Silas and Timothy had evidently rejoined Paul in Athens (1 Thess. 3:1). Before leaving Athens, Paul sent Timothy back to Thessalonica (1 Thess. 3:2) and Silas back to somewhere in Macedonia (18:5), perhaps Philippi (cf. Phil. 4:16). Paul entered Corinth without these brethren, but they joined him in Corinth later (18:5; 1 Thess. 3:6).
18:1 Corinth was the capital of the Roman province of Achaia and was a Roman colony. The Romans razed Corinth in 146 B.C., but it was rebuilt a century later in 46 B.C. Its site lay about 50 miles southwest of Athens at a very strategic location. Land traffic from northern Achaia to its southern peninsula, the Peloponnesus, crossed a land bridge very near Corinth. Stevedores hauled smaller ships travelling from one of Corinth's port towns, Lechaeum on the west or Cenchrea on the east, to the other overland on wooden rollers. They handled the cargoes of larger ships the same way. The distance between the ports was three and a half miles. Sea captains preferred this inconvenience because they did not want to sail 200 miles around dangerous Cape Malea at the southern tip of the Peloponnesus. Consequently Corinth constantly buzzed with commercial activity, and it possessed all the vices that have typically haunted cosmopolitan ports.
Corinth was about 20 times as large as Athens at this time with a population of over 200,000 inhabitants.727The city was infamous for its immorality that issued from two sources: its numerous transients and its temple to Aphrodite. Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love, and here devotees promoted immorality in the name of religion.728Her temple, which boasted 1,000 religious prostitutes, stood on the Acrocorinth, a 1,857 foot flat-topped mountain just outside the city. It is easy to understand why sexual problems plagued the Corinthian church (1 Cor. 5; et al.).
"Beginning with the fifth century B.C., the verb to Corinthianize' (korinthiazesthai) meant to be sexually immoral, a reputation that continued to be well-deserved in Paul's day."729
Archaeologists have also discovered the remains of temples to Melkart, the god of sailors, to Apollo, the god of music and poetry, and to Asclepius, the god of healing, and there were others.
When Paul entered Corinth he was fearful (1 Cor. 2:1-5), probably because of the wicked reputation of this city and perhaps because his fellow workers were not with him.
"To move from Athens to Corinth was to exchange the atmosphere of a provincial university city for that of a thriving commercial metropolis . . ."730
It was as though Paul had left Boston and had landed in Las Vegas.
18:2-3 Pontus was the Roman province in Asia Minor that lay east of Bithynia on the Black Sea coast (in modern northern Turkey).
Priscilla had another name, Prisca (Rom. 16:3; 1 Cor. 16:19; 2 Tim. 4:19), the latter being more formal.731Her name frequently appears before her husband Aquila's in the New Testament (e.g., 18:18-19, 26; Rom. 16:3; 2 Tim. 4:19). This may indicate that she came from a higher social class than Aquila or that others regarded her as superior to him in some respect. Here, however, Luke mentioned Aquila first.
The Roman writer Suetonius referred to an edict by Emperor Claudius ordering non-Roman citizen Jews to leave Rome, and he dated this expulsion at 49-50 A.D.732
"Because the Jews at Rome caused continuous disturbances at the instigation of Crestus, he [Claudius] expelled them from the city."733
"It was commonly supposed that Suetonius was referring to riots in the Jewish community over the preaching of Christ, but that he has misspelled the name and has perhaps erroneously thought that Christ was actually a rebel leader in Rome (Suetonius was born in A.D. 69, and wrote considerably after the event)."734
Normally tradespeople set up shop on the ground floor of a building and lived on the floor above. We do not know if Aquila and Priscilla were Christians when Paul first met them, but it seems likely that they were since Luke did not mention their conversion.
Paul evidently had a financial need, so he went to work practicing his trade of tent-making (cf. 20:34; 1 Cor. 4:12; 9:1-18; 2 Cor. 11:9; 1 Thess. 2:9; 2 Thess. 3:7-10).
"Apart from occasional gifts (Phil. 4:15ff), Paul's practice was to be self-supporting by working at his trade and not to be dependent on the charity of church members . . ."735
Tent-makers made and repaired all kinds of leather goods, not just tents.736It would be more accurate to describe Paul as a leather-worker (Gr. skenopoioi) rather than as a tent-maker. This was a common trade in his home province of Cilicia, which produced a fabric made from goats' skins called cilicium. It was common practice for Jewish rabbis to practice a trade as well as study and teach the Hebrew Scriptures.737
"Paul was a Rabbi, but according to Jewish practice, every Rabbi must have a trade. He must take no money for preaching and teaching and must make his living by his own work and his own efforts. The Jew glorified work. Love work,' they said. He who does not teach his son a trade teaches him robbery.' Excellent,' they said, is the study of the law along with a worldly trade; for the practice of them both makes a man forget iniquity; but all law without work must in the end fail and causes iniquity.' So we find Rabbis following every respectable trade."738
18:4 Paul continued his usual evangelistic strategy in Corinth. He reasoned with (Gr. dielegeto, 17:2, 17; 18:19; 19:8-9; 20:7, 9; 24:12, 25) and tried to persuade (epeithen, 13:43; 19:8, 26; 21:14; 26:28; 28:23) both Jews and Gentiles in the local synagogue.
18:5 Maybe Paul was able to stop practicing his trade and give full time to teaching and evangelizing if Silas returned from Philippi with a monetary gift, as seems likely (cf. Phil. 4:14-16; 2 Cor. 11:9). Timothy had returned from Thessalonica with encouraging news about the Christians' progress there (cf. 1 Thess. 3:6-10), but they were also having problems (1 Thess. 2:3-6; 4:13-5:11). Paul evidently wrote 1 Thessalonians soon after Timothy's return and 2 Thessalonians shortly thereafter also from Corinth, probably in the early 50s A.D. (cf. v. 11).
18:6 Paul's hearers blasphemed when they spoke things about Jesus Christ that were not true (cf. 13:45; 26:11). Shaking out one's garment so no dust from the place remained symbolized the same thing as shaking the dust from one's sandals (13:51), namely rejection. Paul felt he had fulfilled his responsibility to deliver the gospel to these Jews (cf. Ezek. 33:1-9). Consequently he turned his attention to evangelizing the Gentiles as he had done before (13:7-11, 46; 14:2-6; 17:5; cf. 19:8-9; 28:23-28).
18:7 Titius Justus--the name is Roman--may have been a God-fearer whom Paul met in the synagogue. He may be the person Paul called Gaius elsewhere (cf. Rom. 16:23; 1 Cor. 1:14) since Gaius is a first name and Titius and Justus are given and family names respectively.739
18:8 Crispus was another one of the few believers in Corinth that Paul baptized personally (1 Cor. 1:14). Yet many of the Corinthians believed the gospel when they heard it from Paul.
18:9-10 Another vision quieted Paul's fears (cf. 23:11; 27:23-24). His ministry in Corinth was getting off to a rough start, as many ministries do, but it would succeed. He needed encouragement to be courageous and to keep speaking rather than falling silent. The Lord could see His elect in Corinth before their conversions even though Paul could not.
18:11 Paul's year and a half stay in Corinth probably dates from the fall of 50 to the spring of 52 A.D. This was evidently the entire time Paul remained in Corinth. The church Paul planted in Corinth consisted of a rich mixture of people some of whom were greatly gifted but most of whom came from the lower elements of society (cf. Rom. 16:23; 1 Cor. 1:4-8, 26-29; 7:18; 12:13).
18:12 An inscription found at Delphi in Central Greece has enabled scholars to date the beginning of Gallio's term as proconsul to July 1, 51 A.D.740Gallio was a remarkable Roman citizen from Spain. His brother, the Stoic philosopher Seneca, who was Nero's tutor, referred to him as having an unusually pleasant disposition.
"No mortal is so pleasant to any person as Gallio is to everyone."741
"Even those who love my brother Gallio to the utmost of their power do not love him enough."742
Another Greek writer referred to his wit.743A proconsul was the governor of a Roman province, and his legal decisions set precedent for the other proconsuls throughout the empire. Consequently Gallio's decision in Paul's case affected the treatment that Christians would receive throughout the Roman world. This was the first time that Paul (or any other apostle as far as we know) stood trial before a Roman provincial governor.
The "judgment-seat"(Gr. bema, v. 12) was the place where Gallio made his official decisions.
It was ". . . a large, raised platform that stood in the agora (marketplace) in front of the residence of the proconsul and served as a forum where he tried cases."744
Paul used the same Greek word to describe the judgment seat of Christ when he wrote to the Corinthians later (2 Cor. 5:10; cf. Matt. 27:19).
18:13 The Corinthian Jews' charge against Paul was the same as the one the Philippian Jews and the Thessalonian Jews had raised (16:21; 17:6-7, 13). They claimed he was proselytizing for a new religion. The Romans permitted the Jews to do this, but they could not proselyte among Roman citizens.
18:14-16 To Gallio the accusations of these Jews seemed to involve matters of religious controversy that entailed no violation of Roman law. He was responsible to judge criminal cases, not theological disputations. Consequently he refused to hear the case and ordered the Jews to settle it themselves.745This verdict effectively made Christianity legitimate in the Roman Empire. Officially hereafter for many years the Romans regarded Christianity as a sect within Judaism even though the Jews were coming to see that it was a separate faith. As a proconsul, Gallio's decision in Paul's case was much more important than the judgments that the local magistrates in Philippi and elsewhere had rendered.
18:17 "They all"evidently refers to the Gentile audience at this trial. Encouraged by Gallio's impatience with the Jews, they vented their own anti-Semitic feelings. They beat up Sosthenes who had either succeeded Crispus as leader of the synagogue (v. 8) or served with him in this capacity (cf. 13:15). This Sosthenes may have become a Christian later and served as Paul's amanuensis when the apostle wrote 1 Corinthians (1 Cor. 1:1), or he may have been a different Sosthenes. Gallio did not interfere, probably concluding that this demonstration might discourage the Jews from bothering him with their religious differences in the future.
Gallio's decision resulted in the official toleration of Christianity that continued in the empire until 64 A.D. when Nero blamed the Christians for burning Rome. It may have encouraged Paul to appeal to Caesar when he felt the Jews in Palestine were influencing the Palestinian Roman officials against him too much (25:11).
