Acts 18:1-5

Paul at Corinth

18:1 After this ¹  Paul ²  departed from ³  Athens ⁴  and went to Corinth. ⁵  18:2 There he ⁶  found ⁷  a Jew named Aquila, ⁸  a native of Pontus, ⁹  who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius ¹⁰  had ordered all the Jews to depart from ¹¹  Rome. ¹²  Paul approached ¹³  them, 18:3 and because he worked at the same trade, he stayed with them and worked with them ¹⁴  (for they were tentmakers ¹⁵  by trade). ¹⁶  18:4 He addressed ¹⁷  both Jews and Greeks in the synagogue ¹⁸  every Sabbath, attempting to persuade ¹⁹  them.

18:5 Now when Silas and Timothy arrived ²⁰  from Macedonia, ²¹  Paul became wholly absorbed with proclaiming ²²  the word, testifying ²³  to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. ²⁴ 

[18:1]  ¹ tn Grk “After these things.”

[18:1]  ² tn Grk “he”; the referent (Paul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:1]  ³ tn Or “Paul left.”

[18:1]  ⁴ map For location see JP1 C2; JP2 C2; JP3 C2; JP4 C2.

[18:1]  ⁵ sn Corinth was the capital city of the senatorial province of Achaia and the seat of the Roman proconsul. It was located 55 mi (88 km) west of Athens. Corinth was a major rival to Athens and was the largest city in Greece at the time.

[18:2]  ⁶ tn Grk “And he.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here. The word “there” is not in the Greek text but is implied.

[18:2]  ⁷ tn Grk “finding.” The participle εὑρών (Jeurwn) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[18:2]  ⁸ sn On Aquila and his wife Priscilla see also Acts 18:18, 26; Rom 16:3-4; 1 Cor 16:19; 2 Tim 4:19. In the NT “Priscilla” and “Prisca” are the same person. This author uses the full name Priscilla, while Paul uses the diminutive form Prisca.

[18:2]  ⁹ sn Pontus was a region in the northeastern part of Asia Minor. It was a Roman province.

[18:2]  ¹⁰ sn Claudius refers to the Roman emperor Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus, known as Claudius, who ruled from a.d. 41-54. The edict expelling the Jews from Rome was issued in a.d. 49 (Suetonius, Claudius 25.4).

[18:2]  ¹¹ tn Or “to leave.”

[18:2]  ¹² map For location see JP4 A1.

[18:2]  ¹³ tn Or “went to.”

[18:3]  ¹⁴ tn The prepositional phrase “with them” occurs only once in the Greek text, but since it occurs between the two finite verbs (ἔμενεν, emenen, and ἠργάζετο, hrgazeto) it relates (by implication) to both of them.

[18:3]  ¹⁵ tn On the term translated “tentmakers,” see BDAG 928-29 s.v. σκνηοποιός. Paul apparently manufactured tents. In contrast to the Cynic philosophers, Paul at times labored to support himself (see also v. 5).

[18:3]  ¹⁶ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[18:4]  ¹⁷ tn Although the word διελέξατο (dielexato; from διαλέγομαι, dialegomai) is frequently translated “reasoned,” “disputed,” or “argued,” this sense comes from its classical meaning where it was used of philosophical disputation, including the Socratic method of questions and answers. However, there does not seem to be contextual evidence for this kind of debate in Acts 18:4. As G. Schrenk (TDNT 2:94-95) points out, “What is at issue is the address which any qualified member of a synagogue might give.” Other examples of this may be found in the NT in Matt 4:23 and Mark 1:21.

[18:4]  ¹⁸ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[18:4]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “Addressing in the synagogue every Sabbath, he was attempting to persuade both Jews and Greeks.” Because in English the verb “address” is not used absolutely but normally has an object specified, the direct objects of the verb ἔπειθεν (epeiqen) have been moved forward as the objects of the English verb “addressed,” and the pronoun “them” repeated in the translation as the object of ἔπειθεν. The verb ἔπειθεν has been translated as a conative imperfect.

[18:5]  ²⁰ tn Grk “came down.”

[18:5]  ²¹ sn Macedonia was the Roman province of Macedonia in Greece.

[18:5]  ²² tn BDAG 971 s.v. συνέχω 6 states, “συνείχετο τῷ λόγῳ (Paul) was wholly absorbed in preaching Ac 18:5…in contrast to the activity cited in vs. 3.” The imperfect συνείχετο (suneiceto) has been translated as an ingressive imperfect (“became wholly absorbed…”), stressing the change in Paul’s activity once Silas and Timothy arrived. At this point Paul apparently began to work less and preach more.

[18:5]  ²³ tn BDAG 233 s.v. διαμαρτύρομαι 2 has “testify of, bear witness to solemnly (orig. under oath)…W. acc. and inf. foll. Ac 18:5.”

[18:5]  ²⁴ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”