But there were certain of them, Cyprians and Cyrenians, who entering into Antioch spoke to the Greeks also, announcing the glad tidings of the Lord Jesus.
Persecution had scattered the believers, and most of them told the good news only to fellow Jews. At Antioch a few of them crossed that line, and God left their names out of the record.
Some translations read "Hellenists" or "Grecians" here, meaning Jews who spoke Greek. Commentators point to the better text, which reads "Greeks":
Because of the persecution these men of Cyprus and Cyrene had gone everywhere, and among other places to Antioch. Until now they had preached the word to none but the Jews. Now they took courage and spoke — not to the Grecians, for this had been done long ago, but to the Greeks, preaching the Lord Jesus. Those they addressed were really Gentiles. The word "Grecians" does not mean "Greeks." It means Greek-speaking Jews, who had heard the gospel long before, as the cases of Stephen and Philip show.
The verse names Cyprus and Cyrene but not one man. Commentators take that silence as deliberate:
It was love, it was spiritual instinct, in the heart of those who evangelized, whose very names are unknown. God has taken particular care not to name them, perhaps so that we should not attribute to them a deeper perception of His mind than was really due.
No office, appointment or recognised standing appears anywhere in the account:
It is remarkable how all this discredits official position. We do not know the name of a single person used in the work. Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, is still little known in his home city. Barnabas is not yet on the scene. God is acting in open sovereignty, using whatever instruments He will.
Peter had needed a vision before God could send him on this errand. These men needed no sign at all:
Great workman as Peter was, he needed God to step in with a vision to send him. These unnamed men took up the same work in their confidence in His grace, without any vision or sign at all. It seems to have been the working of divine grace in their souls, and nothing else. At first they were more timid; they spoke only to Jews. Little by little the power of the gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit filled them with longing for the needs of others. The Gentiles were sinners: why should they not dare to speak to the Gentiles?
Their service might have looked irregular to others:
These men might have been despised as irregular workers. Yet they were in the current of the same work of God, even if they knew nothing of it, except by divine instinct.
To Jews the preaching had been that Jesus is the Messiah. With Greeks the title changes:
Most of them still had the Jews only in their thoughts. They preached the Messiah, crucified and risen from the dead, and they preached Him to Jews only. But there were some who went beyond that... His title of Messiah applied above all to the Jew. The Jew had the holy writings, which announced the coming of the Messiah. But when we consider Him from the point of view of His Lordship, then all other distinctions vanish. He is Lord of the Jew, but He is equally Lord of the Gentile.
That title makes a claim on the hearer:
They proclaimed His glory and called on men everywhere to submit to Him as the One whom God had made supreme over all.
The verse says only that they "spoke":
Those simple and true-hearted men, divinely led, could not hold themselves back. Greeks must hear the message of that salvation in which they rejoiced. They probably spoke Greek themselves, so no language barrier stood between them and Greeks. The historian says they spoke. That gives the impression that they worked by ordinary conversation, not by set preaching.
This unplanned conversation started the church that would send Paul out to the nations. Looking back over the whole stretch of the book, one writer draws the lesson for every generation:
Samaria evangelised, Gentiles admitted into the kingdom, Greeks converted at Antioch: such is the record in brief... and all carried out without apostolic direction or human authority. The Holy Spirit opened up fields of labour independently of human direction. What He did then we may count on Him to do still.
- Scattered — persecution drove these believers out, and at first they spoke only to Jews.
- Crossed — the better reading is "Greeks": real Gentiles. Greek-speaking Jews had heard the gospel long before.
- Nameless — God kept every name out, so no man could take the credit. No office or appointment appears in the story.
- Lord — to Greeks they preached the Lord Jesus, not the Messiah. Under that title Jew and Gentile stand alike.
- Antioch — ordinary conversation turned Greeks to the Lord there, with no apostle directing it. The Spirit still opens fields this way.
And [the] Lord's hand was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.
At Antioch the gospel reached Greeks for the first time. The preachers were ordinary believers whose names are unknown, and this verse gives the credit for the result to the Lord's hand.
One writer reads this phrase as the Lord's approval of what these men did, and points out who they were:
And notice: the word does not merely record the fact. The Lord approves what they did. "The hand of the Lord was with them." Ordinary Christians first preached the gospel to the Gentiles. The grace of God moved them to share with others the blessing they enjoyed themselves. They sought to establish the authority of Christ over mankind and to glorify His name. This narrative shows an important principle.
That blessing comes with a condition — agreeing with the Lord about who should hear the message:
Fellowship with the mind of the Lord about the people who are to hear the message is as important as fellowship with His mind about the message itself. Every preacher of the word of God should weigh this well. It is the absolute condition for securing His presence and blessing.
Scripture never tells us who these preachers were. That silence is deliberate:
Was this not very bold? Certainly it was of God, who made use of the circumstances He had arranged for His glory. It was love, it was spiritual instinct, in the heart of those who evangelized, whose very names are unknown. God has taken particular care not to name them. Perhaps He did so we would not credit them with a deeper grasp of His mind than they really had. The great fact stood, and God gave this mighty, deep impulse by His Spirit to simple-hearted workers.
One writer uses this verse to answer a question about who may preach:
A later chapter shows us the ministry of the word in a way that rules out all idea of ordination: "Those who were scattered went about preaching the word." Was the whole Church ordained? But would God approve such a thing? I read in Acts 11:21: "And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord." Apart from the single case of Cornelius, an all-important testimony to the principle of admitting the Gentiles, unordained men began and established the gospel to the Gentiles by their own voluntary zeal. They preached everywhere.
They preached Jesus as Lord, and the response matched the message. Turning to Him means more than changing your mind:
He is Lord, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles... But when we consider Him from the point of view of His Lordship, then all other distinctions vanish. He is Lord of the Jew, but He is equally Lord of the Gentile. They preached the Lord Jesus, and people turned to the Lord. If I turn to the Lord I shall at once admit myself to be under His authority. My place is subjection beneath His mighty Word.
Some older translations split the two verbs: "believed, and turned to the Lord." One writer builds on that wording to link this verse with what Barnabas says soon after:
Notice carefully how the Spirit of God describes their conversion — they "believed, and turned to the Lord." This is very beautiful and instructive. It is the true key to the words Barnabas spoke to them shortly after, and the basis of them — he "urged them all to stay true to the Lord with purpose of heart." This exhortation assumes that they had first "turned to the Lord," and flows from it.
The work at Antioch produced something new:
The results were astonishing, and this was the sovereign power of the Spirit of God at work... At Antioch a work began that was larger than the one at Caesarea. The assembly formed there was mostly Gentile, though it included Jewish believers. So here we see for the first time the unity of Jewish and Gentile believers in the church of God.
- Hand — The verse credits the result to the Lord's hand. Writers read that as His open approval of what these believers did.
- Hidden — God left the workers unnamed on purpose, so no one would credit them with more insight than they had.
- Free — Their preaching came from love and zeal, not from appointment. The gospel reached the Gentiles through unordained men.
- Turned — They preached Jesus as Lord. To turn to Him is to come under His authority, and He is Lord of Jew and Gentile alike.
- Formed — The result was a mixed assembly at Antioch: the first picture of Jewish and Gentile believers united in one church.