Cyprus And The Proconsul Series

The plural “synagogues” implies a considerable Jewish population, and henceforth the Apostles followed the general rule announced in Acts 13:46—“Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing you put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, see, we turn to the Gentiles. Jews were living in all the countries adjacent to Judea, and in those countries they had synagogues. Salamis had more than one synagogue, in which Barnabas and Saul preached, while other cities had only one.

And they had also John to their minister.

This was John Mark, the nephew of Barnabas, whom they brought with them from Jerusalem (Acts 12:12), who waited upon them and provided them with the necessities of life; but he was not active in the ministry of the word, which is particularly attributed to Paul and Barnabas. He did not function as an assistant to them in the Gospel ministry; nor was he the minister who direct public service in any of the synagogues, so it cannot be thought he held any such office and authority; but he provided personal service and ministered in civil and secular things to the apostles, or to the poor by their orders. It is probable that he was engaged in baptizing converts, and, where a church was founded, he made preparations for the Lord’s Supper. He was with them as their friend and traveling companion; and was also employed in making the necessary arrangements for their comfort, and in supplying their needs during their travels. Considering the total work of Mark, it would not be too much to say that he was, more than any other disciple, the courier of the Apostolic Church.

The word rendered here as “minister” denotes an inferior minister, as it does in Luke 4:20—“And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.” Here it is synonymous with a deacon. John was to Barnabas and Saul what Joshua was to Moses, Elisha to Elijah, etc. Peter, when he went to Caesarea, was accompanied by six brethren (Acts 11:12).

6 And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Barjesus:

And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos

Some versions read, ‘the whole isle,’ for they must go through the interior of the island, to go from Salarnis to Paphos, since Salamis was on the east, and Paphos on the west of the island. They were probably teaching in the synagogues along their route in the same way they had done in Salamis. The length of the island, according to Strabo, was 1,400 stadia, or nearly 170 miles. At this time, the island is supposed to have had one million inhabitants.

Some say Cinyras, a king of the Assyrians, built Paphos; but others say that Agapenor, who came there after the Trojan war, was the builder of this city, and also of the temple of Venus, for which it was famous; and it seems at this time to have been the seat of the Roman governor Paulus Sergius, and the capital of Cyprus. Paphos boasted of a strong, and almost impregnable tower, situated upon a hill in the middle of the city, supposed to be the habitation of Sergius Paulus. There is also, under a certain church, a prison divided into seven rooms, where they say Paul and Barnabas were imprisoned, for preaching the Gospel. It was famous for the sacred rites of Venus and the many poets who lived there. It was destroyed by frequent earthquakes, and now its ruins only show what it formerly was.