Acts 13:5

Σαλαμῖνι : the nearest place to Seleucia on the eastern coast of Cyprus. A few hours' sail in favourable weather would bring the traveller to a harbour convenient and capacious. The Jewish colony must have been considerable since mention is made of synagogues. κατήγγελλον : “they began to proclaim” … ἐν ταῖς συν., it was St. Paul's habitual custom to go to the synagogues first, cf. Acts 9:20; Acts 14:1, etc. Ἰωάννην : the marked silence about him previously seems to emphasise the fact that he was not selected by the Holy Ghost in the same solemn way as Barnabas and Saul. ὑπηρέτην, cf. Luke 4:20, and many writers give it here a kind of official sense (although the word may be used of any kind of service), “velut ad baptizandum,” cf. Acts 10:48 (1 Corinthians 1:14), Blass; so Alford, Felten, Overbeck, Weiss. But the word may express the fact that John Mark was able to set the Apostles more free for their work of evangelising.