But when they departed from Perga, &c.— From Perga, Paul and Barnabas went further into the country, and came to Antioch, a considerable city in the district of Pisidia; which lay north of Pamphylia, and consequently further from the sea. The situation of this place is particularized by the sacred writer, to intimate how carefullyit should be distinguished from Antioch in Syria, so much more frequently mentioned in this history. The apostles, as was usual, entered into the Jewish synagogue at Antioch on the sabbath-day, and sat down most probably in the chairs of the doctors, to intimate their errand. The ancient Jews had divided the law into fifty-three or fifty-four sections, and the prophets into as many; and by usually reading a section of each every sabbath-day, and joining two of the shortest together for two sabbath-days, they read the greatest part of the Old Testament over once every year.
Some say, that the custom was introduced by Ezra, and indeed it appears to have been of an ancient date. Till that reading of the law and the prophets was over, Paul and Barnabas sat as hearers; but after the reading of the Scriptures, the rulers of the synagogue used to permit or desire whom they pleased to explain what had been read, or to make some useful exhortations to the people; and either knowing something of the character of these two apostles, or perhaps merely from their sitting in the chairs of the doctors, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, desiring that if they had any doctrine or pious exhortation to deliver to the people, they would speak freely and openly in the synagogue. See the note on Luke 4:16.