Acts 18

Acts 18:3

And Paul being by trade a tent-maker, as they were, associated and wrought in his trade with them,

Acts 18:4

And every sabbath he preached the gospel in the synagogues of the Jews, labouring to convince them all that were present, both Jews and Grecians, viz., those that were Greeks by birth, but proselytes to the Jews’ religion.

Acts 18:5

[a] pressed in the spirit] That which is in the ordinary printed copies συνείχετο τῷ πνεύματι is συνείχετο τῷ λόγῳ in the two great MSS., that of the king’s library that was sent from Constantinople, and the Greek and Latin one at Cambridge, sent them by Theo. Beza. And which of these is the most probable reading is not easily defined. Συνέχομαι signifies to be pressed or held fast, Matt. iv. 24, Luke iv. 37, Acts xxviii. 8. So συνέχεσθαι φόβῳ, to be pressed or held with fear, Job iii. 24, and Luke viii. 37, συνέχεσθαι οἴνῳ in Jeremy, to be held fast by wine, to be overcome by it; συμπλέκσθαι, saith Hesychius, and again, κρατεῖσθαι, “to be entangled or held fast,” which as it really notes being in the power of another, so it may be applied to sorrow or any other passion, as well as to fear, and peculiarly to sorrow. So συνοχή, Luke xxi. 25, is used for anxiety, and 2 Cor. ii. 4, συνοχή καρδίας, anguish of heart: and so πῶς συνέχομαι; how am I straitened or pained? Luke xii. 50. And thus, according to the nature of the word, it may be proper enough for the place with which soever it be joined. If with πνεύματι, then it is either his own spirit, or the Spirit of God. If his own, then it may signify him to have had some such extraordinary sorrow or grief upon him, to think of his obdurate impenitent countrymen, to whom he was then preaching with very little success. And so of Apollos we read, ver. 25, ζίων τῷ πνεύματι, that he burned in spirit, as when David saith, his heart was hot within him, and at last he spake with his tongue. And so if the Spirit of God, then it is that he was stirred up, carried or incited by God by revelation. But it is most ordinary for the word ἅγιον, holy, to be prefixed to the word Spirit when it is taken in this sense, as ch. xvi. 6, and so this last is not so probably the meaning: so likewise if it be τῷ λόγῳ, in speech, it will then signify no more than that he spake very earnestly, and that is the importance of διαμαρτύρεσθαι following, he testified and earnestly insisted on it, and proved that Jesus was indeed the Messias, which the Jews denied. That this may be the meaning, appears not improbably by another parallel expression, ver. 28, for there as Apollos was doing the same thing that Paul here, earnestly labouring to convince the Jews that Christ was the Messias, so the expression peculiarly belongs to λόγος, speech, not πνεῦμα, spirit, εὐτόνως γὰρ τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις (or, as I suppose it should be, τοὺς Ἰουδαίους) διακατελέγχετο δημοσίᾳ, he did publicly with intention, or earnestness of speech, convince the Jews, demonstrating by the scriptures that Jesus is the Christ. Where the force and power of his speech, and arguments contained in it, was that which was meant by εὐτόνως. To what hath been said may be added, that the ancient Greek and Latin MS., after Ἰησοῦν in the end of the verse, hath annexed these words, πολλοῦ δὲ λόγου γενομένου καὶ γραφῶν διερμηνευομένων, and having had much speech and interpreted the scriptures; which as it makes it more fully parallel with that of ver. 28, so it inclines to the reading of λόγῳ, not πνεύματι, speech, not spirit.

Acts 18:6

And when they not only withstood him, but railed, or used him contumeliously, he used that ordinary ceremony of shaking his shoes, or other his garments; noting thereby his opinion of their great unworthiness of having the gospel farther preached to them, and withal aboding sad consequents to them. And he said unto them, Having thus warned you, I am free from the guilt of your destruction, which will certainly come upon you; I will stay no longer among you Jews, but without any scruple preach to the Gentiles of this and other cities.

Acts 18:7

And going out of the synagogue he went into a private house in Corinth, the house of one Justus, by birth a Gentile, but a Jewish proselyte.

⁶ Fear nothing; for I will be present with thee, to secure thee from all harm; but, on the contrary, preach confidently in this place, considering that though some oppose, yet there be many pious men in this heathen wicked city that will receive the gospel.

⁴ preaching the gospel to them of Corinth and of all Achaia, and farther instructing and confirming them that received it.

Acts 18:12

But the Jews throughout the whole region of Achaia banded against him, and brought him before the tribunal of Gallio, the proconsul of that province, saying—

¹ Or, was moved in speech: for the King’s MS. and the ancient Greek and Latin read, συνεῖχεται τῷ λόγῳ. ² the Christ: τὸν Χρ. ³ railed. ⁴ And Gallio being proconsul, Γαλλίωτος δὲ ἀνδυπατεύοντος. ⁵ set themselves unanimously, κατεπέστησαν ὁμοθυμ.

Acts 18:15

But seeing the question betwixt you is only a verbal controversy—as whether Jesus be to be called and acknowledged the Messias; and of names, whether it were lawful for Christians by that name or by that of disciples &c. to distinguish themselves from incredulous Jews; and concerning the law of you Jews, whether it condemn all Gentiles that are not circumcised, and make it utterly unlawful to converse with such; all which are things of that nature that I understand not, and of which consequently I am no competent judge; and seeing there is yet no law set out by the emperors against Christian religion (for this was in the reign of Claudius, who set out an edict against the Jews, ver. 2, but none against Christians, any otherwise than as they were comprehended under the name of Jews)—this matter belongs not to my cognizance, I will not meddle with it: (see note

Acts 18:16

And he cast their indictment out of the court.

Acts 18:17

And Sosthenes, one of the rulers of the Jewish consistory there, which appeared in this complaint against Paul, was by some of the natives of Corinth, upon Gallio’s shewing a dislike of their business, ver. 16, strucken in the court, and the proconsul took no notice of it. who had made a vow of a Nazarite, for a time not to shave his head; after which expired, it was the manner to cut it solemnly, and accordingly so he did at Cenchrea.

Acts 18:18

[b] had a vow] The εὐχήν εἶχε, had a vow here, is not to be referred to Paul, but to Aquila; for with his name is conjoined κειράμενος,

Acts 18:19

And in his way to Syria, ver. 18, he came to Ephesus—

Acts 18:22

And in his journey to Jerusalem he landed (not at Joppa, one haven to Jerusalem, but a very dangerous one, but) at Cæsarea Stratonis, as his safer landing, and from thence went up to Jerusalem, and visited the congregation of Christians there; and having done so, and there kept the feast, he went thence to Antioch. ‘confirming and farther instructing all the new converted Christians. one that had a great insight and skill in the scriptures of the Old Testament, (see ver. 28,) came to Ephesus.

[c] gone up] That the church here signifies not the Christians of Cæsarea, but the church of Jerusalem, appears ver. 21, where the reason of his departure from Ephesus is, that he may keep the feast at Jerusalem, which cannot be if he went from Cæsarea to Antioch; for that was his way of return to Ephesus again, which he promised to do, ver. 21, but not till he had been at Jerusalem. And it seems some Syriac copies have read it gone up to Jerusalem, and saluted the church; for Tremellius supposeth that, when he saith, “some copies have not nomen Urishelem, the name Jerusalem.” And so ch. xxi. 12, where Paul was again at this Cæsarea, the phrase is at large, ἀναβαίνειν εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα, to go up to Jerusalem: and so ch. xxv. 1. But without the addition of that, (which, I suppose, the Syriac here added, not as a translation, but a paraphrase,) the word ἀναβὰς, going up, following after his landing at Cæsarea, will enforce this sense. And so ch. xxiv. 1, the κατίβη, descending of Ananias, &c. notes the going from Jerusalem to Cæsarea, without naming of either. See ch. xxv. 6, 7. For Cæsarea was the haven where they landed most commodiously in going from Ephesus to Jerusalem, and being landed there, what needed more to be said, but that he went up? for that will imply his going up to that

¹ Bas. Ed. p. 124.

Acts 18:25

This Apollos had been instructed in the gospel; and being in respect of knowledge not so perfectly instructed in all things as yet, (see ver. 26,) yet being very zealous in the way wherein he was entered, he began to preach the gospel among them out of the prophets, instructing them in the Christian doctrine very truly, and agreeably to the rule taught by the apostles as far as his instruction went, and this before he was baptized with the Christian baptism, being only received by John to the believing in him that was to come (so as the Ephesian disciples, ch. xix. 2).

Acts 18:26

And he entered into the synagogue of the Jews, and there publicly and confidently (see note

Acts 18:27

[d] exhorting] For the use of προτρίψασθαι for putting forward, encouraging, see Wisd. xiv. 18.

[e] grace] What χάρις here signifies may best be collected from ch. xi. 23, and xiii. 43. In many other places it signifies the gospel of Christ, (see note [d] on Heb. xiii.) as when it is opposed to νόμος, the law, John i. 17. The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So the σωτήριος χάρις, the salvific grace of God, Titus ii. 11. But in those and many the like places, grace signifies the matter or subject of the gospel, not the preaching of it, for that is expressed by the coming or appearing of that grace. But in that place of ch. xi. 23, where it is said, that seeing the grace of Christ he rejoiced, (that is, seeing that the gospel had been preached with so good success among them,) it signifies the preaching or promulgating of the gospel, (just as εὐαγγέλιον, gospel, doth Rom. i. 1, and ix. 16.) and so ch. xiii. 43, when they exhort them to continue in the grace of God, that was the work of confirmation following that of preaching the gospel to them. And that notion of it seems to be the most adequate and proper for this place, so that πεπιστευκότες διὰ τῆς χάριτος shall signify those that had been formerly converted to the faith by the preaching of the gospel by St. Paul, according to that of Paul planteth and Apollos watereth: for that watering, being the instructing them further who already had received the faith, the edifying, or superstructing on the foundation, is all one with πολύ συνεβάλετο, he conferred much, or contributed his assistance, (or, as perhaps it should be read, συνελάβετο, assisted,) helped to improve them that before believed. As for that of applying διὰ τῆς χάριτος, by grace, to συνεβάλετο, he conferred, that Apollos by grace, that is, his gift and power in scripture contributed much to the believers, there is no necessity of flying to that refuge, nor probability from the placing of those words (which follow, and go not before πεπιστευκόσι) to favour that rendering. In the same sense we find ἐν χάριτι Χριστοῦ, in, or to, or through, the grace, that is, the gospel, of Christ, Gal. i. 6, to, or by which Paul is said to have called them, and is there set opposite to ἄλλο εὐαγγέλιον, another gospel, a doctrine of some false teachers crept in among them.

Acts 18:32

And when he mentioned that of rising from the dead, some of those learned men, the Epicureans especially, which denied all future life, fell a scoffing, and others said—

Acts 18:34

And some believed, and associated with him, particularly Dionysius, one of the senators or judges in Areopagus, (see note [e],) and Damaris his wife, and some others. ### CHAP. XVIII. * (Claudius, the emperor of Rome, having about this time, toward the latter end of his reign, (see note [a] ch. xxvi.,) made an edict to banish the Jews out of his dominions, especially from Rome and Italy, and those parts.)