Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 13:16

"And Paul stood up, and beckoning with the hand said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, hearken:" — Acts 13:16 (ASV)

Beckoning with his hand.—The gesture was more that of one who waves his hand to command silence and attention, rather than what we commonly describe as beckoning .

This graphic touch of description, along with the full report of the speech, seems to indicate that the account originally came from someone who was present. A similar touch is found again in connection with St. Paul in Acts 21:40. It was probably, like the “fixing of the eye” mentioned in Acts 13:9, just one of the personal characteristics on which the painter-historian loved to dwell.

We may assume, as almost certain, that throughout this journey St. Paul used Greek as the common medium of communication. The verbal coincidences in Acts 13:17-18, already referred to in the Note on Acts 13:15, make this absolutely certain in this instance.

Men of Israel, and you that fear God.—The latter phrase denotes, as in Acts 10:2 and Acts 10:22, those who, though in the synagogue, were of Gentile origin and had not become proselytes in the full sense of the term, but were known as the so-called “proselytes of the gate.”

Give audience.—Literally, hear you. The English phrase can be noted as an example of the use of the word “audience,” which has since been applied to the people who hear, in its original abstract sense of the act of hearing.