Acts 11:21

And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number that believed turned to the Lord.

The fact is as obvious to us, after nineteen hundred years, as it was to Luke, that "the hand of the Lord was with them." Indeed, upon what other premise may the triumph of Christianity in a city like Antioch be explained?

A great number that believed turned to the Lord ... The KJV in this place has "A great number believed, and turned to the Lord"; but the English Revised Version (1885) is a superior translation because it brings into focus the fact that believing and turning to the Lord are two different things. It is a gross error to read this as if it said, "A great number believed (turned to the Lord)." In the Greek text, "believing" is a participle, and "turned" is a verb in the past tense.[31] Those who were already believers "turned to the Lord." As McGarvey so well said it:

Turning to the Lord is a different act from believing, and is subsequent to it. As in Acts 3:19, where turning to the Lord follows repentance, the specific reference is to baptism, which is the turning act. Equivalent to the expression here is: "The Corinthians believed and were baptized" (Acts 18:8).[32]

[31] The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1958), p. 516.

[32] J. W. McGarvey, op. cit., p. 224.