Acts 11:28 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And there stood up one of them named Agabus,— Agabus prophesied that the famine should spread throughout the whole world, which phrase was frequently used in those times to signify the whole Roman empire, which included most of the then known world. Accordingly, Eusebius says of this famine, that it oppressed almost the whole empire; and that it was recorded by historians most averse to our religion. For instance, Suetonius, in the life of Claudius, says it happened ob assiduas sterilitates,—through a long barrenness. Josephus says, that it raged so much in Judea, that many perished for want of victuals. And Dion Cassius says, that it was a very great famine, and happened when Claudius and Caius Largus were consuls, that is, in the second year of Claudius; though it seems rather to have been that which happened (as Eusebius in his Chronicon, and Orosius, 50. 7. 6 place it) in the fourth year of Claudius. However, I see no sufficient reason to suppose that the phrase throughout the whole world, should not be taken in the strictest sense, and that the famine was not really universal.