Reflections on Acts 18

Acts 18 (Contemporary English Version)


1. Paul left Athens and went to Corinth,
   
2. where he met Aquila, a Jewish man from Pontus. Not long before this, Aquila had come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Emperor Claudius had ordered the Jewish people to leave Rome. Paul went to see Aquila and Priscilla
   
3. and found out that they were tent makers. Paul was a tent maker too. So he stayed with them, and they worked together.
   
4. Every Sabbath, Paul went to the Jewish meeting place. He spoke to Jews and Gentiles and tried to win them over.
   
5. But after Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, he spent all his time preaching to the Jews about Jesus the Messiah.
   
6. Finally, they turned against him and insulted him. So he shook the dust from his clothes and told them, "Whatever happens to you will be your own fault! I am not to blame. From now on I am going to preach to the Gentiles."
   
7. Paul then moved into the house of a man named Titius Justus, who worshiped God and lived next door to the Jewish meeting place.
   
8. Crispus was the leader of the meeting place. He and everyone in his family put their faith in the Lord. Many others in Corinth also heard the message, and all the people who had faith in the Lord were baptized.
   
9. One night, Paul had a vision, and in it the Lord said, "Don't be afraid to keep on preaching. Don't stop!
   
10. I am with you, and you won't be harmed. Many people in this city belong to me."
    
11. Paul stayed on in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching God's message to the people.
    
12. While Gallio was governor of Achaia, some of the Jewish leaders got together and grabbed Paul. They brought him into court
    
13. and said, "This man is trying to make our people worship God in a way that is against our Law!"
    
14. Even before Paul could speak, Gallio said, "If you were charging this man with a crime or some other wrong, I would have to listen to you.
    
15. But since this concerns only words, names, and your own law, you will have to take care of it. I refuse to judge such matters."
    
16. Then he sent them out of the court.
    
17. The crowd grabbed Sosthenes, the Jewish leader, and beat him up in front of the court. But none of this mattered to Gallio.
    
18. After Paul had stayed for a while with the Lord's followers in Corinth, he told them good-by and sailed on to Syria with Aquila and Priscilla. But before he left, he had his head shaved at Cenchreae because he had made a promise to God.
    
19. The three of them arrived in Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. He then went into the Jewish meeting place to talk with the people there.
    
20. They asked him to stay longer, but he refused.
    
21. He told them good-by and said, "If God lets me, I will come back."
    
22. Paul sailed to Caesarea, where he greeted the church. Then he went on to Antioch.
    
23. After staying there for a while, he left and visited several places in Galatia and Phrygia. He helped the followers there to become stronger in their faith.
    
24. A Jewish man named Apollos came to Ephesus. Apollos had been born in the city of Alexandria. He was a very good speaker and knew a lot about the Scriptures.
    
25. He also knew much about the Lord's Way, and he spoke about it with great excitement. What he taught about Jesus was right, but all he knew was John's message about baptism.
    
26. Apollos started speaking bravely in the Jewish meeting place. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him to their home and helped him understand God's Way even better.
    
27. Apollos decided to travel through Achaia. So the Lord's followers wrote letters, encouraging the followers there to welcome him. After Apollos arrived in Achaia, he was a great help to everyone who had put their faith in the Lord Jesus because of God's kindness.
    
28. He got into fierce arguments with the Jewish people, and in public he used the Scriptures to prove that Jesus is the Messiah.

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At this point in the journey Paul was alone. Prior to Athens he had been in the Macedonian city of Berea where he had found fertile ground to the gospel. However, trouble-makers from Thessalonica came to Berea and stirred up the people and Paul had to leave town. But Silas and Timothy remained in Berea. Some Christian brothers from Berea escorted Paul to Athens where he stayed a short while and debated with the Athenian philosophers as he waited for Silas and Timothy to join him. For some reason Paul decided to move on instead of waiting for his two partners, as we are told in 18:1. He went to Corinth where he found a Jewish couple who helped him by allowing him to stay with them and to join them in their trade of tentmaking which was also Paul's trade. In addition they joined Paul in his gospel witness.

Corinth would prove to be a key city in which to plant the gospel. It was a major trade center that was strategically located to receive commerce both by sea and by land. People came and went from many countries. Planted in Corinth, the gospel could potentially spread to all parts of the world. Paul followed his common practice in Corinth of first going to the local synagogue to share the gospel with the Jews before going to the Gentiles. He was able to preach the message of Christ at the synagogue for quite a while during a period in which he was having to support himself through his trade as tentmaker. Though he was working at his trade, he went every Sabbath to the synagogue "preaching the message and solemnly testified to the Jews that the Messiah is Jesus." (18:5) Eventually the Jews put up a resistance to Paul's preaching and so he left the synagogue and went to the house of a man, Titius Justus, who lived next to the synagogue. From this location he continued to witness to the Jews who would hear him. Even with the resistance of the Jews, the leader of the synagogue became a believer along with his whole household. His coming to faith in Christ was evidently influential in "many of the Corinthians" also believing. (18:8)

The Lord assured Paul through a night vision that he should not be afraid to continue to speak boldly in Corinth for He, the Lord, was with him and no harm would come to him. Because of this, Paul had his second longest stay, of any of his stops, in Corinth. He was there 1 1/2 years. Soon the Jewish resistance to Paul's preaching grew so strong that they "made a united attack against Paul and brought him to the judge's bench." (18:12) As threatening as this appears, it proved to be a significant event in Paul's favor and in favor of the gospel. Being a Roman colony, it was not legal to propagate new religions in Corinth, which the Jews charged Paul of doing, claiming Christianity to be a new and different cult, distinct from Judaism. But Gallio, the proconsul, didn't see it that way. To him it was a part of Judaism making this a matter to be settled in a civil court - a decision that was crucial to legitimatizing Christianity under Roman law. This verdict allowed Christianity to be preached with the blessing of Roman law. Furthermore, even before leaving court the people gathered in the courtroom "seized Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the judge's bench," evidently because of his charges against the Christians. This would indicate that these Christians were in greater favor with the Corinthians at this point than were the Jews.

Whether or not it was a result of this incident, Paul decided at this time to conclude this second missionary journey. Taking Aquila and Priscilla with him, he headed back toward Jerusalem. Along the way he and his travel mates stopped in Ephesus where Paul took some time to preach in the synagogue before continuing on to port at Caesarea. This concluded his second journey. With only a short interim, he soon launched his third journey, starting once again from Antioch.