‘Those therefore who were scattered abroad as a result of the tribulation which arose about Stephen, travelled as far as Phoenicia, and Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the word to none save only to Jews.'
As a result of the persecution following Stephen's words and death, a good number of Hellenistic Jewish Christians travelled around ‘talking about' the word concerning Christ, we might even say ‘gossiping the word', as they travelled from place to place making contacts and talking to men and women about Jesus. But they only at this stage took the message to Jews, for the outreach to the Gentiles had not even been considered. They went first to Phoenicia, north of Galilee, (we learn later of groups of Christians in Tyre, Sidon and Ptolemais (Acts 21:3-4; Acts 21:7; Acts 27:3)), and then from Phoenician ports across the sea to the island of Cyprus (from which Barnabas came), and then eventually to the great city of Syrian Antioch.