inscription—the date of which is, however, uncertain, and may be of the second or third century after Christ—given in M. de Cesnola’s Cyprus (p. 422), as found at Golgoi in that island, shows a yearning after something higher than the polytheism of Greece:— THOU, THE ONE GOD, THE GREATEST, THE MOST GLORIOUS NAME, HELP US ALL, WE BESEECH THEE. At the foot of the inscription there is the name HELIOS, the Sun, and we may probably see in it a trace of that adoption of the worship of Mithras, or the sun, as the visible symbol of Deity, which, first becoming known to the Romans in the time of Pompeius, led to the general reception of the Dies Solis (= Sunday) as the first day of the Roman week, and which, even in the case of Constantine, mingled with the earlier stages of his progress towards the faith of Christ. (See Note on Acts 17:23.) The narrative that follows implies that the prudence or discernment which distinguished the proconsul may well have shown itself in such a recognition of the unity of the Godhead; and it is worthy of note that M. de Cesnola (Cyprus, p. 425) discovered at Soli, in the same island, another inscription, bearing the name of Paulus the Proconsul, who may, perhaps, be identified with the Sergius Paulus of this narrative.

Acts 13:4-5 . Αὐτοί (see the critical remarks): such was the course taken with them; they themselves , therefore, ipsi igitur . ἐκπεμφθ . ὑπὸ τοῦ πνεύμ .] for “vocatio prorsus divina erat; tantum manu Dei oblatos amplexa erat ecclesia,” Calvin. They turned themselves at first to the quarter where they might hope most easily to form connections—it was, in fact, the first attempt of their new ministry—to Cyprus , the native country of Barnabas ( Acts 4:36 ), to which the direct route from Antioch by way of the neighbouring Seleucia (in Syria, also called Pieria , and situated at the mouth of the Orontes), led. Having there embarked, they landed at the city of Salamis , on the eastern coast of the island of Cyprus. γενομ . ἐν ] arrived at . Often so in classical authors since Homer.[5] Ἰωάννην ] See on Acts 12:12 . ὙΠΗΡΈΤΗΝ ] as servant , who assisted the official work of the apostles by performing external services, errands, missions, etc., probably also acts of baptism ( Acts 10:48 ; 1 Corinthians 1:14 ). “Barnabas et Paulus divinitus nominati, atque his liberum fuit alios adsciscere,” Bengel. As to their practice of preaching in the synagogues , see on Acts 13:14 . [5] See Nägelsbach on the Iliad , p. 295, ed. 3.