Paul, likely a bit disheartened from his Athenian experience, came to Corinth. There God rejuvenated him with the friendship and fellowship of Aquila and Priscilla, as well as an encouraging vision promising safety. Paul left Corinth for a brief visit to Ephesus, and though the Ephesians wanted him to stay, he returned to Jerusalem. Also in this chapter, we learn about the ministry of Apollos from Alexandria. Let’s take a look.
1) V1-11 – 1After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, 3and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. 4Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. 5When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. 6But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” 7Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. 8Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized. 9One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. 10For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” 11So Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.
In late summer 50 AD, perhaps dejected by his Athenian experience – violence is easier to take than polite amusement – and anxious about the condition of the Macedonians, Paul came to Corinth “in weakness and in much fear and trembling” (Acts 17:33; 18:1; 1 Corinthians 2:3). There was little reason to expect success in Corinth, given its reputation, which we’ll consider in a moment, but Paul spent 18 months there and founded a vigorous, though volatile, Christian church. Acts 18:9-10 records an important vision Paul had shortly after arriving in Corinth, in which the Lord said to him, “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” Paul’s time in Corinth was not his plan, but it was the Lord’s plan, and it served, as Bruce notes, “to deepen his human sympathy and to promote his pastoral maturity.”
Corinth was a pre-Greek city known for its commercialism, luxury, and sexual laxity. A fifth century BC Greek verb translated “to play the Corinthian,” literally meant to practice well the art of fornication. Idolatry was also practiced in abundance (1 Corinthians 8:5), with shrines to Aphrodite, Ares, Melicertes (the primary deity of Tyre), Poseidon, and Apollo. The Corinth of old had been completely destroyed in 146 BC and rebuilt in 44 BC as a Roman colony, the capital of Achaia. Its citizens were Romans (Italians), but there were plenty of Greek and Jewish inhabitants as well. Upon arrival, it appears that Paul found employment with Aquila and Priscilla, wealthy tent makers and Jewish Christians from Rome. They probably were forced from Rome under Claudius’ edict to expel Jews (and Jewish Christians) in 49 AD. (There is no doubt that the Jewish clamor, which earned their harsh treatment, was in part due to the Christian movement.) Paul was certainly grateful to them for their friendship, and perhaps even their employment and financial / ministerial support. But he was more appreciative for their service to the Gentile churches (Romans 16:4). And interestingly, where others probably referred to the wife casually, as Priscilla, Paul nearly always spoke of her formally, as Prisca, perhaps honoring her as the more impressive personality of the couple.
In several weeks of synagogue preaching in Corinth, Paul won many converts, including the synagogue leader, Crispus, and a God-fearing synagogue neighbor, Gaius Titius Justus (Acts 18:7-8; 1 Corinthians 1:15; Romans 16:23), who became Paul’s host, once the Jews expelled him from the synagogue, and even the host of the Corinthian congregation. Stephanus and his family are also mentioned as Paul’s first converts, whom he himself baptized. Once Silas and Timothy arrived in Corinth, likely with a gift of financial support for Paul from the Macedonian Christians, Paul was able to stop the tent-making and engage in full time ministry work. Since the Corinthians cherished “wisdom,” he counter-culturally resolved to know nothing except Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). Ironically, that resolution drew pagan attention, and many of them became followers of Christ, including Erastus (Acts 19:22; Romans 16:23; 2 Timothy 4:20), who served as the city treasurer for a time. Speculation allows us to consider that he may have eventually become the curator of public works, for archaeologists have discovered an inscription, dating to 75 AD, bearing his name and declaring that he used his own money to pave a portion of the streets of Corinth.
2) V12-18 – 12While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him into court. 13“This man,” they charged, “is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law.” 14Just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to the Jews, “If you Jews were making a complaint about some misdemeanor or serious crime, it would be reasonable for me to listen to you. 15But since it involves questions about words and names and your own law – settle the matter yourselves. I will not be a judge of such things.” 16So he had them ejected from the court. 17Then they all turned on Sosthenes the synagogue ruler and beat him in front of the court. But Gallio showed no concern whatever. 18Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Cenchrea because of a vow he had taken.
The Jews eventually raised another tumult against Paul, bringing him before Gallio, the newly appointed (in July 51 AD) Roman proconsul of Achaia (Acts 18:12-16). Gallio’s refusal to hear the matter, thinking Paul’s Christianity to be merely an internal conflict over the doctrines of Judaism, a matter which was outside his jurisdiction, set a precedent that enabled Christianity to spread under the protection of Judaism, which was a lawful religion under Roman law, for another decade or so. (If it had been determined that Christianity did not fall under Judaism, Paul could have been convicted as a propagator of an illegal religion, punishable by death.) Sosthenes, the synagogue leader who presumably took the place of Crispus and brought the charge against Paul to Gallio, bore a beating in Paul’s place, and Gallio literally “pretended not to notice.” Perhaps this beating brought him to turn to Christ and follow Paul, as he, if indeed this is the same man as tradition suggests, is mentioned even as co-author of the first Corinthian correspondence in 1 Corinthians 1:1.
3) V19-23 – 19They arrived at Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. He himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. 20When they asked him to spend more time with them, he declined. 21But as he left, he promised, “I will come back if it is God’s will.” Then he set sail from Ephesus. 22When he landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church and then went down to Antioch. 23After spending some time in Antioch, Paul set out from there and traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.
Remaining in Corinth a short while longer after the incitement (Acts 18:18), Paul eventually traveled with Priscilla and Aquila to Ephesus (Acts 18:18-19; approximately 52 AD). Paul preached in a synagogue briefly, gaining significant interest from the Jews and God-fearers there, but then left Priscilla and Aquila in Ephesus while he went to Caesarea and on to Jerusalem (Acts 18:19-22) in order to celebrate one of the three primary Jewish feasts – Passover (Unleavened Bread), the Feast of Tabernacles (Succoth), or Pentecost (the Feast of Weeks). It has been suggested that this trip to Jerusalem was for Paul a fulfillment of some sort of Nazarite vow he took in response to the vision he had ensuring his protection and blessing in Corinth (Acts 18:21). He made his way to Antioch, officially ending his second mission trip (Acts 18:22).
4) V24-28 – 24Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 25He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. 27When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. On arriving, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. 28For he vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
With Paul briefly away from Asia Minor and Greece, a Jewish Christian named Apollos showed up in Ephesus eloquently preaching the gospel in the synagogues. Priscilla and Aquila heard him gladly, but took him aside and explained the way of God more accurately (Acts 18:26). “Learned” and “well versed in the Scriptures,” Apollos had come from Alexandria, where he had likely studied under the Jewish scholar and philosopher, Philo, who died in 50 AD. The fact that Apollos was already a Christian when he came to Ephesus, yet unfamiliar with Jesus’ baptism of the Holy Spirit, suggests that Christianity had made its way to Alexandria from a non-Apostolic source. Bruce says, “Alexandrian Christianity…was for some generations regarded as defective by the standards of Jerusalem (in the apostolic age) and Rome (in post-apostolic times).” (But Alexandria did go on to produce a number of prominent church fathers, such as Clement, Origen, Athanasius, and Cyril.)
When Apollos left Ephesus for Corinth (v27), he had a letter of commendation from Aquila and Priscila, which was addressed not to the synagogue but to the disciples, or the church. Nevertheless, it appears he went to the synagogue, where he “was a great help to those who by grace had believed. For he vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ” (Acts 18:27-28). The Corinthians cherished Apollos and his eloquence, and this would later cause division within the congregation, as some preferred him to Paul while others remained loyal to Paul. Though Paul may have been rightly concerned over who built on his foundations, he had no anxiety about the work of Apollos and considered him valuable in every way (1 Corinthians 3:3-6,22; 4:6; 16:12; Titus 3:13). Apollos remained in Corinth for quite some time, even as Paul was making his way from Antioch to Ephesus as the beginning of what we call his third missionary trip (v23).
Footnotes
- 18:5 Or Messiah; also in verse 28
- 18:25 Or with fervor in the Spirit
Bible text from Gospelcom.net. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.