Acts 11:20

Ἕλληνας for Ἑλληνιστάς with אAD. Vulg. ‘Græcos.’

20. ἦσαν δέ τινες … Κύπριοι καὶ Κυρηναῖοι, but some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene. In whose minds, from their more cosmopolitan education, there was less scruple about mixing with Gentiles than existed among the Jews of Palestine, the home of the nation, and by consequence the stronghold of their prejudices.

ἐλάλουν πρός τοὺς Ἕλληνας, spake unto the Greeks. The N.T. uses Ἑλληνισταί to mean those Jews who had been born in some foreign land and spoke the Greek language, or else for proselytes; but Ἕλληνες, when the heathen population is spoken of. Now it is clear that it would have been no matter of remark had these men preached to Ἑλληνισταί, Greek-Jews, for of them there was a large number in the Church of Jerusalem, as we see from the events related in chap. Acts 6:1, and most probably these Grecian and Cyprian teachers were themselves Greek-Jews; but what calls for special mention by St Luke is that they, moved perhaps by some spiritual impulse, addressed their preaching in Antioch to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews. The time was ripe for such a work, and God who had prompted Peter by a vision, moved these men by His Spirit.