ESV Global Study Bible :: Footnotes for Acts 11

Acts 11:2 The circumcision party was a group of strict Jewish Christians. They probably held the position that Gentiles who wished to become Christians must first become converts to Judaism. This included circumcision and living by the ritual laws.

Acts 11:3 On eating with uncircumcised men, see 10:28.

Acts 11:12 Peter was to make no distinction between Jews and Gentiles.

Acts 11:15 Just as on us refers to Pentecost. See also 10:44–48 and note on 10:47. That the Spirit came to Cornelius and other Gentiles settled matters as far as Peter was concerned.

Acts 11:18 On repentance, see note on 2:38.

Acts 11:19–26 With the establishing of a church at Antioch and its outreach to Gentiles, the focus in Acts shifts from Jerusalem to Antioch.

Acts 11:19 persecution that arose over Stephen. See 8:1, 4. Phoenicia was in the area of present-day Lebanon. Its primary cities were Tyre, Sidon, and Ptolemais. (For Christian communities there, see 21:3–7.) Cyprus was 100 miles (161 km) off the coast. Antioch (modern Antakya) was the largest city of the area and capital of the Roman province of Syria. It had a population of a half million or more. Only Rome and Alexandria were larger in ancient times.

Acts 11:20 men of Cyprus and Cyrene. Diaspora Jews, natives of the nearby island of Cyprus and of the northern African region of Cyrene. Hellenists here means Greek-speaking Gentiles. (This term can refer to a variety of groups; see note on 6:1.)

Acts 11:22 they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When the “mother church” in Jerusalem heard of Antioch’s witness to the Gentiles, they sent Barnabas to confirm the faithfulness of the new outreach (compare 8:14).

Acts 11:25–26 Paul had gone to Tarsus after his conversion (9:30). As a Diaspora Jew, he was particularly suited for the Gentile outreach. The fact that the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch probably reflects a label applied by the unbelieving public in Antioch. It shows that the disciples were beginning to have an identity of their own apart from other Jews. See also 26:28 and 1 Pet. 4:16.

Acts 11:27–30 Paul and Barnabas represented the Antioch church by bringing its offering to the Jerusalem church in a time of need (see chart). Paul says in Gal. 2:1 that this second visit to Jerusalem (Acts 11:30) took place “after fourteen years” (presumably 14 years after his conversion), so it occurred in either a.d. 45, 46, or 47. Most commentators believe these calculations of years were made according to ancient “inclusive” methods, in which part of a year was still counted as a year. Paul’s “fourteen years” could have been as little as twelve and a half years by modern methods of counting.

Acts 11:27 Christian prophets are mentioned elsewhere in Acts (13:1; 15:32; 21:9). They provided instruction and encouragement as they spoke words revealed to them by the Holy Spirit. Sometimes such prophecies foretold the future, as Agabus did here (see also 21:4, 10–11). On the gift of prophecy, see note on 1 Cor. 12:10 and other notes on 1 Corinthians 12–14.

Acts 11:28 a great famine. Historians believe this famine took place in a.d. 45–46 or 47. Over all the world is a general prediction of the many regional famines that took place during Claudius’s reign.

Acts 11:30 The reference to elders marks a transition in day-to-day leadership of the Jerusalem church (see 4:35–37; 6:1–6).