Acts 11

Moreover, when the Jews slew him and hung him on a tree, we are witnesses that God raised him up on the third day, and showed him openly’’—not to all the people—‘‘ but unto witnesses chosen of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach unto the people, that it is he which is ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. To him (also) give all the prophets witness, that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.” Thus boldly and clearly did Peter display this gospel of the grace of God, to Gentiles as well as Jews, and his word was confirmed by the miraculous effusion of the Holy Ghost, not only in its ordinary, but in its extraordinary gifts on Gentiles as well as Jews—he therefore commanded them to be baptized; and thus was the Christian church opened to all nations, and the party wall between Jews and Gentiles broken down for ever.

(Acts 11)Peter, to the council, defends his preaching to the Gentiles.—Nothing is more certain than that the infallibility of the apostles extended only to their official character, as preachers and penmen of the sacred Scriptures. Peter’s conduct, which was suspected by his brethren in this case to have been improper, was in another instance declared by Paul to have been decidedly wrong—“ He was to be blamed.” ((Galatians 2:11).) In the present instance he justified himself, however, in a manner perfectly satisfactory; and his brethren of the apostles and other disciples at Jerusalem, when they heard of the extraordinary manner in which he had been led to preach to the Gentiles, and the remarkable success which had witnessed his labours, glorified God, saying, ‘Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life!’ A circumstance f Is. 44.3.

Joel 2.28. water; but ‘ ye shall be baptized with the Holy g c.15.8,9. 17 Forasmuch then as God & gave them the in which we also, who are sinners of the Gentiles, are called upon to rejoice, and magnify the grace of God. The next chapter leads us back to the time of Stephen’s death, when the brethren that were scattered abroad preached the gospel as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and even Antioch; but to the Jews only. And some ‘“‘men of Cyprus and Cyrene,’ Greeks by birth, “spake unto the Grecians;” but whether by these Grecians we are to understand Jews who spake the Greek language, (as in (Acts 6:1),) or native Greeks, is a point much disputed. We find ourselves strongly inclined to the former, which is supported by the present Greek text; for it does not appear that Peter had yet preached to Cornelius, or, if he had, that it could be known so far off as Antioch.

They had not received any special commission to preach to Gentiles, nor (strange as it may seem) does it appear that they had given the proper interpretation to our Lord’s order of preaching to ‘all nations;’’ but seem rather to have understood it of preaching to the Jews and proselytes in “all nations” wherever they might find them scattered. The converts at Antioch were, however, so numerous, that the church at Jerusalem thought proper to send thither Barnabas to see how the cause of Christ went on: and ‘‘ when he had seen the grace of God,” that is, the effects which it produced on the lives and characters of the converts, “‘ he was glad,” and affectionately exhorted them to persevere: ‘for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.”

He was not only a pious and sincere convert, but generous and “ kindhearted” to the brethren, as we have explained his name, (see note on ch. iv. 36,) and zealously affected” always in ‘‘a good cause,” as this evidently was. It may be recollected also, that Barnabas was the person who introduced Saul to the apostles at Jerusalem, and informed them of his conversion, (ch. ix. 27:) and from that time there seems to have been a particular attachment formed between

Notes on the verses

Chap. XI. Ver. 5. A great sheet.—[Camerarius would render the word sheet a table napkin, and Daniel Heinsius, by a shepherd’s bag, or sack, in which they were accustomed to put food, platters, trenchers, and other things. It was a type of the Christian church, separated from the world; the living creatures of all kinds of which it was full, were the people of all nations included in the church; it was knit at the four corners, to show that they were gathered together from the four quarters of the globe, it descended from heaven, in the same manner as the New Jerusalem is represented in the Apocalypse, to intimate, that though the church exists in the world, it is not of the world, but of celestial origin; and the drawing back of it into heaven was designed to teach us, that as the church has its origin from heaven, so it shall return victorious thither.

In this representation, the condition of the all, that with purpose * of * heart they would soon people. 24 For he was a good man, and full t of the Holy Ghost and of faith: and " much people Jerusalem unto Antioch. them: finding, therefore, an opening for great usefulness in that city, he went to seek Saul, whose active and ardent mind he knew well adapted for such a sphere of labour; and it was possibly from his and his brethren’s perpetual and zealous urging of the doctrine of “ Christ, and him crucified,” that the disciples here first received “ the name of Christians.” This name, though probably given them first by way of reproach, met their own wishes, and fulfilled the design of God. O that this name had been alone admitted, instead of the innumerable terms since adopted, which mark one an admirer of Paul and another of Apollos—one a follower of Luther and another of Calvin, &c.; for who are all these but servants of one Master, even Christ? At this period, Luke informs us, ‘‘ came prophets from Jerusalem to Antioch, one of whom, named Agabus, signified, by the spirit”

of inspiration, the approach of famine in Judea. In consequence of this, without waiting till the distress should overwhelm them, the new converts in Antioch made a liberal subscription (or collection) for their brethren in Judea, which they sent by the hands of Barnabas and Saul, to the elders of the church at Jerusalem—those doubtless who had the management of the church’s secular concerns.