Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Acts 18:1 - 18:6

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Acts 18:1 - 18:6


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Paul at Corinth.

Aquila and Priscilla and the beginning of the work:

v. 1. After these things Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth,

v. 2. and found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome,) and came unto them.

v. 3. And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them and wrought; for by their occupation they were tent-makers.

v. 4. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.

v. 5. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ.

v. 6. And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment and said unto them, Your blood be upon your heads; I am clean; from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.

Paul had intended to wait for Silas and Timothy in Athens, but conditions caused him to leave this city before they arrived. He departed, journeying out, away from Athens, the city that took no interest in the Gospel-message. A little more than forty miles west by a good Roman road, on the isthmus between Hellas and the Peloponnesus, lay the city of Corinth, the capital of the Roman province Achaia, and the center of government and commerce. It was a rich and beautiful city, some of whose temples and public buildings ranked with those of Athens. Its wealth came pouring in through its eastern harbor, Cenchreae, on the Saronic Gulf, and on the west by way of the Bay of Corinth. But with all its external beauty, its wealth and fame, Corinth had become a byword for vice and infamy, for corruption and licentiousness. Centuries before, the Phoenicians had established the worship of the Semitic goddess Astarte on the Corinthian Acropolis, and the open consecration of shameless impurity in the service of this temple of Venus, as the Roman name has it, almost passes belief. Nevertheless, Paul was acting with careful calculation when he chose this city as a missionary station, for it was one of the knots on the line of communication, the point of convergence for many subordinate roads. At Corinth also Paul could follow his usual method of gaining access to the people, since the commercial advantages of the city had attracted many Jews, and there was a synagogue with a flourishing congregation. After Paul had reached the capital of Achaia, he found, not by deliberate search, but by chance,—he ran across,—a Jew by the name of Aquila, who hailed from Pontus in Asia Minor, a province southeast of the Black Sea. This man had but recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because the Roman emperor Claudius, in 50 A. D. , had expelled all Jews from Rome by an imperial decree. So it must have been in the fall of this year that Paul met Aquila and his wife and made arrangements to lodge with them. Whether Priscilla was of high social rank, as has been conjectured, or not, and whether she had been the first to turn to Christ, or whether her husband had led her to the salvation which he had found first, cannot be definitely shown. But it is certain that she was very prominent in church-work, Rom_16:3; 1Co_16:19; 2Ti_4:9, and that she had great fervency of spirit and much executive ability. The arrangement by which Paul boarded with these people proved to be mutually agreeable and satisfactory, for they were fellow-craftsmen, their trade being that of tent-makers. Very likely it was not necessary for them to weave their material themselves, since the finished product of Cilicia and other Asiatic provinces could easily be procured in a commercial city like Corinth. So Paul worked at his trade and earned his living during the week by the labor of his hands, Act_20:34-35; 1Th_2:9; 2Th_3:8; 1Co_4:11-12; 2Co_11:9; Php_4:12; but on the Sabbath he followed his old custom of arguing in the synagogue and trying to persuade both the Jews and the Greeks, the proselytes that attended the synagogue worship. Whether Paul was ill at this time, or whether he lacked his usual fervor and aggressiveness: he seems, at any rate, not to have been able to make the usual impression upon his hearers. But with the coming of Silas and Timothy from Macedonia, who remained with him for at least a part of his stay, 2Co_1:19, being named also in the salutations of the two letters to the Thessalonians, a change occurred. Probably his two assistants brought him some financial support from the congregation at Thessalonica, for he was now entirely occupied with the teaching of the doctrine of salvation, devoting all his time and energy to preaching the Gospel as found in prophecy and fulfillment, and testifying with great power and success to the fact that Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah. As usual, this fearless proclamation precipitated a crisis. The Jews arrayed themselves in opposition to him and to his message; they not only abused Paul, but blasphemed his Gospel and the name of Christ. And therefore Paul solemnly and impressively shook out his mantle, shook the very dust of their synagogue off his clothes for a testimony against them, telling them, at the same time, that their blood was upon their own heads, that they could hold no one but themselves responsible for their damnation. He knew that he was clean, innocent, free from guilt; he had done his full duty in their behalf, From that time forth he intended to go to the Gentiles. Whatever bloody end the inevitable divine punishment would bring to them they must ascribe entirely to their own hard-heartedness; his conscience absolved him from all further responsibility. Note: If all efforts to bring the Gospel to a certain region or city come to naught on account of the refusal of the inhabitants, the consequences of their opposition may well be announced to the people in terms similar to those used by Paul; for God is not mocked.