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Acts 16:7
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Acts 16:7 Meaning and Commentary
After they were come to Mysia
Another country in Asia Minor. It is divided by Ptolomy F1 into two parts; superior Mysia is bounded by Dalmatia on the west, by Macedonia on the south, by part of Thrace on the east, and by part of the river Danube on the north; inferior Mysia is bounded on the west with part of the river Ciaber and the Danube, on the south with part of Thrace, on the north with the turn of the river Tyra, and on the east with the Euxine Pontus; but this was the European Mysia: the Mysia which seems here intended, was divided into the lesser Mysia by the Hellespont, and had Troas on the south; and into the greater Mysia by Olympus, which was bounded on the west with the lesser Mysia and Troas, on the east with Bithynia, and on the south with Asia, properly so called. By Pliny F2 it is called Aeolis, and so Jerom says F3, it was in his times; sometimes it is called Abretta and Abrettina, and of later years Thya, or Thyria: some suggest it has its name of Mysia from Mysus, the brother of Car F4, the father of the Carions; but according to the Talmudists, it had its name from Meshech, the son of Japheth, ( Genesis 10:2 ) for they say F5 Meshech, (ayowm wz) , "this is Mysia"; Pliny observes F6, that there are some authors who assert that the Mysians, Brygians, and Thynnians came out of Europe, from whom they are called Mysians, Phrygians, and Bithynians, in Asia. The inhabitants of Mysia were very despicable; hence the proverb, "ultimus Mysorum", "the last of the Mysians" F7, is used for a very mean and contemptible person. The apostle was willing to preach to the wise and unwise, and disdained not to carry the Gospel to the meanest part of mankind.
They assayed to go into Bithynia;
another country in Asia Minor; it makes one province with Pontus, and has the same boundaries; Pontus being at the east, and Bithynia at the west: it was bounded on the north with the Euxine sea, on the east with Galatia, on the south with Asia properly so called, and on the west with the Propontis; according to Pliny F8 it was called Cronia, afterwards Thessalis, then Maliande, (perhaps Mariandyne), and Strymonis; and Herodotus
F9 reports, that the Thracians going into Asia were called Bithynians, who were first called (as they say) Strymonians, inhabiting Strymon; according to Jerom F11, it was formerly called Bebrycia, then Mygdonia, and Phrygia Major, and by the river Iera, or, as Pliny calls it, Hieras, is divided from Galatia; to which agrees Solinus F12 who says it was before Bebrycia, afterwards Migdonia, and now Bithynia, from Bithynus the king; the king; though others say, it was so called from Bithyne, a daughter of Jupiter;
but the Spirit suffered them not;
the Alexandrian copy, and Beza's most ancient copy, and some others, and the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions read, "the Spirit of Jesus": so that it was not an evil spirit, or Satan, that hindered them, who sometimes did; but they were under the direction and guidance of the divine Spirit, called, in the preceding verse, the Holy Ghost; however, the Gospel was preached here afterwards, and churches formed; of which (See Gill on 1 Peter 1:1).
F1 Geograph. l. 3. c. 9, 10.
F2 Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 30.
F3 De locis Hebraicis, fol. 96. E.
F4 Herodotus, l. 1. c. 171.
F5 T. Bab. Yoma, fol. 10. 1.
F6 Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 32.
F7 Ciceron. Orat. 24. pro. L. Flacco, p. 785.
F8 Ib.
F9 Polymnia, c. 75.
F11 De locis Hebraicis, fol. 95. L.
F12 Polyhistor. c. 54.