Acts 13:14

διελθόντες : in this journey northwards to Antioch the Apostles would probably follow the one definite route of commerce between Perga and that city; the natural and easy course would lead them to Adada, now Kara Bavlo, and the dedication there of a church to St. Paul may point to the belief that he had visited the place on his way to Antioch (Ramsay, Church in the Roman Empire, p. 21, and Zöckler, in loco, who agrees here with Ramsay's view). Although disagreeing with C. and H. in bringing the Apostles to Adada, Ramsay fully agrees with them in emphasising the dangers of the journey across the Pisidian highlands, and in referring to his travels from Perga across Taurus to Antioch and back his perils of rivers, and perils of robbers, 2 Corinthians 11:26 (see too Wendt, in loco (1899), in agreement with Ramsay, whose instances of the dangers of the way, from the notices of the inscriptions, should be consulted, u. s.). Ἀντιόχειαν τῆς Πισιδίας, see critical notes. If we adopt with R.V., etc., Ἀ. τὴν Πισιδίαν = an adjective, τὴν Πισιδικήν, “Pisidian Antioch,” or, as it was also called, Antioch towards Pisidia, or on the side of Pisidia, to distinguish it from Antioch on the Maeander, or Carian Antioch. At this period Antioch did not belong to Pisidia at all (trabo, pp. 557, 569, 577), but later the term Pisidia was widened, and so the expression “Antioch of Pisidia” came into vogue. Ptolemy, v., 4, 11, employs it and so some MSS. in the passage before us; see critical notes, and Ramsay, “Antioch in Pisidia,” in Hastings' B.D., Church in the Roman Empire, p. 25, and Wendt (1899), in loco; see further on Acts 16:6. On the death of Amyntas, B.C. 25, Antioch became part of the Roman province Galatia, and a little later, some time before 6 B.C., it was made a colonia by Augustus, with Latin rights, and as such it became an administrative and military centre in the protection of the province against the Pisidian robbers in their mountain fortresses, Ramsay, u. s. There can be no doubt that Paul would also find there a considerable Jewish population, as the Jews were trusty supporters of the Seleucid kings, and found a home in many of the cities which they founded. ἀπὸ τῆς Πέργης : Ramsay supposes that the travellers hurried on from Perga (chief town of Pamphylia on the Cestrus, and an important place of commerce) to Antioch, without any evangelisation on their way, because in Perga the Apostle had been smitten with an attack of malarial fever, which obliged him to seek the higher ground of Antioch. In Galatians 4:13 Ramsay finds a corroboration of this view, a passage in which Paul himself states that an illness occasioned his first preaching to the Churches of Galatia, i.e., of the Roman province Galatia. The suggestion has much to recommend it, see St. Paul, p. 92. McGiffert's remarks, however, should be consulted in support of the view that the illness overtook the Apostle at Antioch rather than at Perga, Apostolic Age, p. 177, and Weizsäcker, Apostolic Age, i. 275, E.T. εἰς τὴν συναγωγὴν, “to the Jew first,” was Paul's primary rule, and here amongst those φοβ. τὸν Θεόν he would find, perhaps, the best soil for his labours, cf. Acts 16:14, and also Acts 13:5; Acts 14:1; Acts 16:13; Acts 17:2; Acts 17:10; Acts 17:17; Acts 18:4; Acts 19:8. Against the doubts raised by the Tübingen School as to the historical character of the notice, see especially Wendt, 1888 and 1899 editions. It is inconceivable, as he says, that Paul, who could express himself as in Romans 1:16; Romans 9:32; Romans 10:16; Romans 11:30, should entirely disregard the Jews in his missionary efforts. The notice in Acts 16:13, from a “We-source,” of St. Paul's first. Sabbath at Philippi enables us to form a correct judgment as to his probable course in other places. τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῶν σαβ.; not necessarily the first Sabbath after their arrival; some time may have been spent previously in mission work before a critical event took place, Ramsay, St. Paul, pp. 99, 100. ἐκάθισαν : the word may mean that they sat down in the seat of the Rabbis, so J. Lightfoot, in loco, as intimating that they expected to be called upon to preach, or we may infer, Acts 13:15, that they were called upon on the present occasion because they were well known in the city as men who claimed to have a message to deliver, and the rulers of the synagogue could invite whom they would, Edersheim, Jewish Social Life, p. 281; Lumby, p. 252, “on the Jewish Manner of reading the Scriptures ”.