John Gill Commentary Acts 13

Now there were in the church that was at Antioch
This was Antioch in Syria, where was a Gospel church, and where the disciples were first called Christians; from where Saul and Barnabas had been sent to Jerusalem, with a supply for the poor saints there, in a time of famine, and from where they were now returned: and here were

certain prophets and teachers ;
who were both prophets and teachers, though these are sometimes distinguished; who had both a gift of foretelling things to come, as Agabus and others, and of explaining the prophecies of the Old Testament, and of teaching the people evangelic truths; these, at least some of them, came from Jerusalem here, (Acts 11:27) .

As Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger ;
the former of these was a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, who sold his land and brought the money to the apostles; and who was first sent here by the church at Jerusalem, upon hearing that many in this place believed, and turned to the Lord, (Acts 4:36Acts 4:37) (11:22) but of the latter no mention is made elsewhere; by his first name he appears to be a Jew, who by the Romans was called Niger; very likely from the blackness of his complexion, for that word signifies "black": and so the Ethiopic version interprets it:

and Lucius of Cyrene ;
who very probably was one of the synagogue of the Cyrenians, and seems manifestly to be one of the men of Cyrene, that went abroad upon the persecution raised at the death of Stephen, (Acts 6:9) (Acts 11:19Acts 11:20) he is said to be bishop of Cyrene; some take him to be the same Lucius mentioned in (Romans 16:21) and others think he is the same with Luke the Evangelist:

and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch: or his foster brother. The Syriac version calls him Manail, and one of Stephens's copies Manael, and the Ethiopic version Manache, and renders what is said of him, "the son of king Herod's nurse"; which accounts for their being brought up, nourished, and suckled together: the name seems to be the same with Menachem, or Menahem, a name frequent with the Jews; there was one of this name, who was very intimate with Herod the great, and was in his service, though before he was vice president of the sanhedrim:

the account that is given of him is this ^F26 :

``Hillell and Shammai received from them (i.e. from Shemaia and Abtalion, who were presidents before them), but at first there were Hillell and Menahem, but Menahem went out, (dlmh tdwbel) , "into the service of the king", with fourscore men clad in gold---Menahem was a very wise man, and a sort of a prophet, who delivered out many prophecies; and he told Herod when he was little, that he should reign; and after he was king, he sent for him, and he told him again, that he should reign more than thirty years, and he reigned thirty seven years, and he gave him great riches.''

Of this Menahem, and of his going into the king's service, mention is made elsewhere ^F1 : now though this Menahem cannot be the same with Manaen here, yet this Manaen, as Dr. Lightfoot conjectures, might be the son of him, and called after his name; who might be brought up with the son of Herod the great, here called the tetrarch; and who was Herod Antipas, the same that beheaded John the Baptist: and Saul; who afterwards was called Paul.

FOOTNOTES:

• F26: Juchasin, fol. 19. 1.
• F1: Misn. Chagiga, c. 2. sect. 2. & Maimon. & Bartenora in ib. & T. Bab. Chagiga, fol. 16. 2.

As they ministered to the Lord
That is, the five prophets and teachers before mentioned; and whose ministry lay in preaching the Gospel, teaching the people the doctrines of it, and expounding prophecies, and also in prayer; to which latter the Syriac version restrains their ministry, rendering it, "as they prayed to God"; but the phrase seems to be more extensive: "and fasted"; which the Jews were much used to, and the believing ones had not yet left it off; their custom was to fast on Mondays and Thursdays: (See Gill on Luke 18:12). Whether it was on one of those days, that these men were ministering and fasting, is not certain; but this we may be sure of, it was not on the Jewish sabbath, for on that day they never fasted; very likely that this was a fast appointed and fixed among themselves, on some particular occasion; it may be on account of the famine, which was at this time, (Acts 11:28) .

The Holy Ghost said ;
either with an articulate voice, or by an internal impulse, upon the minds of three of the prophets:

separate me Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have
called them ;
the work which the Holy Ghost had appointed, and called them to before this, was to go and preach the Gospel among the Gentiles, distinct from the Jews, of which we read in the latter part of this chapter; and now he would have them be separated from their brethren, as Aaron and his sons were from theirs, and be sent forth from hence directly, upon that work: this shows the Spirit to be a person, since speaking and commanding in an authoritative way, and calling to a work, are ascribed unto him; and that he is a divine person, and truly God, and equal with God, since calling to a sacred office is attributed to him; and a separation to it is ordered for himself, for his service, honour, and glory; he does not say separate them to the Lord, or to God, but to me.

And when they had fasted and prayed
Not when they had done fasting and praying, at the time the Holy Ghost made an impulse on their minds, to separate two of their brethren to a work they were appointed to; but at another time, which was fixed for that purpose; when they fasted and prayed, not for direction, who they were to set apart and send; for the persons were before pointed out to them, but that they might have every needful gift and qualification for the work, and be succeeded in it:

and laid their hands on them ;
not as ordaining them, for this was not an ordination; the Apostle Paul particularly was not ordained an apostle by man, but by Jesus Christ; who personally appeared to him, and made and ordained him his minister and apostle; and much less by men inferior to himself, as Simeon, Lucius, and Manaen were; but this was a gesture and ceremony used among the Jews, when they wished any blessing or happiness to attend any persons; and so these prophets, when they separated Paul and Barnabas from their company, and were parting from them, put their hands on them, and wished them all prosperity and success: could this be thought to be an ordination, as it cannot, since both of them were stated and authorized ministers of the word, and one of them an apostle long before this; there might seem some likeness between it and the Jewish ordination of elders, which was done by three ^F2 , as here were Simeon, Lucius, and Manaen; but then this was not done without the land of Israel, as here, nor by imposition of hands ^F3 : now when they had thus prayed for them, and wished them well, they sent them away; to do the work they were called unto; not in an authoritative way, but in a friendly manner they parted with them, and bid them farewell.

FOOTNOTES:

• F2: Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 1. sect. 3.
• F3: Maimon. & Bartenora in ib. & Maimon. Hilchot Sanhedrin, c. 4. sect. 2, 3.

So they being sent forth of the Holy Ghost
This is said, lest it should be thought they were sent by men; it was the Holy Ghost that moved the prophets at Antioch to separate them from them, and to send them away; and who inclined their minds to go, and directed them what course to steer: and accordingly they

departed to Seleucia ;
which was a city of Syria, called by Pliny, Seleucia Pieria ^F4 ; it had its name from Seleucus Nicanor, king of Egypt, who was the builder of it: it was not far from Antioch, it is said to be twenty four miles from it; it is the first city of Syria from Cilicia, and was situated at the mouth of the river Orontes; wherefore Saul and Barnabas made no stay here; and it seems that their coming hither was only in order to take shipping for the island of Cyprus; for Seleucia was upon the sea coast, as appears from:

``King Ptolemee therefore, having gotten the dominion of the cities by the sea unto Seleucia upon the sea coast, imagined wicked counsels against Alexander.'' and was the proper place to set sail from to Cyprus. So we read of Apollonius Tyaneus and his companions <sup>F5</sup> , that ``they went down to the sea by Seleucia, where having got a ship, "they sailed to Cyprus:" and so it follows here,'' and from thence they sailed to Cyprus ;
an island in the Mediterranean sea, the native country of Barnabas, (Acts 4:36) (See Gill on Acts 4:36)

FOOTNOTES:

• F4: L. 5. c. 12, 21.
• F5: Philostrat. Vita Apollon. l. 3. c. 16.

And when they were at Salamis
A chief city of Cyprus; and so Herodotus ^F6 calls it Salamis of Cyprus; and in this island it is placed by Pliny ^F7 and Ptolomy ^F8 : it was built by Teucer, the son of Telamon, after his return from the Trojan war; and so called by him, from his native country Salamine, in Greece, as is generally agreed by historians ^F9 :

it was the birth place of the famous philosopher Solon, who is from thence called Salaminius; he died in the island of Cyprus, in the eightieth year of his age; and before he died, gave orders to carry his bones to Salamis, and being reduced to ashes, to scatter them throughout the province ^F11 :

it was also claimed by the Cyprians, as the birth place of Homer, and is said ^F12 to be prophesied of that it should be; it was afterwards called Constantia, and now Famagusta, and is in the hands of the Turks; of it Jerom ^F13 thus writes:``Salamis, a city in the island of Cyprus, now called Constantia, which, in the time of the Emperor Trajan, the Jews destroyed, having killed all the inhabitants of it:'' which shows what a multitude of Jews dwelt in this island, and even in this place; hence, in this verse, mention is afterwards made of synagogues of Jews in it, where the apostles preached, and which was the reason of their coming hither.

This place, with the whole island, was taken from the Venetians by Mustapha, general to Selimus the Second, emperor of the Turks, in the year 1571, after a siege of eleven months; which, when he was possessed of, contrary to the agreement made, he put all the Christians to death; and having cut off the ears and nose of Bragadinus, the governor of it, took off his skin alive ^F14 .

Epiphanius, an ancient writer of the fourth century, famous for his books against heresies, was bishop of this place ^F15 , when it was called Constantia, from Constantins Augustus, the emperor; and before him, we read of Gelasius, bishop of this place, who was in the council of Nice; there was a church here in the fifth century; and mention is made of a presbyter of it, in the sixth century, present at the fifth council at Constantinople; and in the seventh century, a bishop of this church was in the sixth council of Constantinople; and in the Nicene synod, in the "eighth" century, John, bishop of this place, assisted ^F16 :

they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews ;
the Jews being in great numbers in these parts, to them the apostles first preached, though they were sent unto the Gentiles; and this they continued to do, till the Jews put away the Gospel, which made their way more clear and open to the Gentiles:

and they had also John to their minister :
this was John Mark, whom they brought with them from Jerusalem, (Acts 12:12Acts 12:25) who waited upon them, and provided for them the necessaries of life; for this is not to be understood of the ministry of the word, which is peculiarly ascribed to them, or of his being an assistant to them in it; nor can it be understood of his being the minister in any of the synagogues for them, to bring out the book of the law, and direct public service, where it cannot be thought he should have any such office and authority; but of his ministering in civil and secular things to the apostles, or to the poor by their orders.

FOOTNOTES:

• F6: L. 4. c. 162.
• F7: Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 31.
• F8: Geograph. l. 5. c. 14.
• F9: Vellei Patercul. Hist. l. 1. in initio, Isocratis Evagoras, p. 375. Vid. Horat. Carmin. l. 1. ode 7.
• F11: Laert. Vit. Philosoph. l. 1. p. 30, 41.
• F12: Pausanias, l. 10. p. 656.
• F13: De locis Hebraicis, fol. 96. I.
• F14: Petav. Rational. Temp. par. 1. l. 9. c. 12. p. 507.
• F15: Epitaph. Paulae, fol. 58. K & Vita Hilarion. fol 82. M.
• F16: Magdeburg. Hist. Eccles. cent. 4. c. 2. p. 5. cent. 5. c. 2. p. 6. cent. 6. c. 2. p. 5. cent. 7. c. 2. p. 4. cent. 8. c. 2. p. 6.