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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Acts 20:3 - 20:3
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And there abode three months - Though the province only is here mentioned, it is the city of Corinth that is meant, as the province of “Macedonia” (Act 20:1) meant the city of Philippi. Some rough work he anticipated on his arrival at Corinth (2Co 10:1-8, 2Co 10:11; 2Co 13:1-10) though he had reason to expect satisfaction on the whole; and as we know there were other churches in Achaia besides that at Corinth (2Co 1:1; 2Co 11:10), he would have time enough to pay them all a brief visit during the three months of his stay there. This period was rendered further memorable by the dispatch of the Epistle to the Romans, written during his stay at Corinth and sent by “Phoebe, a servant [deaconess] of the Church at Cenchrea” (see on Act 18:3), a lady apparently of some standing and substance, who was going thither on private business. (See on Rom 16:1 and see on Introduction to Romans).
And when the Jews laid wait for him, as he was about to sail into Syria - He had intended to embark, probably at Cenchrea, the eastern harbor of the city, for Palestine, on his route to Jerusalem, the third part of his plan (Act 19:21). But having detected some conspiracy against his life by his bitter Jewish enemies as at Damascus (Act 9:22-25) and Jerusalem (Act 9:29, Act 9:30), he changed his plan and determined “to return” as he had come, “through Macedonia.” As he was never more to return to Corinth, so this route would bring him, for the last time, face to face with the attached disciples of Berea, Thessalonica, and Philippi.