[CHRIST. XLI] ACTS CHAP. XI. from Vers. 19. to the end of the Chapter.
AS Caesarea the seat of the Roman Governour of Judea, first seeth the door of faith opened to the Gentiles, so Antioch the seat of the Roman Governour of Syria, first heareth the name Christian. These of the hundred and twenty Ministers [menti∣oned, Acts 1. 15.] that had fled upon the persecution raised against Steven, went preach∣ing up and down first as far as the bounds of Judea extended: then some of them step∣ped out, as far as into Phaenice, Cyprus and Syria, but all this while dealing with the Jews only. At last some of them at Antioch 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 spake to the Hellenists ver. 20. Here the word Hellenists is of doubtful interpretation: only this is doubtless in it, that it means not Jews, as the word doth, Acts 6. 1. for it is set in opposition to them, ver. 19. Doth it mean Proselytes then? That it cannot neither, for they were reputed as Jews to all purposes. Means it Heathens? Yes, that is undoubted it doth, both by the scope of the story here, and by the quarrel urging these believers at Antioch to be Cir∣cumcised, Chap. 15. But why then should they be called Hellenistae rather then Hellenes? Some conceive, because they were become 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Proselyte sojournours, meaning that they had forsaken their Idolatry: as Cornelius had done his, though he were not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a Proselyte circumcised: But what if these were native Syrians by pedegree and lan∣guage, could they then for that be called Hellenists or Greeks? The word therefore must mean, that they were such as were Syrogrecians; Antioch it self indeed having been once the head of the Syrogrecian Empire: Hellenes or purely Greeks they could not be called [though it will not be denied they spake that Language] because they were not only no inhabitants of that Country, but not altogether of that blood: but such as were of a mixture of Syrian and Greek; the progeny of the old plantations and infranchisments of the Syrogrecian Monarchy. Whatsoever their title Hellenists includeth, they being un∣doubtedly Heathens, it sheweth that these Ministers preached to them, understood of the liberty given to preach to the Gentiles, and the passage betwixt Peter and Cornelius, or they durst not have been bold to have gone beyond the partition wall without their warrant: And the readiness of the Church at Jerusalem to send Barnabas to them, shews that they also were satisfied in this matter, and so this evidenceth that this story was after that about Cornelius.
Their sending Barnabas, and his fetching Saul to the same work with him, giveth some confirmation of that which was touched before, namely that it is very probable that Bar∣nabas knew of his own being designed for a Minister to the uncircumcision, and of Pauls being joyned with him in that work, a great while before they were sent away from An∣tioch upon it: They now spend a whole year in the Church there, and there the Name Christian is first taken up, and that in a Gentile Church. Antioch of old had been called Hamath, but now it bare the name of one that had been as bloody a persecutor of the Church and truth: as the Church of Israel had ever seen, Antiochus. The very name of the place may raise a meditation.