Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 11:19

"They therefore that were scattered abroad upon the tribulation that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia, and Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the word to none save only to Jews." — Acts 11:19 (ASV)

Luke opens his account of the Gospel’s proclamation at Antioch of Syria with the same words with which he began the story of the mission to Samaria in 8:4 —a fact that suggests he wants to reach behind his accounts of Peter’s ministries at Lydda, Joppa, and Caesarea and start a new strand of history that began with the death of Stephen. From such an opening we should probably understand that the Hellenistic Christians’ outreach to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch was (1) logically parallel to that in Samaria, rather than a continuation of Peter’s outreach at Lydda, Joppa, and Caesarea, and (2) chronologically parallel, at least in its early stages, to the accounts in 8:4–11:18. Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch had large Jewish populations; and Syria, like Babylonia, was often considered an integral part of the Jewish homeland because of the many scrupulous Jews living there. Thus since this mission to the north was carried on within areas roughly considered to be Jewish terrain, was mounted by Hellenistic Jewish believers in Jesus, and was directed, at least at first, “only to Jews,” Luke presents it here as still being part of the Christian witness to the Jewish world, even though the account speaks of a time when the categories “Jew” and “Gentile” were beginning to break down.