Act 13:3, 14, 23 | JFB | STEP | 3. laid their hands on them —(See on ) —"recommending them to the grace of God for the work which they had to fulfil" ( ). sent them away —with the double call—of the Spirit first, and next of the Church. So clothed, their mission is thus described: "They being sent forth by the Holy Ghost." Have we not here for all time the true principle of appointment to sacred offices? . ARRIVING IN CYPRUS THEY PREACH IN THE SYNAGOGUES OF SALAMIS —AT PAPHOS , ELYMAS IS STRUCK BLIND, AND THE GOVERNOR OF THE ISLAND IS CONVERTED.

Acts 13:3

3. laid their hands on them—(See on Ac 6:6) —"recommending them to the grace of God for the work which they had to fulfil" (Ac 14:26).

sent them away—with the double call—of the Spirit first, and next of the Church. So clothed, their mission is thus described: "They being sent forth by the Holy Ghost." Have we not here for all time the true principle of appointment to sacred offices?

Ac 13:4-12. ARRIVING IN CYPRUS THEY PREACH IN THE SYNAGOGUES OF SALAMIS—AT PAPHOS, ELYMAS IS STRUCK BLIND, AND THE GOVERNOR OF THE ISLAND IS CONVERTED.

Acts 13:14

14. departed from Perga—apparently without making any stay or doing any work: compare the different language of Ac 14:25, and see immediately below.

came to Antioch in Pisidia—usually so called, to distinguish it from Antioch in Syria, from which they had started, though it actually lies in Phrygia, and almost due north from Perga. It was a long journey, and as it lay almost entirely through rugged mountain passes, while "rivers burst out at the base of huge cliffs, or dash down wildly through narrow ravines," it must have been a perilous one. The whole region was, and to this day is, infested by robbers, as ancient history and modern travels abundantly attest; and there can be but little doubt that to this very journey Paul many years after alludes, when he speaks amidst his "journeyings often," of his "perils of rivers" (as the word is), and his "perils of robbers" (2Co 11:26). If this journey were taken in May—and earlier than that the passes would have been blocked up with snow—it would account for their not staying at Perga, whose hot streets are then deserted; "men, women, and children, flocks, herds, camels, and asses, all ascending at the beginning of the hot season from the plains to the cool basin-like hollows on the mountains, moving in the same direction with our missionaries" [HOWSON].

Acts 13:23

23-25. Of this man's seed hath God, according to . . . promise, raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus—The emphasis on this statement lies: (1) in the seed from which Christ sprang—David's—and the promise to that effect, which was thus fulfilled; (2) on the character in which this promised Christ was given of God—"a SAVIOUR." His personal name "JESUS" is emphatically added, as designed to express that very character. (See on Mt 1:21).