Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 13:12

"Then the proconsul, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord." — Acts 13:12 (ASV)

The nature of the proconsul’s response has often been debated, chiefly because the text says nothing about his being baptized when he believed. But the statement that Sergius Paulus believed can hardly be taken with any less significance than Luke’s use of the same word in 14:1; 17:34; and 19:18, where baptism is also not mentioned yet where we might well assume it was performed. The conversion of Sergius Paulus was, in fact, a turning point in Paul’s whole ministry and inaugurated a new policy in the mission to Gentiles— namely, the legitimacy of a direct approach to and full acceptance of Gentiles apart from any distinctive Jewish stance. This is what Luke clearly sets forth as the great innovative development of this first missionary journey (14:27; 15:3).

Earlier Cornelius had been converted apart from any prior commitment to Judaism, and the Jerusalem church had accepted his conversion to Christ. But the Jerusalem church never took Cornelius’s conversion as a precedent for the Christian mission and apparently preferred not to dwell on its ramifications. Paul, however, whose mandate was to Gentiles, saw in the conversion of Sergius Paulus further aspects of what a mission to Gentiles involved and was prepared to take this conversion as a precedent fraught with far-reaching implications for his ministry. It is significant that from this point on, except for 14:14; 15:12; and 15:25 (situations where Barnabas was more prominent), Luke always emphasizes Paul’s leadership by listing him first when naming the missioners.