Acts 13:1

Acts 13:1. Beginning of Saul's first Missionary journey. He visits Cyprus

1. Now there were in the church that was at Antioch Rather, "Now there were at Antioch in the church that was there."

We now come to the history of those three great journeys which the Apostle of the Gentiles undertook in his special work. It is fitting that the point of departure should be Antioch, the city in which Gentiles had first in large numbers been joined to the Church, and where as yet there had risen no difficulty about the way in which they were received.

prophets and teachers Cp. Acts 2:17. The prophecy of Joel was now to receive a wider fulfilment.

Simeon that was called Niger The first name points out the man as of Jewish origin, and the second is a Latin adjective = black, which may have been assumed, or given to him, as a name from his dark complexion. Jews were, and are still, in the habit of having another name beside their national one, for use when they mixed among foreign nations.

Lucius of Cyrene This name is Latin, though his birthplace or home may indicate that he was one of the Jews who abounded in Cyrene and the other parts of the North of Africa. Perhaps it is he who is mentioned in Romans 16:21.

Manaen i.e. Menahem. This name is Jewish, and is found in Josephus (Antiq. xv. 10. 5) as the name of an Essene who foretold that Herod the Great would become king. It may well be that the name became, when the prophecy had received its fulfilment, a favourite one among those who were attached to or favoured the rulers of the Herodian family.

which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch Rather, " foster-brother of Herod, &c." The Vulgate gives "collactaneus." Herod the Tetrarch (Antipas) had a brother Archelaus by the same mother. Manaen would hardly be said to have "been brought up with" one brother and not with the other.

The various connections and nationalities of the men who are here. named, are worthy to be noticed when we reflect on the work which was to have its beginning from Antioch. One a Cypriote, another a Cyrenian, another a Jew, but from his double name accustomed to mix among non-Jews, one a connection of the Idumean house of Herod, and Saul the heaven-appointed Apostle of the Gentiles, the list may be deemed in some sort typical of "all the world," into which the Gospel was now to go forth.