Acts 14:28

And there they abode long time with the disciples. That is, Paul and Barnabas continued a considerable time at Antioch with the believers there, before they set out on another journey; and what might

And there they abode long time with the disciples. And [there] they abode. [The bracketed word has but slender authority].

To confirm them, as ; and also, as our Saviour withdrew himself from the multitudes, they chose there to refresh themselves a while, out of the heat of contention and persecution.

28 And there they abode long time with the disciples. Ver. 28. There they abode] As in a receptacle of rest, a place of free profession; such as Geneva hath been for many years to the persecuted Protestants, which makes the wicked Papists give out, that it is a professed sanctuary of all manner of roguery; that the people there are blasphemers of God and all his saints, yea, that they are grown barbarous, and eat young children, &c. And this the common people are taught to believe as gospel.

(28) There they abode long time.—The words probably cover an interval of more than a year, during which it is reasonable to suppose that the preaching of the two Apostles drew together a large number of Gentile converts.

Verse 28. And there they abode long time] How long the apostles tarried here we cannot tell; but we hear no more of them till the council of Jerusalem, mentioned in the following chapter, which is generally supposed to have been held in the year 51 of our Lord; and, if the transactions of this chapter took place in A.D. 46, as chronologers think, then there are five whole years of St. Paul's ministry, and that of other apostles, which St. Luke passes by in perfect silence. It is very likely that all this time Paul and Barnabas were employed in extending the work of God through the different provinces contiguous to Antioch; for St. Paul himself tells us that he preached the Gospel so far as Illyria, Romans 15:19, on the side of the Adriatic Gulf: see its situation on the map. Many of the tribulations and perils through which the Apostle Paul passed are not mentioned by St, Luke, particularly those of which he himself speaks, 2 Corinthians 11:23-27. He had been five times scourged by the Jews; thrice beaten by the Romans; thrice shipwrecked; a whole night and day in the deep, probably saving his life upon a plank; besides frequent journeyings, and perils from his countrymen, from the heathen, from robbers, in the city, in the wilderness, in the sea, among false brethren, c., c. Of none of these have we any circumstantial account. Probably most of these happened in the five years which elapsed between the apostles' return to Antioch, and the council of Jerusalem. IN reading the Acts of the Apostles we may have often occasion to remark that in preaching the Gospel they carefully considered the different circumstances of the Jews and the Gentiles, and suited their address accordingly. When speaking to the former, of the necessity of crediting the Gospel, because without it they could not be saved, they took care to support all their assertions by passages drawn from the LAW and the PROPHETS, as every Jew considered those books to be of Divine authority, and from their decision there was no appeal. But, in addressing the Gentiles, who had no revelation, they drew the proof of their doctrine from the visible creation and demonstrated, by plain reasoning, the absurdity of their idolatrous worship, and called them off from those vanities to the worship of the living and true God, who made and governs all things, and who gave them such proofs of his being, wisdom, and goodness, in the provision made for their comfort and support, that they had only to reflect on the subject in order to be convinced of its truth. And while, in consequence, they saw the absurdity of their own system, they would at once discover the reasonableness of that religion which was now offered to them, in the name and on the authority of that God who had fed and preserved them all their life long, and girded them when they knew him not.

28. And there they abode long time with the disciples] The oldest MSS. omit “there.” Render literally, “And they abode no little time with the disciples.” St Paul was naturally more attached to Antioch than to Jerusalem, for here was the centre where Gentiles had first formed a Church, and where consequently he found most sympathy with his special labours.The termination of St Paul’s first missionary journey seems no unfitting place for a notice of the character of the Apostle’s labours. We must assign a space of three or four years to this first mission, and as the district traversed was but small, a considerable time must have been spent at each place chosen for a centre of labour. The narrative of St Luke indicates this very clearly. He tells us (Acts 13:49) how from Antioch “the word of the Lord was published throughout all the religion.” Again he speaks (Acts 13:52, Acts 14:22) of “the disciples” as though converts had been made in no small numbers. Then at Iconium he mentions (Acts 14:1) that “a great multitude both of Jews and Greeks believed,” and (Acts 14:3) that “long time” was spent there in striving to overcome the opposition of the “unbelieving Jews,” and at last the whole city appears to have been divided into two great factions. Such a result was not produced by two unknown Jewish missionaries, except after the lapse of a long time. So too at Lystra they abode long enough to gain many adherents, and form a congregation of earnest disciples. And the abundant fruit of the labours of the missionaries is clearly seen in the need for the ordination of elders, and in the provisions made for orderly church government. The language of St Paul too (Acts 15:36) when he speaks of revisiting “the brethren in every city where they had before preached the word of the Lord” indicates that he felt that a good foundation had been laid in the different places where they had ministered. It seems from this that the course adopted by the Apostle was to tarry in some centre of population, and continue his preaching till a sufficient number of converts had been gained to carry on the work after he left them, and till some of these were so far instructed as to be able to take oversight of the infant churches.But it is when we read of the Christian congregations that the narrative of St Luke becomes most full of interest. St Paul had been by a revelation (Acts 22:21) sent to be the Apostle of the Gentiles, and he testifies himself to this statement of St Luke in his Epistle to the Galatians (Galatians 2:7). Yet the history shews him to us quite in harmony with the feelings expressed in his letter to the Romans (Acts 10:1) as one whose heart’s desire for Israel is that they may be saved; and in full accord with that language in which in the same epistle (Acts 11:1) he identifies himself with the children of Israel.

And there they abode - At Antioch. Long time - How long is not intimated; but we hear no more of them until the council at Jerusalem, mentioned in the next chapter.