Acts 11:20

Some Jews from Cyprus, Barnabas’ homeland not far from Antioch, and Cyrene, in North Africa (cf. Acts 2:10; Acts 6:9; Acts 13:1), visited Antioch (cf. Acts 13:1). Antioch was at this time the third largest city in the Roman world, after Rome and Alexandria. [Note: Josephus, The Wars . . ., 3:2:4.] These Jews may have travelled there on business. Antioch was about 15 miles inland from the Mediterranean Sea on the Orontes River and 300 miles north of Jerusalem. It was the capital of the Roman province of Syro-Cilicia, north of Phoenicia, and it was one of the most strategic population centers of its day. It contained between 500,000 and 800,000 inhabitants about one-seventh of whom were Jews. [Note: Longenecker, p. 399; Neil, p. 143.] Many Gentile proselytes to Judaism lived there. [Note: Josephus, The Wars . . ., 7:3:3.] Antioch was also notorious as a haven for pleasure-seekers. [Note: Longenecker, p. 399; Barclay, pp. 93-94. See Rackham, p. 165, for a background sketch of this city.]

"The Roman satirist, Juvenal, complained, ’The sewage of the Syrian Orontes has for long been discharged into the Tiber.’ By this he meant that Antioch was so corrupt it was impacting Rome, more than 1,300 miles away." [Note: Toussaint, "Acts," p. 383.]

"It seems incredible but nonetheless it is true that it was in a city like that that Christianity took the great stride forward to becoming the religion of the world. We have only to think of that to discover there is no such thing as a hopeless situation." [Note: Barclay, p. 94.]

"In Christian history, apart from Jerusalem, no other city of the Roman Empire played as large a part in the early life and fortunes of the church as Antioch of Syria." [Note: Longenecker, p. 399.]

Some of the Hellenistic Jews also began sharing the gospel with Gentiles. This verse documents another significant advance in the mission of the church: for the first time Luke recorded Jews aggressively evangelizing non-Jews. The Ethiopian eunuch and Cornelius, who were both Gentiles, had taken the initiative in reaching out to Jews and had obtained salvation. Now believing Jews were taking the initiative in reaching out to Gentiles with the gospel.

The Antiochian evangelists preached "the Lord Jesus." For Gentiles "Christ" (Messiah) would not have been as significant a title as "Lord" (sovereign, savior, and deity). Many pagan Gentiles in the Roman Empire regarded Caesar as Lord.