NT Doctrine — Acts 18

The purpose of Luke’s narrative was not to recount all the details of Paul’s ministry, but to show that he never caused trouble. In the case of Athens, when the audience lost interest in his teaching, he moved on. Corinth was roughly 50 miles west of Athens, and he could have easily walked or taken passage on a ship to the eastern port opposite Corinth. Again, I cannot do any better than my previous commentary on this chapter.

We learn from Paul’s own letters that Silas and Timothy came to him at Athens and warned him he could not return to Berea. Timothy returned there, but Silas went on to Philippi, while Paul decided to do some work in Corinth. This was the seat of the Roman government for the region of Achaia (southern Greece), and a major trade center, sitting astride the narrow neck of land separating two small seas. A lot of freight came across this place to avoid a long sailing voyage around Achaia. This was also home to the Temple of Aphrodite, with her thousand temple prostitutes. The city was the most prominent symbol of debauchery, and entirely cosmopolitan.

Paul was hardly the only one spreading the gospel message. In Corinth he met two Christian Jews from Rome, Priscilla and Acquila. They had left Italy on the orders of Emperor Claudius, decreed in about 49 AD because the Jews in Rome kept rioting over teaching and preaching about Jesus “Chrestus” — so all Jews had to leave. These two were engaged in the same business trade Paul had learned, since rabbis were not permitted to draw pay from rabbinical duties. They worked in leather and heavy fabrics during the week, and Paul would teach in the synagogue on the Sabbath. When Silas and Timothy joined him again, Paul felt driven to press the gospel message more directly and full time. This caused a reaction in the synagogue, so he symbolically turned them over to Satan. Instead, he began preaching next door at the home of Justus. When the synagogue ruler, Crispus, was converted with his household, it must have rankled the Jewish community. But Paul was encouraged by a vision, being told by God that there were many yet in the city He intended to call.

Thus, Paul broke with his habit of short stays, and remained a year and a half. Sometime around the summer of 51 AD, a new proconsul rotated into office in the city, by the name of Gallio. The Jews decided to bring their case against Paul. Their religion was officially tolerated, and they claimed Paul was inciting an attack on this religion that the law protected. Gallio was brother to the famous philosopher, Seneca, and no fool. He saw right through this as an internal matter between Jews, and none of his concern. We find the locals did not easily tolerate the Jews. As soon as they saw this curt dismissal, with troops driving them from Gallio’s open-air judgment seat, the locals began beating the new leader of the synagogue, Sosthenes. While technically a breach of peace, Gallio acted as if nothing happened, in part to underline his own distaste for Jews.

Paul stayed even longer in the city. Eventually, it was time to go. On the eastern coast was the port city of Cenchreae, the other end of the famous wagon track across the isthmus. There Paul went to a Jewish ritual barber to shave his head. This signaled the completion of a Nazarite vow, showing that Paul still took his Jewish practices seriously. Priscilla and Acquila came with him as they sailed to Ephesus, where the two took up residence, preparing to amplify Paul’s mission by witnessing there. Paul appeared briefly in the synagogue, where his message was well received. But when they asked him to stay, he declined because of a commitment to be in Jerusalem for some feast. He promised to return sometime, if God willed. Then he sailed for Caesarea, on the coast of Palestine. He made the feast in Jerusalem and spent some time with the church there. Then he returned to Antioch with his mission report. While church scholars make much of breaking Paul’s work into specific journeys, Luke simply notes briefly Paul later went back north and west to the first churches he planted.

Now more than two decades after the Ascension of Christ, there were still a large number of devout Jews who did not hear about the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. They knew only the revival of John the Baptist, the call to repentance, the return of genuine Old Testament faith, and some of the teaching of Jesus. Among these was a very sharp fellow named Apollos, from Alexandria, Egypt. He arrived in Ephesus during this time frame, and very powerfully witnessed in the synagogue there of this revival of true Hebraic faith. Paul’s friends, Priscilla and Acquila heard this man, and met with him privately to share the rest of the story, how Jesus died and became the final sacrifice for all sins. With this new message, Apollos felt called to preach in Achaia, and was given letters of introduction to the Christians there. With their warm welcome, he stood up among the Jews, and in a very public debate, proved their sin in rejecting Jesus as the Messiah.