Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 11:21
And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.
21. And the hand of the Lord was with them ] The expression is a common one in the O. T. to express the direct interposition of God in the affairs of the world. Cp. Exo 14:31, “And Israel saw that great work [Heb. hand ] which the Lord did upon the Egyptians.” So the Egyptian magicians (Exo 8:19), “This is the finger of God.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And the hand of the Lord – See the notes on Luk 1:66. Compare Psa 80:17. The meaning is, that God showed them favor, and evinced his power in the conversion of their hearers.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Act 11:21
The hand of the Lord.
The hand
The word hand occurs in Scripture no fewer than 1,295 times. Man is the only being on earth that is furnished with two hands. Some other creatures have claws, but not hands. They cannot do as you can, make the thumb meet all the four fingers, so as to seize and hold all the most minute objects; nor can they perform one thousandth part of the skilful acts that man can perform with his hand. What other creature, e.g., can make a watch, or a needle? And there is power in mans hand as well as skill; he can apply force in ways which none of them can approach.
I. In relations to God Himself, the word hand is used–
1. To denote His eternal purpose and almighty power (Act 4:28; Act 4:30).
2. To denote His mighty power to keep, defend, preserve (Joh 10:28-29; Isa 49:2).
3. To express His rich, providential provision for the wants of all His creatures (Psa 104:28; 1Ch 29:16).
4. To signify Gods right to be, as He is, the sovereign disposer of all circumstances, persons, and events (Psa 31:15; Job 2:10).
5. When His inflictions and corrections are referred to (Jdg 2:15; Psa 32:4; Heb 10:31).
6. To denote His power to help (Psa 74:11; Ezr 7:6; Ezr 7:9; Ezr 8:18; Ezr 8:22; Neh 2:8; Neh 2:18; Psa 80:17; Luk 1:66). As an expression for Gods Spirit, putting the spirit of power into us, as well as of love and of a sound mind (Eze 1:3; Eze 3:14; Eze 3:22; Eze 8:1; Eze 37:1). We can be strong for any high and arduous duty only in His strength; all power indeed, all energy of purpose, all special skill in any art, cometh of Him. And not only is this spoken of as Gods hand as the mover, but the term is applied to the agent–the doer of the particular thing. The men of the world are spoken of as Gods hand; and His hand is also to be upon all them for good who seek Him. The right hand, as specially denoting power, is an expression that often occurs in Scripture, and is almost always applied to God (Psa 16:11; Psa 17:7; Psa 20:6; Psa 21:8; Psa 44:3; Psa 45:4; Psa 45:9; Psa 48:10; Psa 60:5; Psa 63:8; Psa 74:1; Psa 48:13; Psa 62:8; Mar 16:19; Heb 1:3, etc., etc.).
II. In relation to man the word hand is used–
1. To denote power in all its various applications (Pro 3:27; Ecc 9:10). To give ones hand is an expression which signifies to pledge peace, promise security, swear friendship, make an alliance.
2. To denote help (Psa 16:8; Psa 73:23; Psa 142:4).
3. To indicate possession, as to rend it out of the hand of anyone denotes deprivation (1Ki 11:11-12).
4. For the giving of advice (2Sa 14:19; 2Sa 14:5).
5. For deliverance from the power and oppression of others (Exo 18:9-10).
6. To denote work of any kind (Luk 1:1; Luk 9:62; Act 20:34; Pro 10:4; Pro 12:24). (S. Jenner, M. A.)
A great number believed, and turned, to the Lord.—
Conversions desired
I. The end which we desire.
1. That men may believe the testimony of Christ to be true. There are some who have not reached as far as that: they reject the inspired Word, and to them the incarnation, etc., are so many old wives fables. There are also many who profess to believe these things, but their only reason is that they have been taught so, and it is the current religion of the nation. But we want more than this faith of indifference, which is little more than unbelief; we want men to believe for themselves because they have felt the saving power of Christ. We pray that nominal believers may treat the doctrines of revelation, not as dogmas, but as facts.
2. That men may savingly believe by putting their trust in Christ. A man commits his soul to Christ for safe keeping, and that saves him. He makes the Saviour trustee of his spiritual estates.
3. That men may so believe in Jesus that they may be turned unto the Lord. This means–
(1) To turn from idols to the living and true God. We desire that faith in Jesus may lead you to give up the objects of your idolatrous love, yourselves, your money, your pleasures, the world, the flesh, the devil.
(2) To turn from the love of sin. He who looks sinward has his back to God–he who looks Godward has his back to sin.
(3) That henceforth God shall he sought in prayer. The man who lives without prayer lives without God, but the man who has turned to God is familiar with the mercy seat.
(4) To yield yourself obediently to His sway. Faith is nothing unless it brings with it a willing mind.
II. The power by which this can be attained. The hand of the Lord was with them. Be encouraged; the hand of God–
1. Is upon men before we speak. I am studying a certain subject, and praying for a blessing on it, and in a chamber, which I have never seen, one of my hearers is smitten with a sense of sin, or troubled with uneasy thoughts, or rendered hopeful of better things, and thus he is being made ready to accept the Christ whom I shall preach to him. Sickness and pain, shame and poverty, often produce a condition of mind most hopeful for the reception of the gospel. Sow, brother, for God has ploughed. Go up and build, for God has prepared the stones and made ready the foundation.
2. Upon the teachers and preachers themselves. There are strange impulses which come over us at times, which make us think and say what otherwise had never crossed our minds, and these work with power upon mens minds.
3. Upon the hearts of men when the gospel is preached. Not only is the Spirit in the Word, but over and above that He makes men–
(1) Recollect their sins. Men who have been giddy and careless and forgetful have on a sudden found themselves reviewing the past.
(2) See the beauty of holiness. When the preacher proclaims the way of salvation the Spirit leads men to admire it and to long for a share in it. Yes, it is not the preacher, and it is not altogether what the preacher says, but there is a power abroad as potent as that by which the worlds were made.
III. The desirableness of our object. Because conversions–
1. Promote the extension of truth, godliness, and virtue.
2. Make men happy. If religion be indeed a source of joy to yourself, you are inhuman if you do not wish others to drink of it.
3. Save men from hell.
4. Increase the Church. Self-preservation is a law of nature, and the Church can never preserve herself except by increasing from the world by conversion.
5. Promote the glory of Christ and give Him to see the travail of His soul.
6. Augment personal blessedness.
IV. How we may promote its attainment.
1. We must distinctly aim at it. As a rule, a man does what he tries to do, and not that which is mere by-play. There is the target, and if you continue to shoot into the air long enough an arrow may perhaps strike it; but if you want to win the prize of archery you had better fix your eye upon the white and take your aim distinctly and with skill.
2. We must press upon men the truths which God usually blesses (Act 11:20). If we do not preach Christ we shall not see souls saved. Who ever heard of a Unitarian Whitfield, or a Socinian Moody gathering twenty thousand people to listen to a Christless gospel? We must equally avoid the modern intellectual system in all its phases. How many conversions are wrought by displays of genius, fine rhetoric, etc.? Certain views as to mans future are equally to be kept clear of, if you would be the means of conversion. Diminish your ideas of the wrath of God and the terrors of hell, and in that proportion you will diminish the results of your work. Other crotchets and novelties of doctrine are also to be let alone, for they are not likely to promote your object, and will most probably divert mens attention from the vital point. If you want a harvest, look well to your seed. If I had to sow my fields with wheat I would not take any but the very best.
3. We must feel a solemn alarm about souls. Believe their danger, their helplessness, that only Christ can save them, and talk to them as if you meant it. The Holy Spirit will move them by first moving you.
4. There must be much prayer. In your closets, at your family altars, and in your prayer meetings be importunate, and the hand of the Lord must and will be with you.
5. There must be direct personal effort on the part of all of you. Great numbers may be saved by my preaching if the Holy Spirit blesses it, but I shall expect larger numbers if you all turn witnesses for Christ. We must expect converts. According to your faith so be it unto you. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 21. The hand of the Lord was with them] By the hand, arm, and, finger of God, in the Scripture, different displays or exertions of his power are intended. Here it means that the energy of God accompanied them, and applied their preaching to the souls of all attentive hearers. Without this accompanying influence, even an apostle could do no good; and can inferior men hope to be able to convince and convert sinners without this? Ministers of the word of God, so called, who dispute the necessity and deny the being of this influence, show thereby that they are intruders into God’s heritage; that they are not sent by him, and shall not profit the people at all.
A great number believed] That Jesus was the Christ; and that he had died for their offenses, and risen again for their justification. Because the apostles preached the truth, and the hand of God was with them, therefore, a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord, becoming his disciples, and taking him for their portion.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The hand of the Lord; the power, assistance, and working of God, expressed by the hand, which is the organ or instrument men use in working. This hand or work of God was manifest, first, In the miracles which they wrought. Secondly, In the conversion of any by these miracles. For these alone cannot soften a heart; as appeared in Pharaoh, whose heart was hardened by them.
A great number believed, and turned unto the Lord; faith and conversion are wrought by the hand of the Lord, and are his work. But in vain is faith pretended unto, when there is no change in heart and life. What God hath put together, none may put asunder.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
21. a great number believedThusthe accession of Cornelius and his party was not the first admissionof uncircumcised Gentiles into the Church. (See on Ac10:1.) Nay, we read of no influence which the accession ofCornelius and his house had on the further progress of the Gospelamong the Gentiles; whereas there here open upon us operations uponthe Gentiles from quite a different quarter, and attended with evergrowing success. The only great object served by the case ofCornelius was the formal recognition of the principles which thatcase afterwards secured. (See on Ac15:19-29.)
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the hand of the Lord was with them,…. Not only his hand of providence, which brought them thither, and protected them; and his hand of love, grace and mercy, which was upon them, and supplied them with gifts and grace, and everything necessary for them; and his hand of wisdom, which guided and directed them; but his hand of power, the same with the arm of the Lord, which when revealed, and made bare, the report of the Gospel is believed: but if that is not put forth, or efficacious grace is not exerted, no work is done, none are brought to believe, or are converted; ministers labour in vain, and spend their strength for nought: but this was not the case here, it was otherwise with these preachers; though they had travelled many miles, and were come into strange places, they were not left of God, nor without success, the power of God attended their ministry; so that the Gospel preached by them came not in word only, but in power, and it was the power of God unto salvation: hence it follows,
and a great number believed; not the Gospel only, but in Christ preached in it, Ac 11:20 which was not owing to the force of moral persuasion in the ministers, nor to the power of free will in the people, but to the hand or power of the Lord; for the work of faith is not a work of man’s will, but of God’s almighty power and grace; and when that is displayed, multitudes believe in Christ for righteousness and life: and turned to the Lord; and obeyed his commands; see Ps 119:59 as a fruit, effect, and consequence of believing in Christ; for not first conversion is here intended, which is not man’s work, but God’s, and in which God is the agent, and man is passive; but obedience to the ordinances of Christ, as the fruit of faith, is meant.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The hand of the Lord was with them ( ‘ ). This O.T. phrase (Exod 9:3; Isa 59:1) is used by Luke (Luke 1:66; Acts 4:28; Acts 4:30; Acts 13:11). It was proof of God’s approval of their course in preaching the Lord Jesus to Greeks.
Turned unto the Lord ( ). First aorist active indicative of , common verb to turn. The usual expression for Gentiles turning to the true God (Acts 14:15; Acts 15:3; Acts 15:19; Acts 26:18; Acts 26:20; 1Thess 1:9). Here “Lord” refers to “the Lord Jesus” as in verse 20, though “the hand of the Lord” is the hand of Jehovah, clearly showing that the early disciples put Jesus on a par with Jehovah. His deity was not a late development read back into the early history.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And the hand of the Lord was with them,” (kai en cheir Kuriou met’ auton) “And a master hand was with them,” or “The hand of the Lord (Jesus) existed with them,” the hand of strength; This refers to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit with leading and sin convicting power, for good, Pro 1:22-23; Act 4:28. It blessed, accompanied the word they preached, 1Th 1:5.
2) “And a great number believed,” (polus tearithmos ho pisteutas) “To the effect that a large number believed,” or a great number trusted in Jesus Christ, received Him, were saved, Joh 1:11-12; 1Jn 5:1; Rom 1:16; Rom 10:8-13.
3) “And turned unto the Lord,” (epestrepsen epi ton Kurion) “That is or thereby, they turned to the Lord,” in the pattern of their conduct, as a new way of life, as Peter had turned from fishing, Matthew from tax collecting, and Luke from a medical profession, and Paul from a law practice. They turned as the Thessalonians “to serve the living God,” and “look for His Son from heaven,” 1Th 1:4-10; Eph 2:10; 2Co 5:17; Mar 8:34-37; Luk 9:23.
The “hand of God” is upon “all them for good that seek Him,” means that honest seekers, who believe in God’s existence and goodness, are enabled by the Spirit of God to understand, feel, and know what is necessary to be saved and that only their choice of exercised will determines or seals their destiny for heaven or hell, Ezr 8:22; Joh 1:11-12; Rom 10:13.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
21. The hand of the Lord was. Luke proveth by the success that the gospel was offered unto the Gentiles also by the brethren of Cyprus and Cyrene not rashly nor unadvisedly, because their labor was fruitful and profitable. But such increase should never have followed, unless God had commanded and favored. Therefore, it followeth that it pleased God that the Gentiles should be called. The hand, as it is well known, doth signify power and strength. Therefore, this is Luke’s meaning, that God did testify by his present aid that the Gentiles were called together with the Jews, through his direction, to be made partakers of the grace of Christ. And this blessing of God served not a little to confirm the minds of all men. This place did also teach us, that what pains soever the ministers of God take in teaching, it shall be all vain and void, unless God bless their labors from heaven. For we may plant and water, as Paul teacheth, but the increase cometh from God alone, (1Co 3:0,) in whose hand the hearts of men are, that he may bend and frame the same at his pleasure. Therefore, as often as we are to intreat of faith, let us always remember this speech, that God wrought by his ministers, and that he made their doctrine effectual by his hand, that is, by the secret inspiration of the Spirit. Therefore, let the minister attempt nothing trusting to his own wit and industry, but let him commit his labor to the Lord, upon whose grace the whole success dependeth; and where doctrine shall work effectually, let those which shall believe thank God for their faith. Furthermore, we must note that which Luke saith, that many were turned unto God by faith, because he doth very well express the force and nature of faith; that it is not idle and cold, (740) but such as restoreth men (who were before turned away from God) unto his government, and bindeth them unto his righteousness.
(740) “ Otiosa frigidaque notitia,” an idle and frigid knowledge.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
‘And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.’
And ‘the hand of the Lord was with them’. Compare Act 4:30. It may thus indicate signs and wonders. But it is a good Old Testament phrase (Ezr 9:7; Isa 66:14; compare Luk 1:66) and may simply (if we can say simply in such a case) indicate God’s mighty power at work in men’s hearts. Either way a great number of Gentiles who believed turned to the LORD. Many Gentiles had been waiting for just such a moment and eagerly responded to the truth. We note that the message that these believers proclaimed was of ‘Jesus the LORD’ not of the Messiah Jesus, which would have meant less to Gentiles. However, as they became known as ‘Christ-men’ it is apparent that the idea of the Messiah was not totally neglected. The were aware Who their LORD was.
It is probable that we are to see these Greeks as God-fearers like Cornelius, who were now, as a result of what had happened to Cornelius, seen as directly approachable. In view of the large Jewish population, and the moral depravity for which the city was well known, it is likely that there were large numbers of such God-fearers who looked to the synagogues because of their belief in the one God and their high moral teaching. However, while the Jews continually saw them as ‘outsiders’, even when welcoming them into their synagogues, the Christians now offered them the same belief in the one God and high moral teaching, and added to this their teaching about One Who had come from that one God to be men’s Saviour. Furthermore they gave them a warm and genuine welcome on a level with themselves. And so for the first time we have news of a church where the Greek Christians probably outnumbered the Jewish Christians and took part with them on equal footing.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Act 11:21-26 . ] See on Luk 1:66 ; Act 4:30 . Bengel well remarks: “potentia spirituals per evangelium se exserens.”
] these preachers to the Gentiles .
Act 11:22 . ] Comp. on Luk 4:21 .
] the word, i.e. the narrative of it; see on Mar 1:45 .
Act 11:23 . . ] as it was manifested in the converted Gentiles.
. . ] with the purpose of their heart to abide by the Lord, i.e. not again to abandon Christ, to whom their hearts had resolved to belong, but to be faithful to Him with this resolution. Comp. 2Ti 3:10 .
Act 11:24 . ] contains the reason, not why Barnabas had been sent to Antioch (Kuinoel), but of the immediately preceding .
] quite generally: an excellent man, a man of worth , whose noble character, and, moreover, whose fulness of the Spirit and of faith completely qualified him to gain and to follow the right point of view, in accordance with the divine counsel, as to the conversion of the Gentiles here beheld. Most arbitrarily Heinrichs holds that it denotes gentleness and mildness , which Baumgarten has also assumed, although such a meaning must have arisen, as in Mat 20:5 , from the context (comp. on Rom 5:7 ), into which Baumgarten imports the idea, that Barnabas had not allowed himself to be stirred to censure by the strangeness of the new phenomenon.
Act 11:25 . ] See Act 9:30 .
Act 11:26 . According to the corrected reading . . . (see the critical remarks), it is to be explained: it happened to them (comp. Act 20:16 ; Gal 6:14 ), to be associated even yet ( ) a whole year in the church, and to instruct a considerable multitude of people, and that the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch . With the construction passes into the accusative with the infinitive, because the subject becomes different ( .). But it is logically correct that . . . should still be dependent on , just because the reported appellation, which was first given to the disciples at Antioch, was causally connected with the lengthened and successful labours of the two men in that city. It was their merit, that here the name of Christians first arose.
On the climactic , etiam , in the sense of yet , or yet further , comp. Hartung, Partikell. I. p. 133 f.
] to be brought together, i.e. to join themselves for common work. They had been since Act 9:26 ff. separated from each other.
to bear the name ; see on Rom 7:3 .
] This name decidedly originated not in, but outside of, the church , seeing that the Christians in the N. T. never use it of themselves, but designate themselves by , , believers, etc.; and seeing that, in the two other passages where occurs, this appellation distinctly appears as extrinsic to the church, Act 26:28 ; 1Pe 4:16 . But it certainly did not proceed from the Jews , because was known to them as the interpretation of , and they would not therefore have transferred so sacred a name to the hated apostates. Hence the origin of the name must be derived from the Gentiles in Antioch. [267] By these the name of the Head of the new religious society, “Christ,” was not regarded as an official name, which it already was among the Christians themselves ever more and more becoming; and hence they formed according to the wonted mode the party-name: Christiani (Tac. Ann. xv. 44: “auctor nominis ejus Christus Tiberio imperitante per procuratorem Pontium Pilatum supplicio affectus erat”). At Antioch , the seat of the mother-church of Gentile Christianity, this took place at that time (for this follows from the reading . ), because in that year the joint labours of Paul and Barnabas occasioned so considerable an enlargement of the church, and therewith naturally its increase in social and public consideration. And it was at Antioch that this name was borne first , earlier than anywhere else ( , or, according to B , , Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 311 f.), because here the Christians, in consequence of the predominant Gentile-Christian element, asserted themselves for the first time not as a sect of Judaism, but as an independent community. There is nothing to support the view that the name was at first a title of ridicule (de Wette, Baumgarten, after Wetstein and older interpreters). The conjecture of Baur, that the origin of the name was referred to Antioch, because that was the first Gentile city in which there were Christians (Zeller also mistrusts the account before us), cannot be justified by the Latin form of the word (see “Wetstein, ad Mat 22:17 ).
[267] Ewald, p. 441 f., conjectures that it proceeded from the Roman authorities.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
21 And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.
Ver. 21. And a great number believed ] God sealing his approval of what they did, by an extraordinary success. He hath a mighty hand, and can fetch in multitudes at his pleasure. We hope he is doing some such great work in New England. He can make a law to bring forth in one day, a “nation to be born at once,”Isa 66:8Isa 66:8 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
21. . . . ] By visible manifestations not to be doubted , the Lord shewed it to be His pleasure that they should go on with such preaching; being, the preachers to the Gentiles , whose work the narrative now follows.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Act 11:21 . ., cf. Act 4:28 ; Act 4:30 , Act 13:11 , Luk 1:66 ; frequent in O.T. closely connects the two clauses, showing that the result of “the hand of the Lord” was that a great number, etc. (Weiss).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
believed, and = having believed. App-150.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
21. . . .] By visible manifestations not to be doubted, the Lord shewed it to be His pleasure that they should go on with such preaching; being, the preachers to the Gentiles, whose work the narrative now follows.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Act 11:21. , the hand of the Lord) His spiritual power, putting itself forth by the Gospel. So the arm of the Lord, Joh 12:38.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
the hand: 2Ch 30:12, Ezr 7:9, Ezr 8:18, Neh 2:8, Neh 2:18, Isa 53:1, Isa 59:1, Luk 1:66
and a: Act 11:24, Act 2:47, Act 4:4, Act 5:14, Act 6:7, 1Co 3:6, 1Co 3:7, 1Th 1:5
turned: Act 9:35, Act 15:19, Act 26:18-20, 1Th 1:9, 1Th 1:10
Reciprocal: Exo 3:12 – Certainly Jdg 6:16 – General 2Ki 3:15 – the hand Ecc 11:6 – thou knowest Act 3:19 – be Act 9:42 – and many Act 12:24 – General Act 14:1 – that a Act 16:5 – increased Act 16:14 – whose 1Co 1:6 – was 2Co 6:7 – the power Phi 2:13 – God
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1
Act 11:21. The Lord blessed the labors of these men by causing their work to be received. The result was that a great number became disciples.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Act 11:21. And the hand of the Lord was with them, i.e. those who were preaching the Gospel to new hearers. The hand of the Lord is an oriental expression, and seems to indicate the manifestation of miraculous powers, which indeed we should expect on an occasion like this. St. Luke uses this phrase in two other places (see his Gospel, Luk 1:66, and Luk 4:30). Some manuscripts add here the words so as to heal them. Their authority, however, does not justify our seeing in this addition more than a gloss; and the suggestion probably came from Luk 5:17.
A great number believed. All such terms are relative. At all events a considerable Christian community was formed rapidly at Antioch, as had been the case at Csarea. Though Csarea was probably first in order of time, Antioch speedily became greater in importance. See Act 11:24; Act 11:26 for the progressive growth of the Church in this latter city under the ministrations of Barnabas and Saul.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
See notes one verse 20
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
21. The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number, believing, turned to the Lord. These were Gentiles in the Syrian Empire, some time before Peter, by his apostolical ipse dixit, had unfurled the Gentile banner at Caesarea.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Luke stressed the Lord Jesus’ blessing of their witness. "The hand of the Lord" is an Old Testament anthropomorphism that pictures God’s power (cf. Isa 59:1; Isa 66:14). The early disciples put Jesus on a par with Yahweh; His deity was not a late development read back into the early history of the church. [Note: Robertson, 3:157.] Response to this evangelistic work was very good. Perhaps these Gentiles were "God-fearers" similar to the Ethiopian eunuch and Cornelius. [Note: Longenecker, p. 401.] Perhaps they were pagans who were not Jewish proselytes but were open to the message of life because of their dissatisfaction with paganism. [Note: Neil, p. 144.] Probably both types of Gentiles responded.
"The combination of faith (pisteusas) and of turning (epestrepsen) is another common way to express salvation in Acts." [Note: Bock, "Jesus as . . .," p. 149.]