John Gill Commentary Acts 17

Now when they had passed through Amphipolls A city of Macedonia, where it is placed by Pliny ^F17 ; according to Ptolomy {r}, it was in that part of Macedonia, which is called Edonis, and was near Philippi, and lay in the way from thence to Thessalonica; Harpocratian ^F19 says, it was a city of Thrace, formerly called "the Nine Ways"; it was upon the borders of Thrace, and had its name Amphipolis from the river Strymon running on both sides of it, making it a peninsula; it was also called Crademna, and Anadraemum; it is now in the hands of the Turks, and by them called Empoli; this city was originally built by Cimon the Athenian, into which he sent ten thousand Athenians for a colony, as the writer of his life reports ^F20 . The apostle only passed through this place; it does not appear that he at all preached in it, or at any other time, nor do we read of it in ecclesiastical history, nor of the following place:

and Apollonia ; this is also placed by Pliny ^F21 in Macedonia, and is said by him to have been formerly a colony of the Corinthians, and about seven miles from the sea; and by Ptolomy ^F23 , in that part of Macedonia called Mygdonia, and with him its name is Apollonia of Mygdonia; it was situated by the river Echedorus, and was famous for Augustus Caesar's learning Greek here, and is now called Ceres:

there was another of this name in the region of Pentapolis, and was one of the five ^F24 cities in it; and another in Palestine mentioned by Pliny ^F25 , along with Caesarea; and by Josephus ^F26 , with Joppa, Jamnia, Azotus, but this was near Thessalonica; it is said to be about twenty miles from it: here also the apostle did not stay to preach the Gospel, nor is there any mention made of it elsewhere in the Acts of the Apostles, and yet Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, is said to be bishop of Apollonia; (See Gill on Luke 10:1), but whether the same place with this, or whether this is fact, is not certain;

they came to Thessalonica ; a free city of Macedonia ^F1 ; it was formerly called Halis ^F2 , and sometimes Therme; it had its name of Thessalonica from the victory which Philip king of Macedon obtained over the Thessalians; and not from his daughter Thessalonica, the wife of Cassander, who also had her name from the same victory: in this place a sedition being raised, and some magistrates killed, Theodosius the Roman emperor suffered seven thousand men to be slain.

And when he came to Milain, Ambrose bishop of that place having heard of it, would not suffer him to enter into the church and receive the Lord's supper, until he repented of his sin, and made public confession of it ^F3 . Thessalonica has been since the head of a new kingdom erected by Boniface marquis of Montferrat; it was for some time in the hands of the Venetians, but was taken from them by Amurath emperor of the Turks ^F4 . The Italians call it now Saloniki; it has been since inhabited by Christians, Turks, and Jews, and chiefly by the latter, their number, according to their own account, is fourteen thousand, and their synagogues fourscore. There always were many Jews in this place, and so there were when the apostle was here, for it follows;

where was a synagogue of the Jews ; it seems as if there was none, neither in Philippi, nor in Amphipolis, nor in Apollonia: why these two last places should be passed through by the apostle, without making any stay at them, cannot be said; it is very likely he had, as in some other instances before, some particular directions from the Spirit of God, there being none of the chosen vessels of salvation to be called there, at least, at this time, when there were many at Thessalonica.

FOOTNOTES:

• F17: Nat. Hist. l. 4. c. 10.
• F19: Lexic. Decem. Orat. p. 20, 104. Vid. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 8.
• F20: Cornelius Nepos in Vita Cimon. c. 2.
• F21: Nat. Hist. l. 3. c. 23.
• F23: Geograph. l. 8. c. 13. Vid. Plin. l. 4. c. 10.
• F24: Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 5.
• F25: Ib. c. 13.
• F26: Antiqu. l. 13. c. 15. sect. 4. & de Bello Jud. l. 1. c. 8, sect. 3.
• F1: Plin. l. 4. c. 10.
• F2: Ptolom. l. 3. c. 13.
• F3: Magdeburg. Hist. Eccles. cent. 4. c. 3. p. 82.
• F4: Petav. Rationar. Temp. par. 1. p. 462, 475.

And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them
To the Jews in their synagogue; for though the Jews had put away the Gospel from them, and the apostle had turned to the Gentiles; yet he still retained a great affection for his countrymen the Jews, and as often as he had opportunity, attended their synagogues, in order to preach the Gospel to them;

and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures :
that is, out of the Old Testament, concerning the Messiah, the characters of him, the work that he was to do, and how he was to suffer and die for the sins of men; and this he did three weeks running, going to their synagogue every sabbath day, when and where the Jews met for worship; and made use of books, which they allowed of, and of arguments they could not disprove.

Opening
That is, the Scriptures of the Old Testament, explaining and expounding them, giving the true sense of them; so this word is frequently used in Jewish writings ^F5, as that such a Rabbi (xtp) , "opened", such a Scripture:

and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again
from the dead ;
he set this matter in a clear light, and made it plain and manifest, from the writings of the Old Testament, that there was a necessity of the Messiah's suffering and rising from the dead; or otherwise these Scriptures would not have been fulfilled, which have said that so it must be. For these things were not only necessary on account of God's decrees, and the covenant transactions the Son of God entered into, and on the account of the salvation of his people; but because of the types, promises, and prophecies of the Old Testament.

The Scriptures which the apostle opened and set before them, and reasoned upon, showing the necessity of these things, very likely were such as these, (Genesis 3:15) (Psalms 22:1–31) (Isaiah 53:1–12) (Daniel 9:1–27) (Psalms 16:10) (Hosea 6:2) with many others:

and that this Jesus whom I preach to you is Christ ;
he showed that all the things which were spoken of Christ, or the Messiah, in those Scriptures, were fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth, who was the subject matter, the sum and substance of his ministry; and therefore he must be the Messiah, and the only Saviour and Redeemer of lost sinners.

FOOTNOTES:

• F5: Zohar passim.

And some of them believed
That is, some of the Jews, power went along with the word, and faith came by it, and they believed that Jesus of Nazareth was the true Messiah, and that what the apostle preached concerning him was the truth; and this they received in the love of it, and cordially embraced it, and made a profession of it:

and consorted with Paul and Silas ;
associated with them, and privately conversed with them, as well as publicly attended their ministry; for when souls are converted, they love to be in company with believers, and especially with the ministers of the Gospel, to hear their discourses, and learn from them the doctrines of grace:

and of the devout Greeks a great multitude ;
these were Gentiles who were proselytes to the Jewish religion; and these in greater numbers believed, and joined themselves to the apostles, and became followers of them, than there were of the Jews, who were the most averse to the Gospel, and were more hardened, and incredulous:

and of the chief women not a few ;
some of the wives of the principal men of the city were become proselytes to the Jews, and these attending synagogue worship, and hearing the discourses of Paul from time to time, were convinced and converted, and professed faith in Christ Jesus; and these converts laid the foundation of a Gospel church in Thessalonica, of which church Silvanus is said to be the first bishop; (See Gill on Luke 10:1).

In the "second" century there were martyrs for Christ here; and to the inhabitants of this place, Antonintus Pius the emperor wrote in behalf of the Christians there, to give them no disturbance ^F6 :

In the "third" century there was a church here; Tertullian ^F7 makes mention of it:

In the "fourth" century ^F8 Theodosius the emperor was baptized at Thessalonica, by Acholius bishop of that place. Acholius first asked him what faith he professed. To this he replied, that he embraced and professed that faith which the churches in Illyricum, who were not yet infected with the Arian heresy, held – namely, the same which was of old delivered by the apostles, and afterwards confirmed at the synod at Nice. In this century Ireminus, Paulinus, and Alexander, were bishops of Thessalonica:

In the "fifth" century it was a metropolitan of Macedonia, and Anysius was bishop of it, and so were Rufus and Anastasius:

And that there was a church here in the "sixth" century is manifest from this: their bishops, for fear of the emperor Anastasius, agreed with Timothy bishop of Constantinople, whom the council at Chalcedon had anathematized. In this age Pope Gregory, among others, wrote to Eusebius bishop of Thessalonica, that he would not receive any of a military habit into monasteries within three years:

In the "seventh" century a bishop of this place assisted at the sixth council at Constantinople; and in the same age it was the seat of an archbishop:

In the "eighth" century there was one Thomas bishop of this place, and also Theophilus, who was present at the Nicene synod; in the ninth century a bishop of Thessalonica was beaten with two hundred stripes, for being against image worship.

FOOTNOTES:

• F6: Euseb. Eccles. Hist. l. 4. c. 26.
• F7: De Praescript. Heret. c. 36.
• F8: Magdeburg. Hist. Eccl. cent. 4. c. 3. p. 82. & c. 10. p. 659. cent. 5. c. 2. p. 6. c. 7. p. 418. cent. 6. c. 2. p. 7. cent. 7. c. 2. p. 5. c. 7. p. 115. cent. 8. c. 2. p. 7. cent. 9. c. 3. p. 15.

But the Jews which believed not
The Alexandrian copy, the Vulgate Latin, and Syriac versions leave out the words, "which believed not"; but whether this character is expressed or not, it is certain that the unbelieving Jews are here intended:

moved with envy ;
at the success of the apostles, many of their own people and of their proselytes, and some of the better sort being converted by them: or "with zeal"; for what they called the glory of God, but it was not according to knowledge; it was a blind and ignorant zeal, a zeal for the rites and ceremonies of the law of Moses, and for the traditions of the elders:

took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort ;
or of the market folks, who sat and sold things in the market, and were generally of the meaner and vulgar sort, as the word may signify; or who stood idle in the market place, squandering away their time in an idle manner, not caring to work, and so were fit persons, and who could easily be gathered together, for such service as the unbelieving Jews employed them in; or they were a sort of officers and servants, that attended courts of judicature, and cited persons thither, and assisted in the business done there, and who were commonly men of profligate and abandoned lives:

and gathered a company, and set all the city in an uproar ;
they raised a mob, and made a clamour, which brought people out of their houses to inquire what was the matter, and so gave great disturbance and uneasiness to the inhabitants:

and assaulted the house of Jason :
who by what follows appears to have been a disciple of Christ, a believer in him, and the host of the apostle and his companions, who being an inhabitant of Thessalonica, at least having a dwelling house there, received them into it. This Jason is said to be one of the seventy disciples, and afterwards bishop of Tarsus, but this is not certain; nor whether he was a Jew or a Greek, very probably the former: we read of Jason the brother of Onias the high priest, a Jew,

``But after the death of Seleucus, when Antiochus, called Epiphanes, took the kingdom, Jason the brother of Onias laboured underhand to be high priest,''

whose name was Jesus, the same with Joshua, but as Josephus ^F9 says, he called himself Jason; and so this man's Hebrew name might be Jesus or Joshua, and his Greek name Jason; and very likely he was a believer in Christ before the apostle came to Thessalonica, and it may be is the same who is spoken of in (Romans 16:21) . (See Gill on Romans 16:21). Some of the ancients ^F11 make mention of a disputation between Jason, a Christian Hebrew, and Papiscus, an Alexandrian Jew, but there is no reason to believe that he is the Jason here spoken of:

and sought to bring them out to the people ;
they expected to have found Paul and Silas in Jason's house, where they lodged, and their intention was to have dragged them out and exposed them to popular fury, to be beaten or stoned by the people; and so the Arabic version reads, "requiring those two apostles, that they might set them before the people"; or put them into the hands of the mob, which they had gathered, to do as they would with them.

FOOTNOTES:

• F9: Antiqu. l. 12. c. 5. sect. 1.
• F11: Origen. contr. celsum, 1. 4. p. 199. Cyprian. opera, p. 562. & Hieron. Quaest. in Gen. fol. 65. E. Tom. III.