They came to Antioch in Pisidia. — The town was one of the many cities built by Seleucus Nicator, and named after his father, Antiochus. It lay on the slopes of Mount Taurus, which the travelers must have crossed, had obtained the “Jus Italicum” — a modified form of Roman citizenship — under Augustus, and had attracted, as the sequel shows, a considerable Jewish population, who had made many proselytes among the Gentiles (Acts 13:42). It lay on the extreme limit of Pisidia, with Phrygia on the west and Lycaonia on the east.
Went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down. — The act implied that they were not listeners only, but teachers. (See Notes on Matthew 5:1; Luke 4:20.) They sat as in the seat of the Rabbi, and their doing so was an indication, as the sequel shows, that they asked for permission to address the congregation. It will be remembered that the organisation of the synagogue excluded the sacerdotal element altogether, and that lay-preaching, assuming a sufficient training, was an established practice. It need hardly be said that neither elders nor scribes were necessarily of the tribe of Levi.