Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Acts · About this commentary
A famine foretold, and a collection sent
Acts 11:27-30
27 Now in these days, prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. · WEB
The first thing the Gentile church does with its money is send it to the Jewish church, and the direction of the gift is the point.
Prophets come down from Jerusalem to Antioch, which is the first mention of such a movement between the two centers, and one of them is named. Agabus will appear once more, years later, with a belt and a warning Acts 21:10–11, and on both occasions his message is specific and unwelcome.
He indicated by the Spirit that there should be a great famine all over the world, and the writer adds a note from his own vantage point: which also happened in the days of Claudius. The confirmation is offered as a matter of record, in a reign the readers could date. Prophecy in this book is regularly checkable, and the writer checks it.
What the church does with the warning is the substance of the paragraph. The prediction concerns a future hardship, and the response is neither stockpiling nor prayer for deliverance. As any of the disciples had plenty, each determined to send relief to the brothers who lived in Judea. Told that hard times are coming, they arrange to give money away.
The measure is stated with care: as any of the disciples had plenty. Giving is proportioned to capacity and decided individually — each determined — which is the same voluntary shape the sharing took in Jerusalem, without any of the pooling. Nothing here is levied.
The direction of the gift is the thing to hold on to. Antioch is the young, mixed, Greek-speaking church of doubtful pedigree, recently inspected by a delegation from headquarters. Judea is the mother church, the apostolic center, the community whose approval Antioch might have wanted. And it is Antioch that sends aid to Judea. The relationship established in the first exchange between the two runs from the periphery to the center, and it runs in money.
It is also the answer, given years in advance, to a question about to be asked in earnest. When men come down from Judea insisting that Gentile believers be circumcised, the Gentile church that is put on trial will already have a record of having fed the church trying it. Paul spent the rest of his working life on collections for Jerusalem 1 Corinthians 16:1–4 Romans 15:25–27, and the reason he gives elsewhere is the one implied here: those who received spiritual things from Jerusalem owe material things back.
The delivery is made to the elders, which is the first appearance of that office in the book, mentioned without introduction as though the readers know what it is. Jerusalem now has elders as well as apostles, and famine relief is handled by them.
And it is carried by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. The two men who will shortly be separated by the Spirit for a work that reaches Europe are first sent out together as couriers of a relief fund. The apostolic career of the New Testament's greatest missionary begins with a bag of money going in the opposite direction.
settled What this mark means