But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down.
But when they departed from Perga - apparently without making any stay, or doing anything evangelistic there. So, at least, we naturally infer from the silence of the historian in this place, and his expressly stating that on their way back "they preached the word in Perga" (Acts 14:25). There must have been a reason for this; and the probable one (as given by Howson) will appear immediately.
They came to Antioch in Pisidia (or 'of Pisidia') - almost due north from Perga, and so called to distinguish it from the Syrian Antioch, from which they had set out. It was a long and rugged journey; and lying as it did almost through entirely rugged mountain-passes, while 'rivers burst out at the bases of huge cliffs, or dash down wildly through narrow ravines,' it must have been a perilous one. The whole region was, and to this day is, infested by robbers, as ancient history and modern travels abundantly attest; and there can be little doubt that to this very journey Paul many years after alludes, when he speaks amidst his "journeyings often," of his 'perils of rivers' (as the word is), and his "perils of robbers" (2 Corinthians 11:26). If this journey were taken in May-and much earlier than that the passes would have been blocked up with snow-it would account for their not staying at Perga, whose hot streets are then deserted-`men, women, and children (to use the words of Howson, to whom we are indebted for these remarks), flocks, herds, camels, and donkeys, all ascending at the beginning of the hot season from the plains to the cool basin-like hollows on the mountains, moving in the same direction with our missionaries.'