Acts 11:20

But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus.

Unto the Greeks also ... Despite the fact of the margin's giving "Grecian Jews" as an alternate reading here, it is clear that Gentiles are meant, the same being the only proper antithesis of "Jews only" in the preceding verse. As Hervey said:

Speaking the word ... It has been noted that:

The statement that the men of Cyprus and Cyrene preached the gospel to them is contrasted with the action of others, who preached to the Jews only. Obviously, therefore, these Hellenes were not Jews.[21]

Thus, as Dummelow said, "To these unnamed Cyprians and Cyrenians belongs the credit of first preaching the gospel systematically to Gentiles."[22] It is doubtless this fact that Luke intended to bring into focus here. One can hardly resist the thought that perhaps Barnabas might have been among them. Both DeWelt and McGarvey were sure, however, that this preaching to Gentiles did not take place until after news of Peter's baptism of Cornelius had been circulated. DeWelt said:

What prompted these Jews to do this, preach to the Gentiles? Could it not have been that the word of the works of Peter among the Gentiles reached these places; and, when this report came, they did not hesitate to take the gospel to the great Gentile center of Antioch?[23]

The importance of Antioch as capital, in a sense, of Gentile Christianity, justifies a little further notice of it.

ANTIOCH

The modern city of Antioch with a mere 30,000 inhabitants is not to be taken as anything like the Queen City of the East with its half a million souls at the time of events in this chapter. Situated astride the Orontes river, some twenty miles from the sea, where the river emerges from between the Lebanon and Taurus mountain ranges, it was a city "of great extent and remarkable beauty."[24] It was distinguished by two great colonnaded streets intersecting at the center and dividing Antioch into quadrants. "Octavian, Tiberius, Trajan ... and Hadrian adorned and equipped it with temple, theater, colonnade, circus, bath aqueduct, and all the architectural features and embellishments of a Roman metropolis."[25]

The Seleucidae founded Antioch prior to 300 B.C., no less than four kings having a part in it, the royal residence of their dynasty having been constructed on an island in an artificial channel, the city itself occupying a larger island in the Orontes, but extending far beyond both banks, embracing also the slopes of precipitous Mount Silpius. It was the "third metropolis"[26] of the Roman Empire, "one of the eyes of Asia,"[27] and "one of the leading cities of the world."[28]

Of particular interest to Christians is the quality of life which marked this mother city of Gentile Christianity. Just west of Antioch, Seleucus I had constructed the Groves of Daphne, wherein was the mighty temple of the Pythian Apollo. It was a center of vice, featuring the harlot-priestesses of Daphne and Apollo who on occasions engaged in public ceremonies "stripped of clothing."[29] Heathenism in its most vulgar and debasing forms dominated the life of the people.

It is a credit to the strength and glory of Christianity that in such a city there came to be at one time more than "a hundred thousand members"[30] of the body of Christ. Chrysostom lived there; and a number of Gentile heresies began there, notably that of Arius.

Such was the city where the Gentiles turned to the Lord and where the disciples were first called Christians. Mighty are the ways of the Lord.

Preaching the Lord Jesus ... See under Acts 8:12,35. Preaching the Lord Jesus was the same as preaching Christ, or preaching the things concerning the kingdom.

[21] A. C. Hervey, The Pulpit Commentary, Acts (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans, Publishers, 1950), p. 358.

[22] J. R. Dummelow, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937), p. 833.

[23] Don DeWelt, Acts Made Actual (Joplin, Missouri: College Press, 1958), p. 151.

[24] F. N. Peloubet, Bible Dictionary (Chicago: The John C. Winston Company, 1925), p. 36.

[25] Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 2, p. 70.

[26] Farrar, as quoted by W. J. McGarvey, op. cit., p. 226.

[27] E. H. Plumptre, op. cit., p. 73.

[28] Funk and Wagnalls New Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, p. 149.

[29] E. H. Plumptre, op. cit., p. 73.

[30] Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 2, p. 149.