New Friends for Paul
Acts 18:1-3
Paul did not remain long in Athens, where he found a cool reception for the gospel. Luke mentions no converts at the synagogue where Paul preached, and few Greeks responded with interest after hearing him present his case to the Areopagus. Because he was eager to move forward in his work of founding new churches, he therefore left Athens and, although he lacked companions, he resumed travel, setting out for the much larger city nearby, the city of Corinth. This was the capital of the Roman province known as Achaia, which included all of Greece south of Macedonia. The quickest route followed a westward course of about fifty miles, at the end taking him over the isthmus connecting the mainland to the Peloponnesian Peninsula, the southernmost extent of Greece.1 Off to his left as he approached the city, he could see on its southern rim a wide mound of rock jutting up nearly two thousand feet. Known as Acrocorinth, it held on its summit the city’s Acropolis (its defensive citadel) as well as a temple to Aphrodite (Greek name for Venus).2
In one respect Corinth was a promising field for preaching the gospel, because its population was large and heterogeneous. Although perhaps nearly a million people lived there during its heyday centuries earlier,3 in Roman times it still held about 100,000 people.4 Besides a strong presence of both Romans and Greeks, there was a substantial Jewish community.5 Moreover, the city was always full of visitors, many who were drawn to its attractions as well as many who came because it was a stop-over for much east-west travel on the Mediterranean.6 Yet in other respects it was a challenging field. As home to a temple of Venus, which was the place of employment for many prostitutes, the city had long owned a reputation for rampant immorality.7 In Paul’s day it was a favorite resort of the Roman elite.8
In Corinth, perhaps as a result of attending the synagogue, Paul found two kindred spirits, a couple that had recently come from Rome. The man was Aquila, a Jew from Pontus, a region in northeast Asia Minor, and his wife was Priscilla. In most references to the couple, Priscilla’s name appears first, suggesting that she was a person of higher birth than her husband.9 Some writers have connected her with a noble Roman family.10 Since Luke’s account makes no mention of their conversion after meeting Paul, it has always been widely assumed that they were already Christians when they came to Corinth. Perhaps they had been among those who tried to build a church in Rome.
Paul immediately formed close ties with this couple because they not only shared a common faith, but also a common trade. Like Paul, they were tentmakers. If Priscilla had truly married below her station in life, she did not object to entering fully into her husband's world, even to the point of helping in his work.
The two had left Rome when Claudius expelled all Jews, an event in AD 49 or 50 that we discussed earlier.11 The evident cause of the trouble was that Christianity had already come to Rome, and as it did everywhere else, the preaching of the gospel had provoked violent opposition in the Jewish community. The riots in Rome were so disruptive of civil order that the emperor intervened. Rather than investigate the matter and limit punishment to the real troublemakers, he took the easy course of banishing all Jews from Rome. In so doing, he was pandering to a general prejudice against Jews. After his death, however, his edicts barring them from Rome collapsed, and they quickly reinstated themselves in that city (Acts 28:17–29).12
The exiles Aquila and Priscilla settled in Corinth, a busy commercial center where they found good demand for their trade. Soon they were busy at the work of building a new business. Because their trade was also Paul’s, the couple invited him to serve as their partner and gave him lodgings in their home, which doubtless was, according to custom, in the same building where they labored every day.13
Although the word for such tradesmen as they were, σκηνοποιος, means by derivation "tentmaker,"14 it probably refers to a leatherworker with much broader expertise. His primary output might have been tents and canopies, but also he was skilled at making belts, slings, helmets, bottles, and any other leather items that found a market.15 Very likely he could create products from other raw materials as well, such as linen and cilicium (fabric from goats’ hair).16 Because cilicium was one of the chief manufactures of Cilicia, the province having Tarsus, Paul’s hometown, as its capital, many scholars have inferred that merchandise made from this fabric must have been Paul’s specialty.17 But church tradition traceable to patristic writers viewed him as mainly a leatherworker.18
Pondering a Question
Why would a highborn, highly educated man like Paul stoop to practicing a trade? Under what circumstances would he even have acquired a trade?
Paul was trained as a rabbi, and in first-century Jewish society a rabbi was expected to teach God’s law as a free service to his fellow Jews. The Mishnah shows clearly that to receive monetary compensation was frowned upon.
R. Zadok says: Keep not aloof from the congregation, and make not thyself like them that seek to influence the judges. Make them not a crown wherewith to magnify thyself or a spade wherewith to dig. And thus used Hillel to say: He that makes worldly use of the crown shall perish. Thus thou mayest learn that he that makes profit out of the words of the Law removes his life from the world.21
Rabban Gamaliel the son of R. Judah the Patriarch said: Excellent is study of the Law together with worldly occupation, for toil in them both puts sin out of mind. But all study of the Law without [worldly] labour comes to naught at the last and brings sin in its train. And let all them that labour with the congregation labour with them for the sake of Heaven, for the merit of their fathers supports them and their righteousness endures.22
Therefore, it was customary even for a rabbi from a privileged background to learn and practice a trade, so that he might support himself.23
Delving Deeper
The first books
Paul's trade has led to some fascinating speculation concerning one of the most significant developments in the history of human culture, the invention of books. Books as we know them, with pages bound to a spine running along one side, did not exist until the first century AD. Known then as codices (singular, codex), they were made by Christians to contain the Scriptures and other writings they wished to preserve.24 (You did not learn this in school, but Christians indeed invented books.)
The original books were made from sheets of papyrus or parchment that were stacked, folded once in the middle, and sewn together at the closed edge, forming a spine. Papyrus, derived from the inner bark of a tall Egyptian reed plant, was often the material chosen because it was less expensive. Parchment, rather more durable, was made from animal skins, and the type made from calf skins, known as vellum, was generally used for codices when quality rather than cost was the decisive factor.25
Making vellum codices would have been an easy task for a professional leatherworker. It would have been only a slight departure from normal demands on his craftsmanship. The inventor of books might therefore have been none other than the church leader Paul, a leatherworker with a keen interest in circulating Christian writings.
Toward the end of his career, when he thought he was facing condemnation by Roman authorities, he instructed Timothy to come quickly and bring all the "parchments" he left in Troas (2 Tim. 4:13). Evidently he wished to assure the preservation of writings, whether coming from himself or from others, that he had been accumulating because he thought them useful for the edification of believers. Perhaps these parchments were vellum codices that he himself had produced.
A New Initiative
Acts 18:4-8
For a while, Paul was at some disadvantage as he tried to evangelize Corinth, because the rest of his missionary team was still in Macedonia. Upon arrival in Athens, he had sent back a message imploring his helpers to join him as soon as possible. Then upon departure from Athens, he had no doubt left word as to his destination. Now in Corinth, he waited for them to come. Yet as he waited, he did not slip into idleness. He did not content himself to work day after day at his craft. Rather, he went every Sabbath to the synagogue and engaged both the Jews and the Greeks in discussions about who Jesus was. He "reasoned" with them, pointing to the Old Testament prophecies that Jesus fulfilled.
Finally, Silas and Timothy caught up with Paul. Their coming spurred him to a make fresh assault on the ignorance and unbelief all around him. He felt pressed in his spirit to intensify his public witness before the Jews that Jesus was in fact the Messiah.
Pondering a Question
Had not Paul already been presenting Jesus as the Christ?
Yes, but when Silas and Timothy came, they brought financial assistance from Macedonia (2 Cor. 11:9); specifically, from the church at Philippi, which had also sent support when he was in Thessalonica (Phil. 4:15). We may speculate that Lydia and Luke, both with profitable businesses, were the principal sources. The money freed Paul from his trade and allowed him to devote himself to full-time ministry. Luke's observation that he now testified of Christ answers the question as to how he used his extra time. Under the pressure of a great burden for lost souls, a burden weighing upon his spirit, he made preaching his daily occupation.
As a result of strengthening his campaign of gospel outreach, Paul stirred up greater opposition. The conflict reached a moment of crisis when the Jews raised their rhetoric to the level of blasphemy. Then Paul decided that it was time to leave the synagogue. He shook out his clothes to show that he was clean of their blood; it was now on their own heads. In other words, he was free of any obligation to reason with them further. In the future, they alone would be accountable for their eternal destiny. Until now, he had been accountable in some measure. If he had failed to tell them of Christ, God would have held him responsible for shedding their "blood," figuratively speaking. That is, God would have tried him as a murderer of their souls and found him guilty. But now he had fulfilled his duty to them.
Paul's language likely reflects his familiarity with God's warning to Ezekiel. God said, "Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand" (Ezek. 3:17-18).
Getting Practical
The danger in shirking our duty
Let us not suppose that God's warning to Ezekiel applies only to great prophets with great works to accomplish. His warning applies to every laborer in God's vineyard, for we all have a prophet's role in relation to the people around us. It is our duty to proclaim to them the Word of God. If we fail to take God-given opportunities for witness, we will go to judgment with the blood of lost souls on our hands.
After conducting his followers out of the synagogue, Paul chose a private home as the future meeting place of believers. This home, quite near the synagogue, belonged to a gentile God-fearer named Justus. It must have been a home large enough to accommodate hundreds of people, for the fledgling church counted among its members a large company of both Jews and Greeks. If designed like the typical urban house (domus) of a wealthy Roman, it was built so that it enclosed two areas with open ceilings, one at the front, called the atrium, serving as a large reception hall and one at the back, called the peristyle, furnishing a central garden.26 We do not know exactly where guests would have been placed for a worship service, but a large house surely had enough interior space for a large gathering.
The Jews in the company of believers included the whole family of Crispus, formerly the ruler of the synagogue. Therefore, Paul’s attempt to reach Jews had by no means been a failure, even though many of them rejected his gospel message. Some Jews as well as some gentile God-fearers received it, and immediately after Paul established a church in Corinth, all the new believers were baptized to demonstrate in a public manner their identification both with Christ and with His body, the church universal (Col. 1:24; Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 1:22–23).
Divine Encouragement
Acts 18:9-11
One night, Paul heard the Lord speaking to him in a vision. This was the Lord’s third appearance to Paul that we find recorded in Scripture. The first was when he was on the road to Damascus, the second when he was in Jerusalem not long after his conversion (Acts 22:17-21). Whether he had seen or heard the Lord on any other occasion before he reached Corinth, we do not know.
The Lord came to Paul with encouraging words. He urged him not to be afraid but to preach the gospel boldly. He assured Paul that his enemies would have no power to hurt him or stop him. He would be enveloped with divine protection because he still had a great work to do, even the task of presenting the gospel to many in Corinth that the Lord intended to save. Although they did not yet know the Lord, the Lord knew them and considered them to be His own, for He said, "I have much people in this city."
Getting Practical
God's role in a soul's conversion
In these words, the Lord expressed His affection for people who were still lost in their sins. The incident is therefore a good illustration of the principle that man comes into a right relationship with God only through God's initiative, a principle taught throughout Scripture (1 John 4:10, 19; John 15:16). When we understand that except for God's love we would never gain heaven and eternal happiness, we cannot help but praise Him. When we truly understand further that we do not deserve His love, our gratitude bursts forth in praise without ceasing.
Even before the vision, the Lord had been working to encourage Paul. When Silas and Timothy arrived, they brought news that the church in Thessalonica was doing well (1 Thess. 3:6). Despite the bitter antagonism they faced every day, they were standing firm in their faith, remaining fervent in their love for each other, and clinging to a strong affection for Paul. Some weeks or months later, when Paul penned his first epistle to the Thessalonians, he acknowledged how much the report of Silas and Timothy had lifted his spirits (1 Thess. 3:7-9).
Pondering a Question
Why was Paul in need of special encouragement at this time?
It has been conjectured that Paul went through a personal crisis while he was in Corinth. We see some evidence of this in how the Lord dealt with him. It is remarkable that the Lord had to urge Paul not to be afraid—the same Paul who on countless previous occasions had walked without flinching into the lion's mouth. In a later reminiscence of his visit to Corinth, Paul confesses that he went through a spell of severe anxiety (1 Cor. 2:3). What caused his courage and confidence to fail when he went to Corinth? We are not certain of the explanation, but two factors were probably most important.
- All his exertions and sufferings had probably worn him down. He had traveled mainly on foot from Antioch in Syria to Corinth in Greece—a prodigious trek of over eleven hundred miles—and along the way, in Philippi, he had been severely beaten. There is a limit to how much the human body can tolerate. No wonder the Lord dealt with him tenderly by giving him words of encouragement.
- The tepid response to the gospel in Athens may have created in Paul a sense of personal failure. He knew that his calling was to evangelize the gentiles. Perhaps he reasoned that the logical way to reach them was to establish a beachhead for the gospel in Athens, the cultural capital of Greek civilization. If many Athenians had turned to Christ, gentiles everywhere would have taken notice and given serious attention to the gospel. But it did not work out as Paul had perhaps hoped and expected. The Athenians rejected him. Thus, for a while afterward, he perhaps lived under a cloud of self-doubt. He wondered whether he had done something wrong, and whether he could in the future count on the Lord's power, since he had seen little of it in Athens. Notice that the Lord's words to Paul when He appeared to him in Corinth seemed intended to set aside such questions. In the Lord's comment that He had "much people" in Corinth, there was an implied contrast with Athens, where He had few. So, He was assuring Paul that the outcome in Athens was not his fault. He, the Lord, never intended to save many souls among the elite. That Paul himself came to understand God's preference for ordinary men is evident in his first epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 1:26-29).
Pondering a Question
Why does God prefer ordinary men?
The reason that God brings few people of power or importance into His Kingdom is that their pride repels Him. The proverb promising grace to the humble (Prov. 3:34) touches a truth so basic and profound that the New Testament reaffirms it twice (James 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:5).
Getting Practical
True strength
Paul's discouragement in Corinth is, in a way, an encouragement to us, for it shows that he was human. Therefore, when he writes about perseverance despite loss (Phil. 3:7-8, 13-14), joy despite suffering (Phil. 2:17), and glorying despite tribulation (Rom. 5:3), we know that he is not tossing us mere platitudes. Rather, he is speaking from the heart about his own experience. He is not spouting empty theories, but sharing practical discoveries. He knew what it means to be powerless and despondent and full of fears. Yet he also knew what it means to overcome fleshly weakness and arrive at true strength through the example of Christ and the encouragement of the Holy Spirit. True strength lifts its eyes from the present moment and takes the long view, seeing the reward for endurance. Then, in relation to the entire span of our existence, we understand how briefly trouble can touch us (Ps. 30:4–5). Then also we understand how wise and loving God's purpose is when He allows us to taste the evil side of a sinful world (Rom. 8:28). Further, we understand how rich our eternal inheritance will be after we have been perfected by struggling against our own imperfection (Eph. 1:17-18). When we see clearly the overarching plan for our lives, we can only rejoice..
Buoyed up by his vision of the Lord, Paul set about his work in Corinth with a better spirit. He worked diligently for eighteen months to spread the Word of God. In a later letter to the Corinthians, Paul remembers that during this period, both Silas and Timothy assisted in his work of evangelizing the city (2 Cor. 1:19).
Although these two helpers were busy as preachers during this time, it is possible that they filled a dual role. They may also have served as couriers between Paul and the churches in Macedonia. One or both may have carried north his first epistle to the Thessalonians, then returned to Paul with more news and perhaps more financial assistance. Later, one or both may have delivered his second epistle to the same church.
A Change in Administration
Acts 18:12-17
During Paul's stay in Corinth, a new man came to assume control of the government. He was Gallio, member of a Roman family distinguished for its contributions to literature. His brother was the philosopher Seneca, and his nephew was the poet Lucan.27 Gallio himself was a man of considerable reputation, widely beloved for his good nature and his wit.28 Seneca himself said of him,
I used to tell you that my brother Gallio—a man whom even his most ardent admirer cannot love according to the measure of his deserts—was a stranger to other vices, but [flattery] he positively loathed. . . . One would admire his bonhomie and unaffected grace of character, which charms even those it passes unnoticed—a service to every one he meets, which costs the author nothing. No one in the world, I may tell you, is such a favourite with his one chosen friend as he is with all. At the same time so great is his natural amiability that it is free from all savour of artifice or pretence.29
But at last, in AD 66, Gallio fell under the wrath of Nero, that mad dog of an emperor, who executed him unjustly.30
Gallio came to Corinth because it was the seat of Roman government for the province of Achaia. His official title as governor was Proconsul. (The Greek term for proconsul is anthypatos, here translated "deputy."31)
Delving Deeper
Another accurate title
The Romans used a bewildering variety of titles for rulers, yet historical research has confirmed that Gallio’s title in the Book of Acts is exactly right.
In the Roman Empire, there were two kinds of provinces: senatorial and imperial. The official standing of Achaia fluctuated back and forth. It was senatorial from 27 BC to AD 15, imperial for some years afterward, then senatorial again after AD 44.32 The term "proconsul" was reserved for the governor of a senatorial province.33
The province governed by Gallio was officially known as Achaia, and Gallio’s title was Proconsul of Achaia,34 the very title Luke employs although elsewhere he refers to the same region by its more common name, Greece (Acts 20:2).
The accuracy of this title and of all the others in Acts is an impressive witness to Luke’s reliability as a historian.
Gallio's arrival in Corinth is one of our chief anchors for New Testament chronology. An inscription found in Delphi, a site in central Greece, establishes that he became proconsul in July, AD 51.35 We may therefore be sure that his tenure in Corinth overlapped the latter portion of Paul’s stay there. If Paul set out on his second missionary journey during the early half of 49, he may have reached Corinth about a year later. Our estimate of the date is midyear of 50 (see Appendix 1). The overall duration of his ministry was eighteen months (Acts 18:11). So, we may place his departure in early 51, roughly six months after Gallio’s arrival.
As soon as Gallio took office, Jewish enemies of the church decided to move against Paul. They were hoping that they would find a sympathetic listener in the new governor, so they seized Paul and dragged him before Gallio’s judgment seat (bema in vv. 12, 1636). Surviving ruins give us a good picture of the place where Paul was taken. The governor's seat was on a raised platform in the midst of the Agora, the open space at the city center flanked by two parallel colonnades and surrounded by administrative offices, temples, and shops. Those appearing before him stood on a lower platform opposite his seat.37
The Jews tried to win a ruling against Paul by accusing him of promoting a kind of religious belief and practice that violated the law. What law they meant has been much debated.38 Did they mean Roman law or Jewish law? If Roman law, was their complaint that Paul was in some way urging treason against the state, perhaps by offering Jesus as the rightful king? Or were they alleging that Christianity was a collegium illicitum? This was the legal designation of an unsanctioned religious body;39 that is, of a religion denied the toleration that Roman law had granted to Judaism.
Gallio, his character bearing the imprint of an earlier age when men could speak of the noble Roman, replied with down-to-earth good sense. Even before Paul could say a word to defend himself, Gallio rebuked the Jews for wasting his time with charges devoid of substance. These pointed to nothing in Paul's conduct that the court could view as "wrong or wicked lewdness" (conveying the idea, "either a lesser or more serious crime"40). In other words, he had not behaved in a criminal manner by attacking or defrauding anyone. Continuing, Gallio said that the Jews were merely venting their wrath on somebody whose religious beliefs differed from theirs in details of words and names and moral obligation. How to be saved was a mere question of words. Whether Jesus was Christ was a mere question of names. Whether circumcision was necessary was a mere question of moral obligation. Gallio refused to be a judge of who was right on such questions, and he summarily dismissed the charges.
His response suggests that he himself was not sure what law Paul had supposedly broken. Yet his words amounted to a clear pronouncement from the proconsul's seat that he cared nothing about Jewish law and that Paul had done nothing against Roman law. So, in essence he was ruling that Christianity was not an illegal religion, a judgment Luke is careful to record for the sake of Paul’s defense in Rome.
Paul’s accusers must have been stunned by Gallio’s reaction. Apparently their surprise was soon followed by rage even to the point of loud protest. But he was far from feeling any obligation to appease them after rebuffing their suit against Paul. Instead, he sent a strong signal that Jewish agitation would not be tolerated. To demonstrate his intent to wield a strong hand of authority, he drove the protestors away. That is, he called upon his attendants, perhaps including soldiers, to eject them from his presence.
As we said earlier, the emperor had recently expelled the Jews from Rome because their rioting over religious matters had made them a public nuisance. Therefore, Gallio came to Greece with the resolve that he would keep the Jews under control.
As soon as he ordered a display of force to rid angry Jews from his presence, Greek bystanders saw an opportunity to vent their antisemitism. They immediately seized Sosthenes, ruler of the synagogue and leading figure in the Jewish community. Then in Gallio's presence they subjected Sosthenes to the extreme humiliation of a public beating. Gallio’s scornful treatment of the charges against Paul had obviously made the Greeks confident that they could vent their wrath upon the Jewish leader without risking the governor’s disapproval. As Gallio watched, he raised no objection, choosing rather to appear indifferent. His willingness to ignore the violence shows not only that he saw it as giving a stronger bite to his ruling, but also that he did not consider the victim to be a Roman citizen.41
Notice that his perspective on Jewish rioting was wiser than the emperor’s. Claudius held all Jews responsible and punished them all, whereas Gallio understood that the true cause of riots was the unwillingness of many Jews to tolerate a new religion aiming to set aside their traditions. The preachers of Christ were themselves innocent of fomenting civil unrest. They were not leading mobs in the streets. It was their enemies who were the real troublemakers. Therefore, Gallio let the Christians alone, even giving tacit permission for their work of winning converts.
Delving Still Deeper
Identity of the assaulters
Verse 17 is another in the Book of Acts, like 8:37, 17:14, and others that we could mention, where the critical text drowns a clear message in static. CT skips over "the Greeks."42 The words are missing, as if overlooked by a careless scribe, or deliberately left out for some reason now obscure. Perhaps their omission expresses the anti-Semitic bias of a Greek copyist. For scholars professionally obliged to view CT as the authentic text, this loss of words has given occasion for endless inconclusive but career-enhancing debate over who beat up Sosthenes.
Getting Practical
Under divine management
You see how easy it was for God to keep His promise to Paul that no one in Corinth would hurt him. God raised up a new ruler who protected Paul from his enemies. God is in control of every situation. Whether we go through trials or escape them depends solely on His will, and His will is governed by a loving determination to give us what we need most.
Imagine how Crispus, the former ruler of the synagogue, must have felt when he heard about the ordeal of Sosthenes. Imagine how thankful he was that he followed Paul out of the synagogue. At the time, he must have thought that he was enduring a great loss. He seemed to be giving up important connections and wide influence. But the real loser was the man who stayed and took his place.
Perhaps Sosthenes' grueling experience was good for his soul, for about three years later, when Paul was in Ephesus writing his first epistle to the Corinthian church, he relayed special greetings from a certain Sosthenes (1 Cor. 1:1). This was evidently a fellow worker in Ephesus who was well known in Corinth. It is pleasant to imagine that the Sosthenes who opposed Paul when he first came to Corinth later became his partner and strong ally in bearing the gospel to other cities.
Conclusion of a Journey
Acts 18:18-22
Having conducted a successful ministry in Corinth for a total of eighteen months (v. 11), which included "a good while" after Gallio’s ruling, Paul was ready to leave. He therefore gathered the brethren and bade them farewell. Accompanied by his friends Priscilla and Aquila, he departed, intending to return to Syria by way of Jerusalem.
After verse 5, we find no further reference to Silas in the Book of Acts. Nowhere else in the New Testament do we learn anything about his later life and ministry, unless he was the Silvanus (Silas is the diminutive form of Silvanus) who circulated Peter’s general epistle to the churches, a work now known as First Peter (1 Pet. 5:12). Paul’s remark in First Corinthians (1 Cor. 1:12) that some in the Corinthian church identified themselves as followers of Peter suggests that this leader of the early church visited Corinth after Paul’s departure. If Silas was still there, he may have decided to become Peter’s assistant, perhaps even his traveling companion.
Also after verse 5, Timothy disappears from Luke's coverage of Paul’s second missionary journey, but later in Acts he reappears as a helper in Ephesus during Paul's third missionary journey (Acts 19:22). One possibility is that he accompanied Paul from Corinth to Ephesus, then remained in that city with Priscilla and Aquila until Paul returned many months later.
Sometime before leaving Corinth, Paul had taken a vow. Although Luke does not identify it by name or describe it in detail, it was most likely the vow of a Nazirite, a voluntary religious office created in the law of Moses (Num. 6:1–8). Any man or woman interested in devoting himself to a time of special consecration to the Lord could become a Nazirite just by voicing his intention to perform this office either for his whole life or for a specified period. Throughout its tenure he was bound to meet certain requirements. As external signs of his separation from worldly things, he had to let his hair grow, to refrain from touching a dead body, and to refuse any food or drink derived from grapes. Mosaic law did not set any minimum time for Nazirite service, but Pharisaical tradition as recorded in the Mishnah mandated at least thirty days.43
Just before setting sail from Cenchrea, the eastern port of Corinth, Paul terminated his vow by shaving his head. Perhaps he knew that while he was dependent on a ship’s stores for something to drink, he would not be able to abstain from all wine and grape juice.
Delving Deeper
Terminating a Nazirite vow
In shaving his head before his journey, Paul departed from guidelines in the Book of Numbers. The law stated that to finish his vow, a Nazirite should bring burnt, sin, and peace offerings to the Tabernacle (later replaced by the Temple). There at the door he was to cut his hair, then take the shavings and set them in the fire under his peace offerings (Num. 6:13–21). Paul's conduct also did not satisfy Pharisaical rules. The school of Shammai allowed someone to become a Nazirite outside the land of Israel, but only if he came to Israel at least thirty days before termination of the vow. The school of Hillel demanded that the vow be fully reperformed after his arrival.44
Yet it appears that in the first century, there was considerable variation in how the Nazirite vow was put into practice. Some Jews like Paul were evidently of the opinion that shaving the head before coming to the Temple was an acceptable adjustment of the original requirements. Perhaps they felt that God favored this adjustment because it made the vow a realistic option for Jews living far from Jerusalem. Some modern scholars have suggested that to cut hair before coming to Jerusalem was considered compatible with the law if all shavings were eventually brought to the Temple and presented as a burnt offering.45 In a ritual having no purpose but to honor God, slight changes in details did not, after all, bring failure in moral duty, but only helped to preserve the ritual by making it more practical.
Delving Still Deeper
Testimony of Josephus
Variation in observance of the Nazirite vow is attested by Josephus. After describing a vow performed by Berenice, sister of the Syrian ruler King Agrippa II (both with some Jewish blood), Josephus added, "For it is usual with those that had been either afflicted with a distemper, or with any other distresses, to make vows; and for thirty days before they are to offer their sacrifices, to abstain from wine, and to shave the hair of their head."46 He does not identify the vow as Nazirite, but the similarities are too pronounced to allow any other conclusion. Some Jews in the first century evidently believed that a shaven head was an acceptable substitute for a head with uncut hair, which for thirty days would not cause much of a noticeable change in appearance for either men or women. Especially for women, head shaving was therefore a better public testimony of Nazirite identity.
Paul’s ship did not go directly to Palestine, but stopped in Ephesus on the coast of western Asia Minor. This city over a thousand years old 47 was now capital of the Roman province of Asia, and besides serving as a center of government, it was also the leading center of commerce in the region.48 With a population perhaps over 150,00049 (although the trend in recent studies is toward lower population estimates for all Roman cities50), it may have been the fifth largest city in the Roman Empire, its size surpassed only by Rome, Alexandria, Carthage, and Antioch.51 Among its citizens was an especially large contingent of Jews.52 Rather than go on with Paul, Priscilla and Aquila elected to remain. Perhaps they stayed as a deliberate tactic to begin the work of establishing a church. Despite the size and importance of the city, the gospel had not yet penetrated this corner of the gentile world.
Paul lingered long enough to proclaim Christ in the synagogue, but soon he continued his journey even though some of the Jews wished to hear more. He explained that he desired to reach Jerusalem in time for "this feast"—presumably, the next on the calendar. It is evident why he gave priority to visiting Jerusalem, for he wished to complete the requirements of his Nazirite vow. But why he felt it so important not to miss the feast is uncertain. Perhaps he thought that by joining with Jewish believers in celebrating it, he would demonstrate an unwavering faithfulness to his Jewish blood and heritage. The same purpose may have prompted his decision to take a Nazirite vow which they would see him fulfill at the Temple. Apparently, he sensed that to affirm his Jewish identity was the best springboard for telling the church in Jerusalem how greatly God was using him to evangelize gentiles. He hoped that as a result of picturing the gentile churches as the work of a Jewish apostle, the Jewish believers would feel a stronger kinship with gentile believers.
Before leaving Ephesus, Paul promised those interested in his message that if God willed it, he would return. And indeed he kept his promise. It was only a short while after returning to Antioch from his second missionary journey that he undertook his third, and the place he especially targeted was Ephesus. But now he was in a hurry to visit Jerusalem.
Getting there required travel in two stages. First, he went by boat from Ephesus to Caesarea, principal seaport of Judea. Then he probably walked the remaining sixty-five miles. Upon his arrival, he "saluted the church." No doubt he conveyed greetings from many who had come to Christ during his last tour of Asia Minor and Greece.
Finally, he went back to Antioch. It is very possible that he did not walk the entire three hundred miles, but returned to Caesarea and sailed north.
Nothing is said about how his home church received him, but we can imagine that when he gave a report of his mission, they heard it with great joy. Have true saints ever failed to rejoice after hearing of a gospel outreach winning many souls to Christ?
A New Journey
Acts 18:23
How long Paul spent in Antioch is not revealed, not even whether it was days or years, but a reasonable chronology of the Book of Acts does not allow a long delay before the beginning of his third missionary journey. We may assume that he left after a few months at most. If he arrived in late 52 or early 53, he probably left again during the first half of 53 (see Appendix 1).
He then toured existing churches in Galatia and Phrygia, the same region he had visited during his previous missionary journeys (Acts 14:20–25; 16:6). The word translated "in order" suggests that he went from city to city along a route that was consistently taking him westward.53 Stops along the way included Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch, where he found the strong churches that he had established in the past.
A New Champion for Truth
Acts 18:24-28
During Paul's absence from Ephesus, God sent the city another preacher. He was Apollos, a Jew whom Luke describes as "an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures." The term "eloquent" carries the more general meaning that he was a learned man.54 It is no surprise that a man from Alexandria should have been well educated. As the site of one of the greatest libraries in the ancient world, amounting in Paul's day to several hundred thousand volumes,55 Alexandria rivaled Athens as a hub of intellectual activity. The large Jewish community there, which at one time occupied no less than two out of five quarters of the city,56 was noted for its literary achievements. According to a tradition affirmed by Josephus and other ancient sources, Alexandria was the place where seventy-two carefully chosen scribes from the whole nation of Israel assembled in the middle of the third century BC to produce the Septuagint, a translation of the Old Testament into Greek. In coming generations, the Septuagint was adopted for use in Jewish communities throughout the Greek-speaking world.57
Delving Deeper
The world's most accessible book
Here is another fact that you never learned in school. We said earlier that Biblical writings were the first to be set in book format. Another distinction of the Bible is that in comparison with all other books, it has been translated into far more languages and dialects. Furthermore, in English and perhaps some other languages, no other book exists in so many versions. How appropriate that the most accessible book in the world should be the Bible, God’s Word to all mankind!
One prominent citizen of Alexandria in later years was Philo, the most famous Jewish intellectual in the first century AD. He was renowned for attempting a grand synthesis of Jewish religion and Greek philosophy.58 In about AD 40, he headed the delegation of Jews who went to Rome and pleaded with Emperor Caligula not to place an image of himself in the Temple at Jerusalem.59
Somehow the Alexandrian scholar Apollos, who was perhaps a student of Philo, became a follower of Jesus although he never sat at the feet of the apostles. He had been baptized, but only with John's baptism. How did someone in the religious movement started by John end up as a preacher of Christ? Some have speculated that he came to Christ as a result of reading some early Christian writing.60 But Luke’s comment, "This man was instructed in the way of the Lord," clearly implies that he had been discipled by a true missionary of the church. "The way," as we have said before, was a common designation of Christian faith.61 From what he had been taught and from his own study of the Scriptures, he knew enough about Jesus to show that this remarkable man fulfilled all the Messianic prophecies.
While Apollos was living in Alexandria, God laid it on his heart to go out as an evangelist, and he obeyed the call. He went to Ephesus and preached Christ in the synagogue, making a great impact. Among his hearers were Aquila and Priscilla, who were no doubt overjoyed to hear such a strong testimony for Christ. But at the same time they perceived that Apollos was not fully prepared to be a preacher of the gospel. Not only were there gaps in his understanding, but he lacked a sending church that might offer him support in various ways and also hold him accountable. They therefore undertook to remedy both deficiencies.
First, they took him aside and gave him the additional instruction that he needed. Although he was a learned man, he was not too proud to be teachable. Then they brought him into fellowship with other local believers. When he later went out to preach in the churches of Greece, he carried a letter of recommendation from "the brethren," meaning the assembly of believers in Ephesus.
One question that has provoked differing views is whether they also administered Christian baptism to Apollos, and the best answer is, probably not.
Delving Still Deeper
The exemption from rebaptism
It is a question we cannot definitely resolve because the Holy Spirit has withheld the answer. It sits in the same field of uncertainty as our many other questions about people who believed in Jesus before Pentecost and belonged to the church after Pentecost.
For example, we do not know for sure whether all the apostles themselves were ever baptized. Scripture says pointedly that Jesus Himself baptized no one (John 4:1-2). Perhaps He wished to discourage anyone from claiming salvation by a mere ritual He performed rather than by His redemptive work on the cross. Yet the same text tells us that at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, His disciples baptized many. Past submission to baptism would seem a prerequisite to baptizing others. By whom were Jesus’ disciples baptized? We know that several were once disciples of John the Baptist (John 1:35–42). Presumably, these, and perhaps others among the Twelve, were baptized by John. The rest must have been baptized by a fellow disciple of Jesus. Were they all rebaptized after Jesus gave the Great Commission calling for baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (Matt. 28:18–20), or after the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost? We have not one iota of evidence that they were.
Jesus appeared in His resurrected body to His disciples, to 500 in Galilee (1 Cor. 15:6; Matt. 28:16–17), and to 120 on the day of His Ascension (Luke 24:50–53; Acts 1:4–15). Had these been baptized? Presumably, many if not all had been baptized earlier by John or by Jesus’ disciples. Were they ever rebaptized? Again, we have not one iota of evidence that they were. At Pentecost, the 120 were busy baptizing others.
The evidence we have favors the conclusion that in the eyes of the early church, the baptism of repentance performed by John the Baptist and Jesus’ disciples was seen as legitimate—as sufficient outward compliance with the command issued by preachers of the gospel, "Repent and be baptized" (Acts 2:38)—if it met three conditions.
- It was performed before Pentecost. The kind of baptism available during the spiritual revival shepherded by John the Baptist and Jesus was at that time the proper ceremony for declaring publicly not only personal repentance, but also faith in the Messiah and identification with His followers.
- The person who received it gave a clear testimony of saving faith.
- The same person had, since Pentecost, received the Holy Spirit.
It is likely that Apollos met all three conditions.
- The phrase, "knowing only the baptism of John," suggests that the person baptizing him was John himself. It is not at all unreasonable to suppose that he was in Judea when John was preaching.
- Being "instructed in the way of the Lord" surely means that at the foundation of his own faith and his own witness was a good grasp of the gospel.
- Luke's phrase "fervent in the spirit" is generally understood as speaking of his own spirit, not the Holy Spirit. But since the Holy Spirit seems to be the one intended when Luke uses similar expressions elsewhere (Acts 19:21; 20:22; 21:4),62 we probably should find the same meaning here, accepting "fervent in the Spirit" as the true sense. Luke probably was underscoring the difference between Apollos and the disciples of John that Paul later found in Ephesus (Acts 19:1–3). In any case, without the Spirit's filling, the ability of Apollos to preach with power would have been impossible, as Aquila and Priscilla doubtless recognized.
It is therefore unlikely that Apollos was baptized again after being instructed by Aquila and Priscilla.
Yet Scripture does not settle the matter by clearly saying he was not. Why? Probably because many new converts are strongly tempted to skip public baptism by immersion. One excuse they may find convincing is that they were baptized sometime in the past, whether by immersion or another method. The Holy Spirit chose not to reveal that many early Christians were held exempt from rebaptism, lest He give converts in later church history the impression that some meaningless baptism before salvation can take the place of believer’s baptism.
Apollos proved to be of great help to the cause of Christ wherever he went. He ministered to both believers and unbelievers. The benefit of his preaching for believers was to give their faith a solid grounding in the evidence of fulfilled prophecy. The benefit for unbelievers was to provide such a compelling defense of the gospel that they found it difficult to resist his arguments. The record that he "mightily convinced the Jews" implies that a great number of Jews came to Christ through his witness.
Getting Practical
Seeing Christianity correctly as truth, not as a consumer product
All good churches today are having trouble attracting and holding new people. Why? One reason is that many people today approach Christianity with a consumer mentality. They are interested in it only if it gives them a good time or meets their needs or solves their problems. If it disappoints them by either giving less than they wanted or making unpleasant demands, they turn away.
The basic problem is that they do not take the truth claims of Christianity seriously enough. If they really understood that their attitude toward Christ will determine whether they escape hell and enjoy heaven forever, they would view Christianity in a different light. It is not a product or service to be used only if it works. It is a map of reality that you must follow unless you wish to get lost.
If you are considering the gospel, the issue is not whether Christianity gives you exactly what you want. The issue is whether you will bring your life into line with truth that cannot be changed for your convenience. In other words, you must submit to God, gladly accepting whatever He requires, because He is real and you cannot wish Him out of existence.
Apologetics is helpful because it leads people to focus on Christianity as truth. As Apollos insisted in his preaching, Christ actually fulfilled a multitude of specific prophecies. Also, Christ actually rose from the dead. And Christ actually walks with His people day by day. Therefore, Christianity is true. Moreover, there is no alternative, because Christianity teaches that all other worldviews are false. The only safety for a man's soul lies in following Christ.
Delving Still Deeper
Distinction between two related trades
By calling him a leatherworker, the church fathers did not, however, mean that he was a tanner like Simon of Joppa (Acts 9:43). Paul’s was a highly portable trade, allowing him to set up shop wherever he went. But a tanner could not begin in a new place without capital investment in a building as well as tools, chemicals such as lime, and raw materials. To get established would take money and time. Yet Paul did not carry a large sum as he traveled, and his calling did not allow him to devote any more time to business than was unavoidable. Besides, a tanner’s shop was so repugnant in smell and appearance that Jews did not allow one within city limits.19 Gentiles did not permit one in their midst either.20 Such a building would hardly have been a good home base for a missionary. He needed to live and work in a place with an inviting atmosphere. The best interpretation of "leatherworker" is that Paul was a man skilled in making things not from rawhide, but from processed hide—not from untanned skins but from skins already tanned; in other words, from finished leather.