Acts 16

Acts 16:1

Now when Paul and his company. Henceforth Paul is the leader. From Paphos they sailed northward to Perga on the Asiatic mainland, an important city of Pamphylia. John departing. Why he left we do not know, but we know Paul did not approve of it. See Acts 15:39. Perhaps he feared the dangers before him.

Acts 16:2

They came to Antioch. They seemed to have passed at once from Perga to the Antioch that lay in the interior. It must be distinguished from the Antioch of Syria before named (Acts 11:22). There were several Antiochs, this one being the capital of the province of Pisidia. Vast ruins still mark its site. Went into the synagogue. In every Gentile city where there was a Jewish synagogue the gospel was preached first to the Jews by the apostolic preachers. The course of Paul and Barnabas here is an example of their custom.

Acts 16:3

After the reading. In the synagogue worship the reading of the Scriptures made a very important part. As copies of the Scriptures were very rare, this reading was necessary to convey scriptural instruction to the people. They were read in course, two lessons each Sabbath, one from the five books of Moses, the other from the other books of the Old Testament. Plummptree insists that we are enabled by two curious coincidences to fix, with very little uncertainty, the precise Sabbath on which the mission work at Antioch opened. The opening words of Paul refer to Deuteronomy 1:31, and this was the lesson for the forty-fourth Sabbath in the year, which fell in July or August; the corresponding second lesson from the prophets being Isaiah 1:1-27, from which he also quotes. He starts, as was natural, from what the people had just been listening to, as the text of his discourse. The rulers of the synagogue. The synagogue was governed by a board of elders.

Acts 16:4

Then Paul stood up. Invited to speak by the usual courtesy extended to visiting brethren, he arose, according to the Greek custom. In Judea speakers sat. Among the Greeks they stood. The address that follows, the first reported address of Paul, is worthy of special study especially as an example of the character of his preaching in the synagogue. It begins with a short recapitulation of the glorious history of Israel, a theme always apt to secure the favor of a Jewish audience, and when he has ascended to David, the hero king and the pride of every Jew, he passes from him to the promised Son of David, and thus preaches Christ.

Had he begun at once with the latter, the great object of his discourse, he would have aroused prejudice and perhaps closed their ears. It will be observed here before a Jewish audience, as well as at Athens before a heathen audience, he first secured a common ground with his hearers, and upon it founded his argument for the gospel. Men of Israel, and ye that fear God. There were two classes present, Jews and “the devout Greeks”. The latter had given up heathenism, had learned to “fear God”, and were anxious to learn more about him; hence were wont to attend the synagogue.

Acts 16:7

Destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan. For their names, see Deuteronomy 7:1.

Acts 16:8

After that he gave [unto them] judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years. This statement seems to conflict with 1 Kings 6:1, which assigns 480 years to the period between the coming out of Egypt and the fourth year of the reign of Solomon. This would allow only about 300 years to the period of the Judges. David’s reign was forty years, Saul’s the same, the period in the wilderness the same, Joshua ruled about twenty-five years, add four years for Solomon, and we have 149 years, which, taken from 480 years, leaves 331 for the time of Judges and Samuel. The apparent discrepancy between Paul and the writer of 1 Kings is removed, however, by the Revised Version, based on the oldest and best Greek text. It changes the place where “and after that” occurs, so that the passage reads, “When he had destroyed the seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land for an inheritance, for about four hundred and fifty years: and after these things (i.e., after the allotment of the land and all before mentioned) he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet”. The 450 years, in my judgment, includes the period from the departure out of Egypt to the reign of David, the two greatest eras in Jewish history before Christ.

Acts 16:9

By the space of forty years. The Old Testament does not give the length of Saul’s reign, but Josephus says Saul reigned for forty years.

Acts 16:10

He raised up unto them David. The Lord called the young shepherd to the throne. A man after mine own heart. The language does not occur in this form in the Old Testament, but is implied in 1 Samuel 13:14. This does not imply that David was perfect, but that he sought to do the Lord’s will, instead of showing stubborn disobedience, like Saul. He exhibited nobility of purpose, sought the welfare of the people, and aimed at a purer life.

Acts 16:11

Of this man’s seed . . . according to [his] promise. For the promise of a Savior of David’s seed, see 2 Samuel 7:12 Isaiah 11:1 Zechariah 3:8 6:12.

Acts 16:12

John had first preached. John, who preached before the Savior’s coming, is named because he was well known to the Jews, and most of them regarded him a prophet. See Matthew 3:1-12 John 5:32-35.

Acts 16:14

Men [and] brethren. Having declared the coming of the Savior of the seed of David, he now shows to whom his salvation was offered, not only to “children of the stock of Abraham”, but to “whosoever among you feareth God”, Gentiles as well as Jews.

Acts 16:15

For they that dwell at Jerusalem, etc. Paul now recapitulates the facts of the Gospel, viz: (1) Christ rejected by the rulers; (2) the Scriptures that they read every Sabbath fulfilled by condemning him; (3) the demand upon Pilate to slay him, when he had declared there was no cause of death; (4) the Scriptures fulfilled in his death; (5) the abundantly attested resurrection; (6) he declares that the promise made the fathers was now fulfilled to their children. See, for example, Genesis 12:3 22:18.

Acts 16:21

Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. See Psalms 2:7. Paul gives the thought in Romans 1:4: “He was declared to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead”.

Acts 16:22

No more to return to corruption. Never more to endure death. I will give you the sure mercies of David. The mercies promised to David, one of which was a descendant whose throne should be everlasting. See Isaiah 55:3, and compare 2 Samuel 7:10.

Acts 16:23

Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost. See notes on Acts 2:27-31.

Acts 16:26

Through this man. The risen Savior. The forgiveness of sins. Only through Christ does God offer pardon. See Acts 4:12 Romans 3:25 8:1-4.

Acts 16:27

By him all that believe are justified. If you believe on Jesus as the Messiah and accept him in faith, he will do for you what the law could never do, justify you before God. The law could not bring peace.

Acts 16:28

Beware therefore. The addresses closes with a warning of the danger of rejecting Christ.

Acts 16:29

Behold . . . and wonder. Freely quoted from Habakkuk 1:5. His words referred primarily to the invasion of the Chaldeans, but reached beyond to a greater punishment for the greater sin of rejecting Christ. Only a few years after Paul quoted this at Antioch “the despisers wondered and perished” in the awful calamity of the Jewish nation, brought on by refusing the Savior.

Acts 16:30

When the Jews were gone out. The Revised Version gives a different sense: “As they (Paul and Barnabas) went out”, they were asked to speak again the next Sabbath.

Acts 16:31

When the congregation was broken up. When the services were over, many, both Jews and proselytes, followed them to learn more, and possibly yielded to Christ. Persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. By trusting in and obeying him. This could not be done if they refused Christ when he was preached to them.

Acts 16:32

The next sabbath came almost the whole city. The sermon of the Sabbath before, the labors of Paul and Barnabas during the week, and the talk aroused, filled the city with intense interest.

Acts 16:33

When the Jews saw the multitudes. The vast concourse, in large part Gentiles, anxious to hear of the “ensign to whom the Gentiles shall seek” (Isaiah 11:10), aroused Jewish bigotry. Nothing ever stirred the Jews of either Palestine or of Gentile countries to such hatred as the declaration that Christ is a Savior of the Gentiles as well as the Jews. See Acts 22:21. Contradicting and blaspheming. Contradicting the application of the prophecies to Jesus, which Paul made in his address; blaspheming by denying and speaking contemptuously of the Son of God.

Acts 16:34

It was necessary. The preachers met this attitude of the Jews by boldly stating their purpose to turn from them to the Gentiles. It was God’s will that the Gospel should first be offered to the chosen people. See Acts 1:8 3:26 Romans 1:16. While the chosen people were to have the first opportunity, yet “God had put no difference” (Acts 15:9) between Jew and Greek. As soon as the Jewish audiences manifested a self-willed, contradictory spirit, instead of engaging in idle disputation, the apostles were wont to turn to the Gentiles.

Acts 16:35

For so hath the Lord commanded. It was not only the Lord’s will that they should preach first to the Jews, but that they should then turn to the Gentiles. So the Lord had shown in their own prophets. Isaiah 49:6 is quoted, where Christ is declared to be “a light of the Gentiles”, and appointed “for salvation to the ends of the earth”; a world Savior.

Acts 16:36

When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad. Glad, not only that the gospel was offered to them, but that in sacred writings of the Jews, it was declared that the Gentiles should have the gospel. They, too, had always been embraced in God’s plan of redemption. As many as were ordained to eternal life. This passage has been used as a proof text for the extreme Calvinism that makes God arbitrarily select some for salvation and reject others, Wesley, on the other hand, says: ``The original word rendered “ordained” is not once used in the Scriptures to express eternal predestination of any kind. The sense if that those, and those only, now ordained, now believed. Not that God rejected the rest; it was his will that they also should be saved, but they thrust salvation from them. Nor were those who then believed “forced” to believe. Grace was offered to them and they did not thrust it away.’’ It is God’s ordination that those of humble, teachable, honest hearts, seeking the truth and life, shall come to life when it is offered, and such accepted the gospel on this occasion. Believed. As Dean Howson says: “Made a public profession of their faith”.

Acts 16:38

The Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women. Gentile women of high rank (“devout women of honourable estate”, Revised Version), who had learned to revere the One God (see PNT Acts 10:2). Strabo, a Roman writer, declares that the women in this part of Asia exerted a powerful influence. And the chief men. Probably the husbands of these women. Raised persecution. There was probably no appeal to the magistrates, who were Romans (Antioch of Pisidia was a Roman colony), but they excited tumultuous opposition. The missionaries retired for the time, because their work was interrupted. They were not exiled, for they returned afterward (Acts 14:21).

Acts 16:39

They shook off the dust of their feet. See PNT Matthew 10:14. The Master’s command was obeyed. Iconium. In Lycaonia, about fifty miles east of the Pisidian Antioch. At a later period, Iconium became celebrated as the capital of the Turks, before Constantinople fell into their hands. The Turkish sultan was long called the Sultan of Iconium. It was only after the Turkish conquests in Europe that the capital was moved to Constantinople. It is still a place of 30,000 inhabitants, and is called Konieh.

Acts 16:40

The disciples were filled with joy. Those of Antioch. Even if Paul and Barnabas were driven away, they had left them a glorious inheritance.