The narrow coastal strip north of Israel — Tyre, Sidon and Byblos among its famous cities — whose sailors and traders carried the alphabet that became the ancestor of both the Hebrew and Greek scripts this whole translation is made from. Paul and Barnabas pass through it on their way up to the Jerusalem council, and their news of Gentile conversion is received with joy rather than alarm (v3) — a telling contrast with the dispute waiting for them in Jerusalem, and a sign of how unevenly the controversy this chapter settles was actually being felt.