Acts 11:29,30 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Then the disciples Foreseeing the distress they would otherwise be in, on account of that famine; determined to send relief unto the brethren in Judea Καθως ηυπορειτο τις, according as each was prospered, or, according to the abundance which each had; these disciples being, doubtless, some in more plentiful circumstances than others. “This their determination was extremely proper; for the churches of Judea being more exposed than other churches to persecution, and the rapacity of the Roman officers, and to those outrages which the populace, under weak and corrupt governments, commit upon the objects of their hatred, the brethren in Judea could not have supported this dearth, if they had not been assisted from abroad.” Macknight. These disciples, therefore, at Antioch, having made collections for them, sent the money, not to the apostles, (for they had now given up the management of the funds of the church in Jerusalem to others,) but to the elders Or rulers of that church, chosen, perhaps, out of the one hundred and twenty, on whom the Holy Ghost fell at first. And these were to deliver it to the deacons, or otherwise to make distribution thereof to the brethren, according to their need. By sending this seasonable gift to the brethren in Judea, the disciples at Antioch, among whom were many Gentile proselytes, gave proof of the reality of their conversion, and did what they could to conciliate the good-will of the Jewish believers. And this mark of their regard seems to have been well received by them.