Acts 14:2

Unbelieving Jews. Or, “Jews that would not be persuaded.” The word translated “unbelieving” has the idea of an unbelief breaking out into rebellion, and so describes well the character of these Jews who persecuted Paul and Barnabas.

Stirred up the Gentiles. For the most part the persecutions recorded in the book of Acts were occasioned by the enmity of the Jews. The case of Demetrius (ch. 19:24) is almost the only exception, and even there the Jews seem to have been responsible for the bitter reaction of the Greek craftsman. At a considerably later date, after the middle of the 2d century, the Jews were very active in bringing about the death of Polycarp at Smyrna (The Martyrdom of Polycarp 13; Eusebius Ecclesiastical History iv. 15. 29). Early in the 3d century Tertullian called the Jewish synagogues of his day “fountains of persecution” (Scorpiace 10).

Evil affected. The word used here implies not only the ill temper aroused against the brethren, but the injury done to the minds of those in which the feeling was stirred up.

Against the brethren. That is, the new converts, in contrast with the “unbelieving Jews.”