'Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and
teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of
Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch,
and Saul. 2. As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost
said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have
called them. 3. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their
hands on them, they sent them away. A. So they, being sent forth by the
Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to
Cyprus. 5. And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God
in the synagogues of the Jews; and they had also John to their
minister. 6. And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they
found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was
Bar-jesus: 7. Which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus,
a prudent man, who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear
the word of God. 8. But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by
interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from
the faith. 9. Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the
Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, 10. And said, O full of all subtilty
and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all
righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the
Lord? 11. And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou
shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there
fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to
lead him by the hand. 12. Then the deputy, when he saw what was done,
believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord. 13. Now when
Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in
Pamphylia: and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem.'--ACTS
xiii. 1-13.
We stand in this passage at the beginning of a great step forward.
Philip and Peter had each played a part in the gradual expansion of the
church beyond the limits of Judaism; but it was from the church at
Antioch that the messengers went forth who completed the process. Both
its locality and its composition made that natural.
I. The solemn designation of the missionaries is the first point in the
narrative. The church at Antioch was not left without signs of Christ's
grace and presence. It had its band of 'prophets and teachers.' As
might be expected, four of the five named are Hellenists,--that is,
Jews born in Gentile lands, and speaking Gentile languages. Barnabas
was a Cypriote, Simeon's byname of Niger ('Black') was probably given
because of his dark complexion, which was probably caused by his birth
in warmer lands. He may have been a North African, as Lucius of Cyrene
was. Saul was from Tarsus, and only Manaen remains to represent the
pure Palestinian Jew. His had been a strange course, from being
foster-brother of the Herod who killed John to becoming a teacher in
the church at Antioch. Barnabas was the leader of the little group, and
the younger Pharisee from Tarsus, who had all along been Barnabas's
_protege_, brought up the rear.
The order observed in the list is a little window which shows a great
deal. The first and last names all the world knows; the other three are
never heard of again. Immortality falls on the two, oblivion swallows
up the three. But it matters little whether our names are sounded in
men's ears, if they are in the Lamb's book of life.
These five brethren were waiting on the Lord by fasting and prayer.
Apparently they had reason to expect some divine communication, for
which they were thus preparing themselves. Light will come to those who
thus seek it. They were commanded to set apart two of their number for
'the work whereunto I have called them.' That work is not specified,
and yet the two, like carrier pigeons on being let loose, make straight
for their line of flight, and know exactly whither they are to go.
If we strictly interpret Luke's words ('I _have_ called them'), a
previous intimation from the Spirit had revealed to them the sphere of
their work. In that case, the _separation_ was only the recognition by
the brethren of the divine appointment. The inward call must come
first, and no ecclesiastical designation can do more than confirm that.
But the solemn designation by the Church identifies those who remain
behind with the work of those who go forth; it throws responsibility
for sympathy and support on the former, and it ministers strength and
the sense of companionship to the latter, besides checking that
tendency to isolation which accompanies earnestness. To go forth on
even Christian service, unrecognised by the brethren, is not good for
even a Paul.
But although Luke speaks of the Church sending them away, he takes care
immediately to add that it was the Holy Ghost who 'sent them forth.'
Ramsay suggests that 'sent them away' is not the meaning of the phrase
in verse 3, but that it should be rendered 'gave them leave to depart.'
In any case, a clear distinction is drawn between the action of the
Church and that of the Spirit, which constituted Paul's real commission
as an Apostle. He himself says that he was an Apostle, 'not from men,
neither through man.'
II. The events in the first stage of the journey are next summarily
presented. Note the local colouring in 'went _down_ to Seleucia,' the
seaport of Antioch, at the mouth of the river. The missionaries were
naturally led to begin at Cyprus, as Barnabas's birthplace, and that of
some of the founders of the church at Antioch.
So, for the first time, the Gospel went to sea, the precursor of so
many voyages. It was an 'epoch-making moment' when that ship dropped
down with the tide and put out to sea. Salamis was the nearest port on
the south-eastern coast of Cyprus, and there they landed,--Barnabas, no
doubt, familiar with all he saw; Saul probably a stranger to it all.
Their plan of action was that to which Paul adhered in all his after
work,--to carry the Gospel to the Jew first, a proceeding for which the
manner of worship in the synagogues gave facilities. No doubt, many
such were scattered through Cyprus, and Barnabas would be well known in
most.
They thus traversed the island from east to west. It is noteworthy that
only now is John Mark's name brought in as their attendant. He had come
with them from Antioch, but Luke will not mention him, when he is
telling of the sending forth of the other two, because Mark was not
sent by the Spirit, but only chosen by his uncle, and his subsequent
defection did not affect the completeness of their embassy. His
entirely subordinate place is made obvious by the point at which he
appears.
Nothing of moment happened on the tour till Paphos was reached. That
was the capital, the residence of the pro-consul, and the seat of the
foul worship of Venus. There the first antagonist was met. It is not
Sergius Paulus, pro-consul though he was, who is the central figure of
interest to Luke, but the sorcerer who was attached to his train. His
character is drawn in Luke's description, and in Paul's fiery
exclamation. Each has three clauses, which fall 'like the beats of a
hammer.' 'Sorcerer, false prophet, Jew,' make a climax of wickedness.
That a Jew should descend to dabble in the black art of magic, and play
tricks on the credulity of ignorant people by his knowledge of some
simple secrets of chemistry; that he should pretend to prophetic gifts
which in his heart he knew to be fraud, and should be recreant to his
ancestral faith, proved him to deserve the penetrating sentence which
Paul passed on him. He was a trickster, and knew that he was: his
inspiration came from an evil source; he had come to hate righteousness
of every sort.
Paul was not flinging bitter words at random, or yielding to passion,
but was laying the black heart bare to the man's own eyes, that the
seeing himself as God saw him might startle him into penitence. 'The
corruption of the best is the worst.' The bitterest enemies of God's
ways are those who have cast aside their early faith. A Jew who had
stooped to be a juggler was indeed causing God's 'name to be blasphemed
among the Gentiles.'
He and Paul each recognised in the other his most formidable foe.
Elymas instinctively felt that the pro-consul must be kept from
listening to the teaching of these two fellow-countrymen, and 'sought
to _pervert_ him from the faith,' therein _perverting_ (the same word
is used in both cases) 'the right ways of the Lord'; that is, opposing
the divine purpose. He was a specimen of a class who attained influence
in that epoch of unrest, when the more cultivated and nobler part of
Roman society had lost faith in the old gods, and was turning wistfully
and with widespread expectation to the mysterious East for
enlightenment.
So, like a ship which plunges into the storm as soon as it clears the
pier-head, the missionaries felt the first dash of the spray and blast
of the wind directly they began their work. Since this was their first
encounter with a foe which they would often have to meet, the duel
assumes importance, and we understand not only the fulness of the
narrative, but the miracle which assured Paul and Barnabas of Christ's
help, and was meant to diffuse its encouragement along the line of
their future work. For Elymas it was chastisement, which might lead him
to cease to pervert the ways of the Lord, and himself begin to walk in
them. Perhaps, after a season, he did see 'the better Sun.'
Saul's part in the incident is noteworthy. We observe the vivid touch,
he 'fastened his eyes on him.' There must have been something very
piercing in the fixed gaze of these flashing eyes. But Luke takes pains
to prevent our thinking that Paul spoke from his own insight or was
moved by human passion. He was 'filled with the Holy Ghost,' and, as
His organ, poured out the scorching words that revealed the cowering
apostate to himself, and announced the merciful punishment that was to
fall. We need to be very sure that we are similarly filled before
venturing to imitate the Apostle's tone.
III. The shifting of the scene to the mainland presents some noteworthy
points. It is singular that there is no preaching mentioned as having
been attempted in Perga, or anywhere along the coast, but that the two
evangelists seem to have gone at once across the great mountain range
of Taurus to Antioch of Pisidia.
A striking suggestion is made by Ramsay to the effect that the reason
was a sudden attack of the malarial fever which is endemic in the
low-lying coast plains, and for which the natural remedy is to get up
among the mountains. If so, the journey to Antioch of Pisidia may not
have been in the programme to which John Mark had agreed, and his
return to Jerusalem may have been due to this departure from the
original intention. Be that as it may, he stands for us as a beacon,
warning against hasty entrance on great undertakings of which we have
not counted the cost, no less than against cowardly flight from work,
as soon as it begins to involve more danger or discomfort than we had
reckoned on.
John Mark was willing to go a-missionarying as long as he was in
Cyprus, where he was somebody and much at home, by his relationship to
Barnabas; but when Perga and the climb over Taurus into strange lands
came to be called for, his zeal and courage oozed out at his
finger-ends, and he skulked back to his mother's house at Jerusalem. No
wonder that Paul 'thought not good to take with them him who withdrew
from them.' But even such faint hearts as Mark's may take courage from
the fact that he nobly retrieved his youthful error, and won back
Paul's confidence, and proved himself 'profitable to him for the
ministry.'