Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.
Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where, х dieelthon (G1330)] - 'went up and down' or 'in all directions,'
Preaching the word. The least that this can mean is that they went through the principal parts of Palestine; Samaria being particularized only because a detailed account of what took place there was to be subjoined. Accordingly, after Saul's conversion, it is said, "Then had the churches (or, according to the genuine reading. 'the Church') rest throughout all Judea and Galilee" (see the notes at Acts 9 to 31); which implies that before this the Gospel had obtained a footing in all those parts. Also, when Peter "passed throughout all quarters" (that is, of Palestine), he found "saints at Lydda," and there seems hardly to have been a spot in which there were not disciples (Acts 9:32-43). Thus faithfully and successfully, when at length driven out of Jerusalem, was the Masters injunction carried out, "Ye shall be witnesses unto me in all Judea." But this was not all; because in a subsequent chapter we read that "they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only," and that some of these zealous preachers, bursting the fetters that bound their fellow-preachers to the Jews exclusively, preached at Antioch to the Gentiles also, and with immense success. (See the notes at Acts 11:19-21.) From these intensely interesting facts being reserved by the historian until after the conversion of Cornelius, the general reader is apt to think that they occurred subsequently to that in point of time. But they plainly belong to the period immediately following the dispersion of the Christians from Jerusalem on the death of Stephen.