Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
After they were come to Mysia—where, as being part of Roman Asia, they were forbidden to labor (Acts 16:8).
they assayed—or attempted
to go into—or, towards.
Bithynia—to the northeast.
but the Spirit—speaking as before.
suffered them not—probably because, (1) Europe was ripe for the labors of this missionary party; and (2) other instruments were to be honored to establish the Gospel in the eastern regions of Asia Minor, especially the apostle Peter (see I Peter 1:1). By the end of the first century, as testified by PLINY the governor, Bithynia was filled with Christians. "This is the first time that the Holy Ghost is expressly spoken of as determining the course they were to follow in their efforts to evangelize the nations, and it was evidently designed to show that whereas hitherto the diffusion of the Gospel had been carried on in unbroken course, connected by natural points of junction, it was now to take a leap to which it could not be impelled but by an immediate and independent operation of the Spirit; and though primarily, this intimation of the Spirit was only negative, and referred but to the immediate neighborhood, we may certainly conclude that Paul took it for a sign that a new epoch was now to commence in his apostolic labors" [BAUMGARTEN].
THEY BREAK NEW GROUND IN PHRYGIA AND GALATIA—THEIR COURSE IN THAT DIRECTION BEING MYSTERIOUSLY HEDGED UP, THEY TRAVEL WESTWARD TO TROAS, WHERE THEY ARE DIVINELY DIRECTED TO MACEDONIA—THE HISTORIAN HIMSELF HERE JOINING THE MISSIONARY PARTY, THEY EMBARK FOR NEAPOLIS, AND REACH PHILIPPI. (Acts 16:6-12)
Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia—proceeding in a northwesterly direction. At this time must have been formed "the churches of Galatia" (Galatians 1:2; I Corinthians 16:1); founded, as we learn from the Epistle to the Galatians (particularly Galatians 4:19), by the apostle Paul, and which were already in existence when he was on his third missionary journey, as we learn from Acts 18:23, where it appears that he was no less successful in Phrygia. Why these proceedings, so interesting as we should suppose, are not here detailed, it is not easy to say; for the various reasons suggested are not very satisfactory: for example, that the historian had not joined the party [ALFORD]; that he was in haste to bring the apostle to Europe [OLSHAUSEN]; that the main stream of the Church's development was from Jerusalem to Rome, and the apostle's labors in Phrygia and Galatia lay quite out of the line of that direction [BAUMGARTEN].
and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost—speaking by some prophet, see on Acts 11:27.
to preach the word in Asia—not the great Asiatic continent, nor even the rich peninsula now called Asia Minor, but only so much of its western coast as constituted the Roman province of Asia.
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Acts 16:7:
Acts 8:29-31
Acts 16:6-8
1 Thessalonians 2:18
1 Peter 1:11
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