Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Galatians 1:21
Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia;
21. In the Acts we are told that when the brethren knew of the plot against St Paul’s life, they “brought him down to Csarea, and sent him forth to Tarsus”. This is in agreement with the statement of the text. Csarea was the port from which in all probability St Paul sailed to Tarsus, the capital of Cilicia. The expression “the regions of Syria and Cilicia” must not be pressed as describing the order in which he visited the two countries. We learn from Act 11:25-30 that Barnabas went to Tarsus, and, having found Saul, brought him to Antioch, the capital of Syria, where he continued teaching for a whole year.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Afterward I came … – In this account be has omitted a circumstance recorded by Luke Act 9:29, of the controversy which he had with the Grecians (Hellenists). It was not material to the purpose which he has here in view, which is to state that he was not indebted to the apostles for his knowledge of the doctrines of Christianity. He therefore merely states that he left Jerusalem soon after he went there, and traveled to other places.
The regions of Syria – Syria was between Jerusalem and Cilicia. Antioch was the capital of Syria, and in that city and the adjacent places he spent considerable time; compare Act 15:23, Act 15:41.
Cilicia – This was a province of Asia Minor, of which Tarsus, the native place of Paul, was the capital; see the note at Act 6:9.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Gal 1:21
I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.
Christian service
I. Its sphere.
1. Among strangers–Syria.
2. Friends–Cilicia.
II. Its nature.
1. Not
(1) the propagation of philosophic dogmas;
(2) the practice of mere philanthropy;
(3) the gathering of a personal following.
2. But preaching the faith once destroyed.
(1) The unconverted destroy the faith by opposition or neglect–He that is not for Me, etc.
(2) It is the duty of the converted to repair the injuries they have inflicted on the faith.
III. Its fame. Strangers hear of it.
1. Not trumpeted by self or interested friends.
2. Not secured by unworthy arts.
3. But by words which, like light, cannot be hid. This is true popularity, and has been won by Carey, Judson, Hunt, Moffat, Ellis, etc.
IV. Its Result: Gods glory.
1. This was what Paul wished.
2. His apostleship was not of man but of God. God, therefore, deserved the praise. All ministerial and Church gifts from Him, therefore to Him the glory.
Apostolic labours
I. The work to which Paul was devoted was preaching the faith. The preaching of the faith signified–
1. The declaration of the whole gospel. He had been subdued by the gospel, and what he had felt of the word of life that he declared unto others.
II. Pauls labours were exercised in different places. In Damascus and Jerusalem, and now in various parts of Cilicia as well as Syria, Paul preached the gospel. His message was the same in substance in every place, be-cause–
1. All men needed salvation; and,
2. A salvation was provided for all.
III. Pauls labours were extensive in their influence. Even those who had not seen his face heard of him, and of the grace of God which was manifested by him. Many of them in Judaea who once dreaded his name were now cheered and blessed, and their faith was strengthened by what they heard of him.
IV. Pauls labours exalted the glory of God. It is of Gods grace when, from a persecutor and misleader, a man becomes a true teacher and confessor. O wonder! Is not that as much as if a dead man were raised to life? And it serves to the praise of the Divine confession that the Lord does not destroy His enemies, but wins them over, and converts them to His service. Lessons:
1. The religion of Jesus Christ inspires a man to active service. His love constrains every believer to do something in His cause.
2. A holy and zealous life is a confirmation of the truth. Hence Paul introduced the text as an argument to show that the mission entrusted to him was of God. (Richard Nicholls.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 21. Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria, c.] The course of the apostle’s travels, after his conversion, was this: He went from Damascus to Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem into Syria and Cilicia. “At Damascus the disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket and when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples;” Ac 9:25-26. Afterwards, when the brethren knew the conspiracy formed against him at Jerusalem, they brought him down to Caesarea, and sent him forth to Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, Ac 9:30. This account in the Acts agrees with that in this epistle.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
After that I came from Jerusalem, I came into the country of Syria; probably not to Damascus, the chief city of Syria, (where he had so narrow an escape in a basket), but into the country parts of Syria; for Syria lay in the way between Judea and Cilicia. It appeareth by Act 9:30, that Paul was designed for Tarsus, his native place; where we are also told, that the brethren conducted him to Caesarea, which stood upon the confines of Syria. It is probable that he stayed some time at Tarsus; for there Barnabas found him, Act 11:25,26, and brought him to Antioch; so that Paul had but fifteen days at Jerusalem to converse with the apostles, and in that time he saw none of them, but Peter, and James the son of Alpheus.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
21. I came into . . . Syria andCilicia“preaching the faith” (Ga1:23), and so, no doubt, founding the churches in Syria andCilicia, which he subsequently confirmed in the faith (Act 15:23;Act 15:41). He probably wentfirst to Csarea, the main seaport, and thence by sea to Tarsus ofCilicia, his native place (Ac9:30), and thence to Syria; Cilicia having its geographicalaffinities with Syria, rather than with Asia Minor, as the Tarsusmountains separate it from the latter. His placing “Syria”in the order of words before “Cilicia,” is due to Antiochbeing a more important city than Tarsus, as also to his longer stayin the former city. Also “Syria and Cilicia,” from theirclose geographical connection, became a generic geographical phrase,the more important district being placed first [CONYBEAREand HOWSON]. This seajourney accounts for his being “unknown by face to the churchesof Judea” (Ga 1:22). Hepasses by in silence his second visit, with alms, to Judea andJerusalem (Ac 11:30);doubtless because it was for a limited and special object, and wouldoccupy but a few days (Ac 12:25),as there raged at Jerusalem at the time a persecution in which James,the brother of John, was martyred, and Peter was m prison, and Jamesseems to have been the only apostle present (Ac12:17); so it was needless to mention this visit, seeing that hecould not at such a time have received the instructions which theGalatians alleged he had derived from the primary fountains ofauthority, the apostles.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. For having disputed against the Grecians at Jerusalem, and being too hard for them, it so irritated them, that they were going to murder him; which being known to the brethren there, they got him out of the way, and had him down to Caesarea, and so to Tarsus, a city in Cilicia; where he was born; in which places and in the countries about he preached the Gospel of Christ; to Tarsus, Barnabas went for him seeking him, and finding him brought him to Antioch in Syria; and both in Syria and Cilicia he preached, no doubt with success, since we read of believing Gentiles and churches in those parts he afterwards visited; being sent along with others, with the letter and decrees of the synod at Jerusalem to them, and whom he confirmed; [See comments on Ac 15:23],
[See comments on Ac 15:41]: in the Greek text these countries are called “climates”; a climate in geography is said y to be a part of the surface of the earth, bounded by two circles parallel to the equator, and of such a breadth as that the longest day in the parallel nearer the pole, exceeds the longest day in that next the equator, by some certain space, viz. half an hour–. The beginning of the climate is the parallel circle wherein the day is the shortest, the end of the climate is that wherein the day is the longest;–each climate only differs from its contiguous ones, in that the longest day in summer is longer or shorter by half an hour in the one place than in the other:–vulgarly the term climate is bestowed on any country or region differing from another, either in respect of the seasons, the quality of the soil, or even the manners of the inhabitants, without any regard to the length of the longest day; in which sense it seems to be used here, as also in Ro 15:23. Of the country of Syria, [See comments on Mt 4:24]. Cilicia is a country of Asia Minor, now called Caramania; it had its name of Cilicia, as Herodotus says z, from Cilix, the son of Agenor, a Phoenician: though Bochart a derives it from Challekim or Challukim, which signifies stones, it being a stony country; and so Herodotus b calls it “mountainous” Cilicia; it is said to have Pamphilia on the west, the tops of Mount Taurus on the north, Mount Amanus on the east, and the Cilician sea on the south; Jerom says c, Cilicia is a province of Asia, which the river Cydnus cuts in the middle, and Mount Amanus, of which Solomon makes mention, separates it from Syria-Coele.
y Chambers’s Cyclopaedia in the word “Climate”. z L. 7. Polymnia, c. 91. Solinus, c. 51. a Canaan, p. 376. b L. 2. Euterpe, c. 34. c De locis Hebraicis, fol. 95. M.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Into the region of Syria and Cilicia ( ). This statement agrees with the record in Ac 9:30. On , see 2Co 11:10. Paul was not idle, but at work in Tarsus and the surrounding country.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Regions [] . P o. Comp. Rom 14:23; 2Co 11:10. Klima, originally an inclination or slope of ground : the supposed slope of the earth from the equator to the pole. The ancient geographers ran imaginary parallel lines from the equator toward the pole, and the spaces or zones or regions between these lines, viewed in their slope or inclination toward the pole, were klimata. The word came to signify the temperature of these zones, hence our climate. In Chaucer’s treatise on the Astrolabe, chapter 39 is headed “Description of the Meridional Lyne, of Longitudes and Latitudes of Cities and Towns from on to another of Clymatz.” He says : “The longitude of a clymat is a lyne imagined fro est to west, y – lyke distant by – twene them alle. The latitude of a clymat is a lyne imagined fro north to south the space of the erthe, fro the byginning of the firste clymat unto the verrey ende of the same clymat, even directe agayns the pole artik.” In poetical language, “climes” is used for regions of the earth, as Milton :
“Whatever clime the sun’s bright circle warms.”
Syria and Cilicia. Syria, in the narrower sense, of the district of which Antioch was the capital : not the whole Roman province of Syria, including Galilee and Judaea. Mt 4:24; Luk 2:2; Act 20:3. This district was the scene of Paul ‘s first apostolic work among the Gentiles. Cilicia was the southeasterly province of Asia Minor, directly adjoining Syria, from which it was separated by Mt. Pierius and the range of Amanus. It was bordered by the Mediterranean on the south. It was Paul ‘s native province, and its capital was Tarsus, Paul ‘s birthplace.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Afterwards I came into the regions – (epeita elthon eis ta Klimata) “Then (thereafter) after I visited Peter, I went of my own accord, choosing, into the regions or provinces;” yet, sent (stello) by commissioned authority, by the brethren of the Jerusalem church, Act 9:30.
2) “Of Syria and Cilicia,” (tes Surias kai tes kilikias) “of Syria and of Cilicia;” perhaps Syria is listed first because it is a larger territory than Cilicia, to which Paul went directly from Caesarea, and perhaps also because he preached in Damascus Syria before going down to Jerusalem for his first time, to visit Peter. In Act 15:41 Syria and Cilicia are joined (coupled) together as representing one region. It was from Tarsus in Cilicia Barnabas brought Paul to Antioch in Syria to work with the church, from which both were later sent further into Syria, Galatia, and Asia Minor to bear the gospel, Act 11:25-26; Act 13:1-3.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(21) Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.We gather from the parallel narrative in Act. 9:30; Act. 11:25-26, that the course which the Apostle followed was this:He was first conveyed secretly by the disciples to the sea-port Csarea Stratonis; there he took ship and sailed for Tarsus. Here he was found, somewhat later, by Barnabas, and taken to Antioch, where he remained a year. It would thus appear that the order in which the two names, Syria and Cilicia, occur does not represent the order in which the two provinces were visited. The Apostle, reviewing his past career at a distance of time, and with a certain special object in view, which is not affected by the geographical direction of his movements, speaks in this general way. It hardly seems necessary to suppose an unrecorded visit to Syria on the way to Tarsus, though that, of course, is possible. Still more gratuitous is the supposition that there is any contradiction between the historical narrative and our Epistle, for such generalities of expression are what most persons may constantly detect themselves in using. The accuracy of the pedant neither belongs to St. Pauls Epistles nor to real life.
Regions.The Greek word here is the same as that which is translated parts in Rom. 15:23, where see the Note.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
21. Syria and Cilicia He was driven from Jerusalem by plots of the Jews, Act 9:29-30, and so was beyond the reach of apostolic teaching.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Then I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was still unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ, but they only heard say, ‘He who once persecuted us now preaches the faith of which he once made havoc’. And they glorified God in me.’
He stresses that at no stage had he stayed in Judea and that in fact he had never met the Judean Christians face to face. Judea was usually seen as separate from Jerusalem (e.g. Mar 1:5) which, since the time of David, had looked on itself as a semi-independent city. Judea was probably where many of the Apostles were ministering. As he appears to have been sent to Tarsus for his own protection it would appear that delay in Judea would have been dangerous. He was seen by Jews as a turncoat.
‘The regions of Syria and Cilicia.’ On his way back to Tarsus, in Cilicia (Act 9:30), he had passed through the region of Syria, the mention of which may suggest some converse with, and ministry to, the churches in that area at that stage. Alternately ‘Syria and Cilicia’, which are regularly mentioned together in that order, may simply have been mentioned jointly as by custom describing the whole area (Act 15:23; Act 15:41). Thus it could simply refer to his going back to his home district in ‘Syria and Cilicia’. From a point of view of a full ministry that in Cilicia (Tarsus), in which he spent a considerable period of time, presumably preceded his later ministry in Syria, although in Acts no such ministry is actually mentioned prior to the call by Barnabas (Act 11:25). But that is not the point here.
‘The churches of Judea which were in Christ.’ ‘In Christ’ is a favourite expression of Paul. (It is also found in 1Pe 3:16; 1Pe 5:14). It signifies that Christians have been made one with their living Lord. They have been united with Christ and are in Him. They are united with Him in His death, and in His risen life (Gal 2:20; Rom 6:4-11).
‘They only heard it said that he who once persecuted us now preaches the faith of which he once made havoc.’ Here was further confirmation that there was no suggestion of dispute about ‘the faith’ preached by Paul and ‘the faith’ of the Judean churches. He now preached the faith he had once attacked, and the speakers had clearly been satisfied with the way he taught it.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Gal 1:21 . After this stay of fifteen days in Jerusalem ( , comp. Gal 1:18 ), I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia; and consequently was again far enough away from the seat of the apostles!
] As it is said in Act 9:30 that Paul was accompanied from Jerusalem to Caesarea, it is assumed by most modern expositors: “ Syriae earn partem dicit, cui Phoenices nomen fuit,” Winer. So also Koppe, Rckert, Usteri, Matthies, Schott. Comp. Mat 4:24 ; Act 21:3 . This view runs entirely counter to the design of the apostle. For here his main concern was to bring out his comparatively wide separation from Judaea, as it had occurred in his actual history; the whole context (comp. Gal 1:22 ) shows that it was so, and therefore the reader could only understand as meaning Syria proper (with Antioch as its capital). It could not in the least occur to him to think of Phoenicia (which even Wieseler, though not understanding it alone to be referred to, includes), the more especially as alongside of Cilicia, which borders on Syria proper, is immediately named (comp. Act 15:23 ; Act 15:41 ; Plin. v. 22, xviii. 30). An appeal is also wrongly made to Mat 4:24 (where, in the language of hyperbole, a very large district namely, the whole province of Syria, of which Judaea and Samaria formed portions is meant to be designated) and Act 21:3 (where likewise the Roman province is intended, and that only loosely and indefinitely with reference to the coast district [38] ). The relation of our passage to Act 9:30 is this: On leaving Jerusalem, Paul desired to visit Syria and Cilicia; he was accordingly conducted by the Christians as far as the first stage, Caesarea (the Roman capital of Judaea, not Caesarea Philippi), and thence he went on by land to Syria and Cilicia. Comp. on Act 9:30 .
For what object he visited Syria and Cilicia, he does not state; but for this very reason, and in accordance with Gal 1:5 , it cannot be doubted that he preached the gospel there. Tarsus was certainly the central point of this ministry; it was at Tarsus that Barnabas sought and found him (Act 11:25 ).
[38] For any one sailing from Patara and passing in front of Cyprus to the right has the Syrian coast before him towards the east, and is sailing towards it. Thus indefinitely, as was suggested by the popular view and report, Luke relates, Act 21:3 , , without meaning by the that follows to make this equivalent to Phoenicia. For instance, a man might say, “We sailed towards Denmark and landed at Glckstadt,” without intending it to be inferred that Denmark is equivalent to Holstein.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
21 Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia;
Ver. 21. Afterwards I came ] He kept, likewise, a diary of his travels, and was able to give a good account of his daily courses. It is not to be doubted, but that our Saviour’s disciples kept a register of his holy oracles and miracles, out of which the history of the gospel was afterwards compiled and composed. Father Latimer did the like, as appeareth by his discourses. Mr Bradford also had a journal or dairy, wherein he used to set down all such notable things as either he did see or hear, each day that passed.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
21 .] The beginning only of this journey is related in Act 9:30 , where see note. Dean Howson suggests (edn. 2, i. p. 129, f.) that he may have gone at once from Csarea to Tarsus by sea, and Syria and Cilicia may afterwards have been the field of his activity, these provinces being very generally mentioned together, from their geographical affinity, Cilicia being separated from Asia Minor by Mount Taurus. (See also note on Luk 2:1-2 .) Winer, al. have understood by Syria here, Phnicia: but as Meyer has shewn, inconsistently with usage. In Act 15:23 ; Act 15:41 , we find churches in Syria and Cilicia, which may have been founded by Paul on this journey. The supposition is confirmed by our Gal 1:23 ; see below.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Gal 1:21-23 . About ten years of the life of Paul, between his flight from Jerusalem to Tarsus and his return to Jerusalem for the Apostolic Council, are here passed over. They were spent, partly in and around Tarsus and Antioch, partly in the joint mission with Barnabas to Cyprus and Asia Minor. The Galatians were already acquainted with the leading facts of that period, and it was needless to refer to them here: enough that he spent those years, like those at Damascus, in an independent ministry at a distance from Jerusalem. He did indeed repair thither once with Barnabas to carry alms from Antioch to the Elders; but circumstances prevented any intercourse with the Twelve at that time: for before they reached the city the Herodian persecution had begun, and the leading Christians were in peril of death at the hands of Herod. Paul himself can only have paid a secret and hurried visit to the city, and thought it needless apparently to mention it in this place. . This word denotes the fringes of coastland sloping down from the mountains to the sea in north-western Syria and eastern, i.e. Roman, Cilicia. It is applied in 2Co 11:10 to the coastlands of Achaia.
The name Syria is placed before Cilicia, though the ministry at Tarsus preceded that at Antioch: for the latter was by far the more important and prolonged ministry. A further reason for placing Syria first was the subordinate position of Cilicia: for Roman Cilicia was, like Juda, only a district of the great province of Syria, separately administered by an imperial procurator at Tarsus.
In Act 15:41 Syria and Cilicia are coupled together as forming a single region ( ), no article being inserted before ; not so here, for the first ministry at Tarsus was distinct from that at Antioch.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Afterwards = Then, as Gal 1:18.
regions. Greek. klima . See Rom 15:23.
Syria and Cilicia. The only references to this journey and sojourn are found in Act 9:30; Act 11:25.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
21.] The beginning only of this journey is related in Act 9:30, where see note. Dean Howson suggests (edn. 2, i. p. 129, f.) that he may have gone at once from Csarea to Tarsus by sea, and Syria and Cilicia may afterwards have been the field of his activity,-these provinces being very generally mentioned together, from their geographical affinity, Cilicia being separated from Asia Minor by Mount Taurus. (See also note on Luk 2:1-2.) Winer, al. have understood by Syria here, Phnicia: but as Meyer has shewn, inconsistently with usage. In Act 15:23; Act 15:41, we find churches in Syria and Cilicia, which may have been founded by Paul on this journey. The supposition is confirmed by our Gal 1:23; see below.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Gal 1:21. , I came) with the Gospel, Gal 1:23.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Gal 1:21
Gal 1:21
Then I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.-We learn from the parallel narrative that he was first conveyed secretly by the disciples to Caesarea; there he took ship ana sailed for Tarsus. (Act 9:30). He here was found somewhat later by Barnabas and taken to Antioch, where he remained a year. (Act 11:25-26). Antioch was the chief city of Syria, which became the center of his operations among the Gentiles. (Act 13:1-3; Act 14:26; Act 15:35-41; Act 18:22).
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
I came: Act 9:30, Act 11:25, Act 11:26, Act 13:1, Act 15:23, Act 15:41, Act 18:18, Act 21:3
Cilicia: Act 6:9, Act 21:39, Act 22:3, Act 23:34
Reciprocal: Act 20:3 – sail Act 27:5 – Cilicia
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gal 1:21. -afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. The noun , found also in Rom 15:23, 2Co 11:10, originally means inclination or declivity, such as that of a hill; then a space of the sky, so named from the inclination of the heaven to the poles- , Dion. H. Ant. 1.9; , Aristot. De Mund. Opera, vol. iii. p. 133, ed. Bekker, Oxford 1837; , Herodian, Gal 2:11; Gal 2:8;-then a tract of earth, so called in reference to its inclination towards the pole- , Polyb. 5.44; . . . , ib. 10.1;-and then, as in Joseph. De Bell. Jud 3:7; Jud 3:12, approaching the modern sense of climate. Thus Athenaeus, , referring to Siris in the south of Italy, lib. xii. p. 445, vol. iv. p. 444, ed. Schweighaser. Lobeck (Paralip. 418) shows that the true accentuation is , a properispomenon like which is long in AEschylus, Supp. 397; Lipsius, Gramm. Untersuch. ber die Bibl. Graecitt, pp. 40, 41, Leipzig 1863. Codices A, L, have . Syria is naturally Syria proper, which he reached from Caesarea,-not Caesarea Philippi (Eichhorn, Olshausen), and not the country formerly called Phoenicia (Usteri, Schott): the supposition of such a near vicinity is not in harmony with the apostle’s argument. Cilicia was his native province; and Barnabas soon after found him in Tarsus, and brought him to Antioch. According to the narrative in Acts, he seems to have sailed from Caesarea to Tarsus. Cilicia was more allied to Syria than Asia Minor, and both countries are collocated vaguely by the . The apostle is not stating his tour with geographical precision, but is merely showing how far he travelled away from all Judaean influence and recognition.
Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians
Gal 1:21. Syria and Cilicia were provinces north of Palestine, and the latter contained Tarsus, the city of Paul’s birth. The immediate occasion for his going there at this time is shown in Act 9:26-30. (See the comments at that place in volume 1 of the New Testament Commentary.)
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Gal 1:21. Comp. Act 9:30.
Syria, the province of which Antioch was the capital.
Cilicia, the province adjoining Syria. Paul was a native of Tarsus, its capital, and a famous seat of learning. The object of his journey was no doubt to preach the gospel, as appears from Act 15:23, where churches are mentioned in those regions. In Tarsus, Barnabas met him somewhat later, and took him to Antioch, where they remained a whole year, and then they went together to Jerusalem (A. D. 44) on a benevolent mission (Act 11:25-30).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
The fourth evidence is here produced by St. Paul, to prove, that both his ministry and his message, his office and his doctrine, were divine; and that he was so far from learning the Christian religion from the Christian churches in Judea, that he was not by face so much as known to them, or they to him: They had heard, indeed, that one Paul, a persecutor, was become a preacher, but they had never seen him; and accordingly they magnified the grace of God in his conversion, admiring the wonderful change wrought in him.
Observe here, 1. The laborious diligence and indefatigable industry of St. Paul, in planting and propagating the Christian faith throughout the world; he travels, as soon as converted, into Arabia, then into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, thinking he could never do service enough for Christ, who had suffered and done so much for him. Oh, how full of life and zeal are young converts! What activity and industry for Christ and souls is found with them! They despise all dangers, they surmount all difficulties, are above all discouragements, in expressing their love to Christ, and venturing their lives for him: But, alas! as they grow older, their affections are cooler; so that they have many times just cause to say, Oh, that it were with me, as in the months of old, in the day when God converted me, when the secret of God was with me, and when by his light I walked through all difficulties to subserve his interest, and to promote his glory.
Observe, 2. The great and mighty power of the heart-changing grace of God, which turns the haters and professed enemies of religion into friends, and bitter and bloody persecutors into bold and painful preachers of the gospel: He who persecuted in times past, now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed. He that leads captivity captive, can soon make the stoutest enemies of religion to become its strongest friends.
Observe, 3. Paul, before his conversion, is said to destroy the faith, because he intended it, and endeavoured it, though he could not actually effect it, and accomplish it. Sin and evil, intended by a determinate resolution, are as good as acted, in God’s account. Bloody persecutors design no less than a total extirpation of the truth, to destroy the faith; which though it be out of their reach to effect, yet having deliberately resolved it, it is as actually accomplished in the account of God; He now preacheth the faith that once he destroyed.
Observe, lastly, to whom the glory and praise of converting grace is due, namely, to God, and to God alone; They glorified God in me; that is, they owned and admired the grace of God bestowed upon me, which wrought such a glorious and blessed change in me. The converting grace of God, wrought either in ourselves, or others, is matter of admiration, and calls for thanksgivings and acknowlegments unto God; They glorified God in me.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Then I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 21
Acts 9:29,30.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia; 22 And was unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea which were in Christ: 23 But they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed. 24 And they glorified God in me.
He was not recognized by the believers of Judea – since he had evidently not been there. The believers in the churches had heard of his conversion and of his preaching and gave God the glory for the transformation in his life.
My what an encouragement that must have been to the apostle, to know that some of the churches that knew well of his persecution of believers were now accepting of his conversion and his preaching and were giving God the glory for this wonderful change in a not so nice man.
Now, if I understand the sequence of things here we have him several years after conversion visiting Jerusalem and Peter – we see that the apostles don’t trust him, yet when he goes out into the world believers have heard of him and glorify God due to what they have heard. Now, one must wonder what the church folk had heard that the apostles hadn’t. There must have been a bit of a communication gap between the two geographical areas or the apostles weren’t as trusting as the common believer.
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
Paul did not even spend time in Judea where he might have heard the gospel he preached from other apostles or Christians. Instead he went north into Syria (above Judea, by way of Caesarea [Act 9:30]) and Cilicia, the province in which his hometown of Tarsus stood. He was there when Barnabas found him later (Act 11:25). He ministered in Syria and Cilicia for seven years (A.D. 37-43).
"From c. 25 BC Eastern Cilicia (including Tarsus) was united administratively with Syria to form one imperial province (Syria-Cilicia), governed by a legatus pro praetore with his headquarters in Syrian Antioch. This arrangement lasted until AD 72, when Eastern Cilicia was detached from Syria and united with Western Cilicia (Cilicia Tracheia) to form the province of Cilicia.
"At the time when both epistles were written [i.e., Galatians and 1 Thessalonians], the Roman province of Judaea included Galilee as well as Judaea (in the narrower sense) and Samaria (as it had done since the death of Herod Agrippa I in AD 44); ’Judaea’ may then denote here the whole of Palestine [cf. 1Th 2:14]." [Note: Bruce, p. 103. Cf. Fung, pp. 80-82.]
However in Act 9:31, "Judea" clearly refers to a division within Palestine.
Paul had so little contact with the churches in Judea that even after several years of ministry they could not recognize him by sight. They only knew him by reputation and thanked God for what He was doing through Paul, the opposite reaction of Paul’s Judaizing critics. Certainly the Judean Christians would not have been so happy if Paul had preached a gospel different from the one the other apostles had been preaching and they had believed.
"It is striking proof of the large space occupied by ’faith’ in the mind of the infant Church, that it should so soon have passed into a synonym for the Gospel. . . . Here its meaning seems to hover between the Gospel and the Church [Gal 1:23]." [Note: Lightfoot, p. 86.]
This section (Gal 1:11-24) helps us appreciate how convincing God’s revelation on the Damascus Road was to Paul. He not only repented concerning the person of Christ, but he also received an absolutely clear revelation both of his calling in life from then on and his message. He began to preach the gospel immediately without any authorization to do so from any other leaders of the church. We too have an equally clear revelation of our calling (Mat 28:19-20) and our message (2Co 5:20).