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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Acts 13:4 - 13:4
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Act 13:4-12. Arriving in Cyprus they preach in the synagogues of Salamis - At Paphos, Elymas is struck blind, and the governor of the island is converted.
departed unto Seleucia - the seaport of Antioch, from which it lay nearly due west fifteen miles, and five from the Mediterranean shore, on the river Orontes.
thence sailed to Cyprus - whose high mountain summits are easily seen in clear weather from the coast [Colonel Chesney in Howson]. “Four reasons may have induced them to turn in first to this island: (1) Its nearness to the mainland; (2) It was the native place of Barnabas, and since the time when Andrew found his brother Simon, and brought him to Jesus, and “Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus,” family ties had not been without effect on the progress of the Gospel. (3) It could not be unnatural to suppose that the truth would be welcomed in Cyprus when brought by Barnabas and his kinsman Mark, to their own connections or friends. The Jews were numerous in Salamis. By sailing to that city, they were following the track of the synagogues; and though their mission was chiefly to the Gentiles, their surest course for reaching them was through the proselytes and Hellenizing Jews. (4) Some of the Cypriotes were already Christians. Indeed, no one place out of Palestine, except Antioch, had been so honorably associated with the work of successful evangelization” [Howson].