2. THE PREACHING TO "GREEKS"
In Acts 11:20, the best manuscripts read "spake unto the Hellenists" instead of "spake unto the Greeks." The word "Hellenist" usually means "Grecian Jew." Here, however, if this word is to be read, it must refer not to Jews, but to Gentiles; for the contrast with the preaching to Jews that is mentioned just before, is the very point of the verse. Perhaps at this point the manuscripts which read "Greeks" (that is, "Gentiles") are correct. In either case, the meaning is fixed by the context. These Jews of Cyprus and Cyrene, when they arrived at Antioch certainly began to preach regularly to Gentiles.
3. PETER'S ESCAPE FROM PRISON
In Acts 12:1-24, Luke brings the account of affairs in Jerusalem up to the time which has already been reached in the narrative about Antioch. The journey of Barnabas and Paul to Jerusalem, Acts 11:30; 12:25, supplied the connecting link. While the church at Antioch was progressing in the manner described in Acts 11:19-30, a persecution had been carried on in Jerusalem by Herod Agrippa I. The escape of Peter is narrated in an extraordinarily lifelike way. Evidently Luke was in possession of first-hand information. The vividness of the narrative is very significant. It shows that the unmistakable trustworthiness of The Acts extends even to those happenings which were most clearly miraculous. The supernatural cannot be eliminated from apostolic history.
4. ANTIOCH
Antioch on the Orontes was founded by Seleucus Nicator, the first monarch of the Seleucid dynasty, and under his successors it remained the capital of the Syrian kingdom. When that kingdom was conquered by the Romans, the political importance of Antioch did not suffer. Antioch became under the Romans not only the capital of the province Syria but also the residence of the emperors and high officials when they were in the east. It may be regarded as a sort of eastern capital of the empire.
The political importance of Antioch was no greater than its commercial importance. Situated near the northeastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea, where the Mediterranean coast is nearer to the Euphrates than at any other point, where the Orontes valley provided easy communication with the east and the Syrian gates with the west, with a magnificent artificial harbor at Seleucia, about twenty miles distant, Antioch naturally became the great meeting point for the trade of east and west. It is not surprising that Antioch was the third city of the empire—after Rome and Alexandria.
The city was built on a plain between the Orontes on the north and the precipitous slopes of Mount Silpius on the south. A great wall extended over the rugged heights of the mountain and around the city. A magnificent street led through the city from east to west. The buildings were of extraordinary magnificence. Perhaps as magnificent as the city itself was the famous Daphne, a neighboring shrine and pleasure resort, well-known for its gilded vice.
The dominant language of Antioch, from the beginning, had been Greek. The Seleucids prided themselves on the Greek culture of their court, and Roman rule introduced no essential change. Of course, along with the Greek language and Greek culture went a large admixture of eastern blood and eastern custom. Like the other great cities of the empire, Antioch was a meeting place of various peoples, a typical cosmopolitan center of a world-wide empire. The Jewish population, of course, was numerous.
Such was the seat of the apostolic missionary church. Almost lost at first in the seething life of the great city, that church was destined to outlive all the magnificence that surrounded it. A new seed had been implanted in the ancient world, and God would give the increase.