11:27 Prophets were still active in the church apparently until the completion of the New Testament canon. A prophet was a person to whom God had given ability to speak for Him (forth-telling, cf. 1 Cor. 14:1-5), which in some cases included the ability to receive and announce new revelation (fore-telling).
"The Jews believed that with the last of the [Old Testament] writing prophets, the spirit of prophecy had ceased in Israel; but the coming Messianic Age would bring an outpouring of God's Spirit, and prophecy would again flourish. The early Christians, having experienced the inauguration of the Messianic Age [i.e., the age of fulfillment], not only proclaimed Jesus to be the Mosaic eschatological prophet (cf. 3:22; 7:37) but also saw prophecy as a living phenomenon within the church (cf. also 13:1; 15:32; 21:9-10) and ranked it among God's gifts to his people next to that of being an apostle (cf. 1 Cor 12:28; Eph 4:11)."490
11:28 God fulfilled Agabus' prophecy (cf. 21:10). In the reign of Emperor Claudius (A.D. 41-54) there was a series of severe famines and poor harvests in various parts of the Roman Empire.491The Romans used the Greek word oikoumene("world,"lit. inhabited world) in exaggeration to refer to the Roman Empire (cf. Luke 2:1).
11:29 The Christians in Antioch demonstrated love for and unity with their brethren in Jerusalem by sending them some relief money. Luke previously documented the love and generosity of the Jerusalem Christians for one another (2:42; 4:32-35). Now he revealed that the Antioch Christians even surpassed them by sharing what they had with another congregation. The giving was voluntary and according to the ability that each Christian possessed (cf. 1 Cor. 16:2; 2 Cor. 9:7).
11:30 The church leaders chose Barnabas and Saul to carry the gift to Jerusalem. There they gave it to the "elders"(Gr. presbyteroi). This is the first use of that word in Acts. It can refer to older men chronologically (cf. 1 Tim. 5:1) or to officers in the church (Tit. 1:5). Probably the latter meaning is in view here since official leaders would probably have been responsible to distribute the gift. Evidently the apostles had set up elders as they had "the Seven"to facilitate the ministry there. Elders were common in Jewish synagogue worship where they served as overseers. As time passed, this organizational structure became normal in Christian churches as well.
The visit to which Luke referred here probably took place about 46 A.D. when Judea suffered from a severe famine.492This so-called famine visit to Jerusalem is probably the one Paul referred to in Galatians 2:1-10.493
As the Jerusalem church had ministered to the church in Antioch by providing leadership and teaching, the Antioch church now was able to minister to the Jerusalem church with financial aid (cf. Gal. 6:6). Luke probably included this reference to this relief to illustrate, among other things, the strength of the Gentile church outside Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria.
"The summary of the establishment of the church in Antioch presents an important new development, both geographically and ethnically. The gospel reaches a major city of the empire and finds a ready response from people of Greek culture, including Gentiles. The narrator pulls together threads from the preceding narrative, especially chapters 2 and 8, and weaves them into a tapestry to describe the new phase of the mission."494
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