the Fourth Week after Easter
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Postulasagan 13:4
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from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
being: Acts 20:23
Cyprus: Acts 4:36, Acts 11:19, Acts 27:4
Reciprocal: Jeremiah 23:21 - General Luke 10:2 - the Lord John 14:26 - Holy Ghost Acts 10:20 - for Acts 11:12 - the Spirit Acts 15:36 - in every Acts 15:39 - and sailed Acts 21:3 - Cyprus Romans 15:19 - so that
Gill's Notes on the Bible
So they being sent forth of the Holy Ghost,.... This is said, lest it should be thought they were sent by men; it was the Holy Ghost that moved the prophets at Antioch to separate them from them, and to send them away; and who inclined their minds to go, and directed them what course to steer: and accordingly they
departed to Seleucia; which was a city of Syria, called by Pliny, Seleucia Pieria d; it had its name from Seleucus Nicanor, king of Egypt, who was the builder of it: it was not far from Antioch, it is said to be twenty four miles from it; it is the first city of Syria from Cilicia, and was situated at the mouth of the river Orontes; wherefore Saul and Barnabas made no stay here; and it seems that their coming hither was only in order to take shipping for the island of Cyprus; for Seleucia was upon the sea coast, as appears from:
"King Ptolemee therefore, having gotten the dominion of the cities by the sea unto Seleucia upon the sea coast, imagined wicked counsels against Alexander.'' (1 Maccabees 11:8)
and was the proper place to set sail from to Cyprus. So we read of Apollonius Tyaneus and his companions e, that
"they went down to the sea by Seleucia, where having got a ship, "they sailed to Cyprus:" and so it follows here,''
and from thence they sailed to Cyprus; an island in the Mediterranean sea, the native country of Barnabas, Acts 4:36
Acts 4:36- :
d L. 5. c. 12, 21. e Philostrat. Vita Apollon. l. 3. c. 16.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Being sent forth by the Holy Ghost - Having been called to this world by the Holy Spirit, and being under his direction.
Departed unto Seleucia - This city was situated at the mouth of the river Orontes, where it fails into the Mediterranean. Antioch was connected with the sea by the Orontes River. Strabo says that in his time they sailed up the river in one day. The distance from Antioch to Seleucia by water is about 41 miles, while the journey by land is only 16 12 miles (Life and Epistles of Paul, vol. 1, p. 185. “Seleucia united the two characters of a fortress and a seaport. It was situated on a rocky eminence, which is the southern extremity of an elevated range of hills projecting from Mount Aranus. From the southeast, where the ruins of the Antioch gate are still conspicuous, the ground rose toward the northeast into high and craggy summits; and round the greater part of the circumference of 4 miles the city was protected by its natural position. The harbor and mercantile suburb were on level ground toward the west; but here, as on the only weak point at Gibraltar, strong artificial defenses had made compensation for the weakness of nature. Seleucus, who had named his metropolis in his father’s honor (p. 122), gave his own name to this maritime fortress; and here, around his tomb, his successors contended for the key of Syria. ‘Seleucia by the sea’ was a place of great importance under the Seleucidae and the Ptolemies, and so it remained under the sway of the Romans. In consequence of its bold resistance to Tigranes when he was in possession of all the neighboring country, Pompey gave it the privileges of a ‘free city;’ and a contemporary of Paul speaks of it as having those privileges still.
Here, in the midst of unsympathizing sailors, the two missionary apostles, with their younger companion, stepped on board the vessel which was to convey them to Salamis. As they cleared the port, the whole sweep of the bay of Antioch opened on their left - the low ground by the mouth of the Orontes; the wild and woody country beyond it; and then the peak of Mount Casius, rising symmetrically from the very edge of the sea to a height of 5000 feet. On the right, in the southwest horizon, if the day was clear, they saw the island of Cyprus from the first. The current sets northerly and northeast between the island and the Syrian coast. But with a fair wind, a few hours would enable them to run down from Seleucia to Salamis, and the land would rapidly rise in forms well known and familiar to Barnabas and Mark” (Life and Epistles of Paul, vol. 1, pp. 135, 138).
They sailed to Cyprus - An island in the Mediterranean, not far from Seleucia. See the notes on Acts 4:36.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Acts 13:4. Being sent forth by the Holy Ghost — By his influence, authority, and under his continual direction. Without the first, they were not qualified to go; without the second, they had no authority to go; and without the third, they could not know where to go.
Departed, unto Seleucia — This is generally understood to be Seleucia of Pieria, the first city on the coast of Syria, coming from Cilicia; near the place where the river Orontes pours itself into the sea.
They sailed to Cyprus. — A well known island in the Mediterranean Sea. Acts 4:36; Acts 4:36.