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3. ἦλθεν εἰς τὴν Ἑλλάδα, he came into Greece. There is nothing said of the places which St Paul visited in this journey, but as he was always anxious to strengthen any work which he had before begun we may feel sure that Athens and Corinth, on this account, as well as for their importance as centres of intellectual and commercial life, were the places in which he spent the greater part of his three months’ stay. In the latter Church especially there were many things to be set in order. He had already written to the Corinthians his two Epistles. In the first, sent from Ephesus, he had found it necessary to rebuke them for the party-spirit in the Church, some calling themselves by the name of Peter, some of Apollos, and some of Paul himself, instead of finding true unity in Christ; he had also censured the disorders in the Eucharistic feast, had given his judgment on a notorious offender, and on many topics raised by the difficulties of a Christian Church growing up amid heathen surroundings. These matters, and the guidance into a right channel of the exercise of those special gifts of preaching and speaking with tongues with which God endowed the Church in Corinth, would give the Apostle little rest during his brief stay, even if he bestowed his whole time on Corinth alone.
ποιήσας τε μῆνας τρεῖς, and when he had spent three months. On ποιέω in this sense, cf. Act 15:33, Act 18:23. So also Acta Barnabæ Apocryph. 7, ἐλθεῖν ἐν Κύπρῳ καὶ ποιῆσαι τὸν χειμῶνα.
γενομένης ἐπιβουλῆς κ.τ.λ., and when a plot was laid against him by the Jews. The Jews, who had tried to engage Gallio in their matters on St Paul’s last visit to Corinth, now take a secret instead of a public means of wreaking their vengeance on him. And we may judge that St Paul anticipated some trouble from the Judaizing party at Corinth by the tone of the latter portion (after chap. 9) of his second Epistle written to them while he was on his way, but detained in Macedonia. There were persons in Corinth who spoke slightingly of the Apostle. His bodily presence was weak and his speech contemptible. And in opposition to the remarks of these opponents, the Epistle concludes with an assertion of St Paul’s equality to the chiefest Apostles, a recital more full than in any other place of his sufferings for the Gospel, and an account of revelations divinely made unto him. It is clear therefore that among those who would be counted as Christians St Paul was not everywhere accepted. The Jews under such circumstances would have some abettors in their animosity even among the Judæo-Christians, and seem to have planned some means whereby St Paul might be attacked on his sea voyage to Syria. No doubt the intention was to kill him. ἐπιβουλή is the word used (Act 9:24) when the Jews watched the gates of Damascus night and day to kill him.
μέλλοντι ἀνάγεσθαι εἰς τὴν Συρίαν, as he was about to set sail for Syria. He had apparently gone so far as to arrange for his passage and go on board, and was nearly departed, before he got the warning news. For ἀνάγεσθαι refers to the actual preparation for setting sail. Perhaps some heart, among the people to whom the plot was known on shore, was moved to give a hint of the great peril at the last moment. This is the more probable if we suppose some previous communications between the Jews and the Judaizers among the Christians.
ἐγένετο γνώμης κ.τ.λ., he determined to return through Macedonia. As the scheme for killing him had been meant to be carried out at sea, the choice of an overland journey and a prompt departure made the forming of a new plan impossible to the conspirators.
For the genitive after γίνομαι, cf. Apocal. Act 11:15, ἐγένοντο αἱ βασιλεῖαι τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν. Also ἐλπίδος γίνεσθαι, Plutarch, Phoc. 23.
The grammar of the whole verse is remarkable for its freedom from rule. Beginning with ποιήσας, we come next to μέλλοντι, and presently the construction is once more changed in ἐγένετο γνώμης.