Paul in Corinth
1 After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
2 There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pon tus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Pris cilla, following a decree of the Em peror Claudius which ordered all Jews to leave Rome.
3 Paul went to visit them and then stayed and worked with them because they shared the same trade of tentmaking.
4 Every Sab bath he held discussions in the synagogue, trying to convince both Jews and Greeks.
5 When Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was able to give himself wholly to preaching and proving to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah.
6 One day when they opposed him and insulted him, he shook the dust from his clothes in protest, saying, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. I am not to blame if from now on I go to the non-Jews.”
7 So Paul left there and went to the house of a God-fearing man named Titus Justus who lived next door to the synagogue.
8 A leading man of the sy na gogue, Crispus, along with his whole household, believed in the Lord. On hearing Paul, many more Corinthians believed and were baptized.
9 One night, in a vision, the Lord said to Paul, “Do not be afraid, but continue speaking and do not be silent,
10 for many people in this city are mine. I am with you, so no one will harm you.”
11 So Paul stayed a year and a half in that place, teaching the word of God among them.
12 When Gallio was governor of Achaia, the Jews made a unit ed attack on Paul and brought him before the court. And they accused him,
13 “This man tries to per suade us to worship God in ways that are against the Law.”
14 Paul was about to speak in his own defense when Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of a misdeed or vicious crime, I would have to consider your com plaint.
15 But since this is a quarrel about teach ings and divine names that are proper to your own law, see to it your selves: I refuse to judge such matters.”
16 And he sent them out of the court.
17 Then the people seized Sos the nes, a leading man of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal; but Gallio paid no attention to it.
18 Paul stayed on with the disciples in Corinth for many days; he then left them and sailed off with Priscilla and Aquila for Syria. And as he was no longer under a vow he had taken, he shaved his head before sailing from Cenchreae.
19 When they reached Ephesus, he left Priscilla and Aquila behind and entered the synagogue to hold dis cussions with the Jews.
20 But although they asked him to stay longer, he declined.
21 And he took leave of them saying, “God willing, I will come back to you again.” Then he set sail from Ephesus.
22 On landing at Caesarea, he went up to greet the Church, and then went down to Antioch.
23 After spending some time there, he left and traveled from place to place through Galatia and Phry gia, strengthening the disciples.
24 A certain Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, arrived at Ephesus. He was an eloquent speaker and an authority on the Scrip tures,
25 and he had some knowledge of the way of the Lord. With great enthusiasm he preached and taught correctly about Jesus, although he knew only of John’s baptism.
26 As he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, Priscilla and Aquila heard him; so they took him home with them and explained to him the way more accurately.
27 As Apollos wished to go to Achaia, the believers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly strength ened those who, by God’s grace, had become be lievers,
28 for he vigorously refuted the Jews, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Messiah.
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Comments Acts, Chapter 18
• 18.1 Corinth, the main port of Greece and capital of the province of Achaia with 600,000 inhab it ants, of whom 400,000 are slaves, is a religious, commercial and cultural center. It has countless temples with thousands of prostitutes serving in them. The city is famous for its luxury and its corruption. Paul goes there and remains eighteen months – until the end of the year 52. This date is exact: history tells us that Gallio was governor of Achaia during the year 52.
Aquila and his wife, Priscilla, had just arrived in Corinth. They were perhaps already Christians, but Jewish Christians were not different from others before the decree of the emperor.
Aquila and Priscilla sim ply place themselves at Paul’s service to help him. They will assist him on other occasions with the natural availability of peo ple who do not feel tied to any city or country.
A vision: there are not many in this book. Perhaps Paul was wondering whether it would not be better for him to retire for a time as he had already done and as Jesus had advised in case of persecution (Mt 10:23). The devil increases the opposition when someone sets foot on his field: in this center of corruption, grace would triumph.
The Jews brought him before the court. Here we have a new example of the problems Paul met in the great Roman centers. Different peoples co-exist and many conflicts are settled within communities according to their proper laws and customs. Gallio, the Roman governor, has no wish to be dragged into the jungle of traditions and disputes, especially with the Jews who enjoyed religious privileges within the Roman Empire.
The Jews are furious in seeing the success of Paul that relies on the Word of God, that is, on their own sacred books. They fear that the boldness of the Christians might stir a reaction from the pagans, in which case they, too, would be the victims.
They seized Sosthenes – and beat him. A sure bet would be that this Sosthenes, a Jew, is the one mentioned in 1 Cor 1:1. Even if he already acted as a prominent member of the Christian group, it is doubtful whether the Jews would have attacked him before the authorities: most probably it was a group of bystanders falling on a well-known Jew.
Paul had made a vow (v. 18). He shaved his head as it was said in Numbers 6:5. All that Paul had written to turn converted pagans away from the Jewish Law did not prevent him, a Jew, from feeling at ease with the traditional forms of Jewish piety. He knew that faith alone saves, but it was his wish to mark with a vow some secret agreement he had made with the Lord.
• 23. In this short paragraph Luke combines the end of the second journey and the beginning of the third.
Paul does not stay in Ephe sus, the capital of the province of Asia. He is in a hurry to return, after two and a half years of mission. He goes up to Jeru salem and returns to An tioch, which is the first and the main among the churches in the pagan world. Paul goes there to rest after every journey. The life of this large community, with years of experience, and the contact with its apostles, helped him to see what the future of the Church would be.
When he leaves again, Paul visits the churches established on his second mission. This takes him several months, so he will only arrive at Ephesus in 54. Meanwhile a church had been established there.
• 24. During Paul’s absence, Aquila, Pris cilla and others resumed the first contacts that he had established in the Jewish community. An important success: the integration of Apollos who will be one of the most valued missionaries (1 Cor 3:6; 4:6; 15:12). Apollos, we are told, knew something of The Way (v. 26). We have already met this term which denoted Christianity: not only a religion, nor only a faith or morale, but all that together and more. Apo llos, like the twelve men mentioned in 19:1-7, had probably been in Palestine when Jesus was already known there. His teaching had not yet given rise to a movement nor made a stir equal to that resulting from John the Baptist’s preaching, which was followed by baptisms and commitments.