Paul had attempted to reach the province of Asia earlier (16:6). Now the Lord permitted him to go there but from the west rather than from the east. Luke recorded his initial contact in Ephesus in this section to set the scene for his ministry there when he returned from Syrian Antioch (ch. 19).
18:18 Paul stayed in Corinth and ministered quite a while after Gallio's decision. Eventually he decided to return to Jerusalem for a brief visit. He departed by ship for Syria, and Priscilla and Aquila accompanied him to Ephesus where they remained (v. 19). Luke did not record what Silas and Timothy did.
". . . Paul set sail for Caesarea, giving as his reason for haste, according to the Western text, I must at all costs keep the coming feast at Jerusalem'. If, as is likely, the feast was Passover, he was planning to reach Jerusalem by April, A.D. 52. This was a bad time of the year for a sea voyage, and it has been suggested that one of the three shipwrecks which Paul refers to in 2 C. 11:25 may have occurred between Ephesus and Caesarea."746
This questionable textual reading may explain part of Paul's reason for going to Jerusalem, but Luke definitely recorded that Paul had taken a Nazarite vow. This vow, which was optional for Jews, involved, among other things, leaving one's hair uncut. Jews took vows either to get something from God or because God had given them something (cf. Lev. 27). Then, at the end of the vow, the person who made it would cut his hair and offer it as a burnt offering, along with a sacrifice, on the altar in Jerusalem (cf. Num. 6:1-21).747
"There are a great many folk who find fault with Paul because he made a vow. They say that this is the man who preached that we are not under Law but we are under grace, and so he should not have made a vow. Anyone who says this about Paul is actually making a little law for Paul. Such folk are saying that Paul is to do things their way. Under grace, friend, if you want to make a vow, you can make it. And if you do not want to make a vow, you don't have to. Paul didn't force anyone else to make a vow. In fact, he said emphatically that no one has to do that. But if Paul wants to make a vow, that is his business. That is the marvelous freedom that we have in the grace of God today."748
Evidently Paul had his hair cut just before he made his vow, when he left Cenchrea for Syria. He would have cut it when he arrived in Jerusalem. It seems less likely that he would have cut his hair at the end of his vow in Cenchrea and then carried it all the way to Jerusalem.749
Cenchrea was the eastern seaport of Corinth on the Aegean Sea. There was a church there later and perhaps already at this time (Rom. 16:1).
18:19-21 Ephesus was the capital and chief commercial center of the province of Asia.750It stood near the coast of the Aegean Sea. Priscilla and Aquila remained in Ephesus, but Paul moved on to Syria after he had done some evangelism in the synagogue. The openness of the Jews to Paul's preaching there encouraged him to return. Paul's reference to God's will (v. 21) reminds us again that he subordinated his plans to the Lord's leading in his life.
18:22 Paul's ship landed at Caesarea, the chief port of Jerusalem (cf. 10:1). He went from there "up"to Jerusalem and greeted the church. To "go up to"and "go down from"are almost technical terms for going to and from Jerusalem in Acts.751Likewise "the church"without a modifier is clearly a reference to the mother church in Jerusalem.752When Paul had finished his business in Jerusalem, he returned to Syrian Antioch and so completed his second missionary journey (15:40-18:22).
