Acts 13:4

Acts 13:4. Departed. It was the first attempt of the two missionary apostles, and no doubt it was an anxious question with them whither they should first bend their steps, into which of the isles of the Gentiles they should first bear the message of the Redeemer. Cyprus was chosen, for it was the fatherland of Barnabas, who looked for at least a kindly reception and a welcome among his connections and family; at all events, they would not be quite friendless, these two solitary men, at the first stage of their dangerous mission journey.

Unto Seleucia. This was the port of Antioch, some fifteen miles from the city; it was built and strongly fortified by Seleucus Nicator about 345 years before this time. This sovereign is said to have built sixteen Antiochs and nine Seleucias. This city and harbour, to distinguish it, was called ‘Seleucia on the sea.' It was from this port of the luxurious and wicked Antioch that used to sail year by year, to Rome and Italy, that swarm of miserable and degraded beings Juvenal tells us of, when he writes of the corruption of Rome, and how much of it was due to Syria and its fatal influences (Sat. iii. 62).

From thence they sailed to Cyprus. The beautiful island was only a few hours' sail from Seleucia, being distant about forty-eight miles from the Syrian coast. Cyprus is 130 miles long, and in one part of the island 50 miles in breadth. It was famous for its corn and oil and fruits. Its history has been a chequered one. Successively Persia, Egypt, and Rome have been its masters; the wave of Saracen conquest reached it in the ninth century; the Crusaders restored it to Christendom in the thirteenth century, and it subsequently became part of the territories of Venice. The Ottoman Turks conquered it in the sixteenth century, since which period it has formed part of their dominions. At the lime of the journey of Paul and Barnabas, Jews, it is said, constituted one-half of the population; this was no doubt one of the reasons which weighed with the missionary apostles when they chose it as the first scene of their labours (see also notes on Acts 11:19-20).