And when they were come
To Antioch:
and had gathered the church together:
which was in that place, and who came together at their request; for as they were sent out by them, they judged it proper to call them together; and give them an account of the issue of their work they were recommended by them to the grace of God to fulfil: and being come together at their usual place of meeting,
they rehearsed all that God had done with them;
and by them, as instruments; what grace and strength he had given them to preach the Gospel; what numbers of souls were everywhere converted by it; what miracles were wrought by them for the confirmation of it; and what persecutions and sufferings they had endured for the sake of it; and what deliverances were vouchsafed unto them:
and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles;
the phrase, "the door of faith", seems to be Jewish; it is to be met with in Jewish writings: it is said F6,
``there are two women found in the world, that express the praise of God, so as all the men of the world have not; and who are they? Deborah and Hannah: Hannah, according to ( 1 Samuel 2:2 ) "there is none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee" and all proclaim that she (amlel atwnmyhmd axtp txtp) , "opens the door of faith to the world", as ( Acts 14:8 ) "he raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the beggar from the dunghill, lo, the door of faith; to set them among princes", lo, the faith that is above.''The sense here seems to be, that God had given an opportunity to the apostles to preach the doctrine of faith unto the Gentiles, and the Gentiles had had an opportunity of hearing and embracing it; God had opened the mouths of his ministers to preach to them, and he had opened their hearts to attend unto it, and receive it; for it may be understood of his giving of them the grace of faith, by which they received Christ, and his Gospel, into their hearts: so a like phrase is used by the Targumist on ( Jeremiah 33:6 ) who paraphrases the words thus;
``behold, I will bring unto them healing and redemption, and I will heal them, and I will reveal, or "open to them", (abwyt ert) , "the door of repentance";''that is, I will give them repentance: so here, when God is said to open the door of faith to the Gentiles, the sense is, that he had given the grace of faith to them, which came by hearing the word of the Gospel, which he sent them; and gave them encouragement to believe in Christ; so the phrase a door of hope is used in ( Hosea 2:15 ) .