AFTER THIS, PAUL left Athens and went to Corinth. 2There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, 3and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. 4Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.
5When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. 6But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”
7Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. 8Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized.
9One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. 10For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” 11So Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.
12While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him into court. 13“This man,” they charged, “is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law.”
14Just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to the Jews, “If you Jews were making a complaint about some misdemeanor or serious crime, it would be reasonable for me to listen to you. 15But since it involves questions about words and names and your own law—settle the matter yourselves. I will not be a judge of such things.” 16So he had them ejected from the court. 17Then they all turned on Sosthenes the synagogue ruler and beat him in front of the court. But Gallio showed no concern whatever.
18Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Cenchrea because of a vow he had taken. 19They arrived at Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. He himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. 20When they asked him to spend more time with them, he declined. 21But as he left, he promised, “I will come back if it is God’s will.” Then he set sail from Ephesus. 22When he landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church and then went down to Antioch.
Original Meaning
AFTER PAUL LEFT Athens, he went further south to Corinth, the capital of Achaia and the third largest city in the Roman empire in the first century A.D., next only to Rome and Alexandria. It is said to have had a population of about 200,000, at least twenty times that of Athens. Because modern Corinth is three miles away from ancient Corinth, the latter has been accessible to archaeological exploration.
Paul in Corinth (18:1)
CORINTH WAS SITUATED on the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow neck of land that joins central Greece to the Peloponnese, the peninsula that forms the southern part of mainland Greece. It had two harbors, one on the east of the isthmus and the other on the west, and it had a three-and-one-half-mile long railroad of wooden logs over which ships were dragged from one harbor to the other. The main north-south land routes also converged here. Thus, Corinth became a prosperous city, having the feel of an economic “boom town.” It was the center for the worship of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, and had a temple with a thousand sacred prostitutes. From the fifth century B.C. on, the verb “to corinthianize” meant to be sexually immoral.1
Paul reports that he came to Corinth “in weakness and fear, and with much trembling” (1 Cor. 2:3). This is understandable considering the pain he had endured in his last few stops. Despite the divine call to Macedonia, he had been driven out of all three Macedonian cities in which he ministered. From Athens he “was dismissed with polite contempt rather than being violently driven out.”2 He was worried about the situation in Thessalonica and eagerly awaited the arrival of Silas and Timothy from there (1 Thess. 2:17–3:5). Paul may not have anticipated encountering much receptivity to his message in Corinth because of its prosperity and reputation for immorality. But he stayed here for over a year and a half and saw the founding of “a large and gifted, if volatile, church.” Bruce writes, “It is plain from his two letters to the Corinthians that the church which he planted there caused him many a headache; it was turbulent and unruly, but it was undoubtedly alive, and remains so to this day.”3
Evangelizing Corinth (18:2–11)
IN CORINTH PAUL, without his companions Silas and Timothy, was blessed with the acquaintance of Aquila and Priscilla, who had recently been expelled from Rome along with other Jews (v. 2).4 We cannot be sure whether this husband and wife were already Christians, though most scholars have assumed they were, especially since Paul went to live with them. Like Paul, they were “tentmakers,” and they soon became business partners.
What exactly is meant by the term tentmaker is disputed. Tents in those days were either made of leather or of cilicium, a cloth of woven goat’s hair named after Paul’s native province Cilicia.5 Paul worked on tents during the week (v. 3), probably doing some personal witnessing along the way, and had a more public ministry in the synagogue every Sabbath (v. 4). This ministry is described in familiar words: “reasoned” (dialegomai) and “trying to persuade” (peitho).6 In every new city Paul visited, he looked for a bridgehead from which he could launch his ministry.7 Here it was his trade and his contacts in the synagogue.
While Paul was doing this work, his colleagues Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia with great news of how the church there was thriving under persecution (v. 5a; 1 Thess. 3:6–10). They probably brought gifts from Macedonia for support of his work (2 Cor. 11:8–9; Phil. 4:15–16), and as a result he was able to devote “himself exclusively to preaching” (v. 5b). While this probably means that he gave up his tentmaking to go into full-time evangelism, the word translated “devoted” (synecho)8 can also be translated “began to be engrossed,”9 which may suggest that the arrival of his colleagues with such good news acted as a shot in the arm to Paul and thus propelled him into more intense ministry. Robertson translates this word with the next phrase in the Greek (to logo: “in reference to the word”) as “was constrained by the word” and adds the comment: “The coming of Silas with gifts from Macedonia . . . set Paul free from tent-making for a while so that he began to devote himself . . . with fresh concentration to preaching.”10
Paul’s proclamation is described as “testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ” (v. 5c). The word translated “testifying” (diamartyromai) appears fifteen times in the New Testament (nine in Acts); it is usually translated “warn” or “testify” and has been defined as “to make a serious declaration on the basis of presumed personal knowledge.”11 It reminds us that while evangelism is a joyous privilege, it is also an awesome responsibility. Verse 6 further illustrates a sense of the seriousness of the message as it describes Paul’s response when the Jews became abusive (blasphemeo): “He shook out his clothes in protest” of their blasphemous attitude and as an expression of his exemption from further responsibility for them.12 He then explicitly stated this exemption with the familiar words: “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility,” and announced his intention to concentrate on the Gentiles.
Leaving the synagogue, Paul went to the home of Titius Justus, which became the center of the young church in Corinth (v. 7) and was probably where its first house church met.13 Romans 16:23 refers to Gaius, who provided hospitality for the whole church in Corinth, but Gaius may be another name of Titius.14 If Gaius provided hospitality to the whole church, he must have had a big house, which meant he was wealthy. The Corinthian letters indicate that the church in Corinth had a few wealthy “urban élites,”15 but that the majority of the members were “at the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder.”16 Recently there has been much discussion on the social composition of the Corinthian church.17 It seems that the few wealthy members of the congregation exercised “an influence all out of proportion to their numbers.”18
In addition to the open door provided by Titius, the conversion of “Crispus, the synagogue ruler” (v. 8), must have done much to encourage Paul in his disappointment over his rejection by his kinsmen, the Jews. We note here again that we have an instance of a whole household coming to Christ.19 But the biggest encouragement came from a vision Paul had in which the Lord promised to protect him and told him that he had “many people [laos] in this city” (vv. 9–10). The use of laos for the prospective Corinthian believers is the usual designation for Israel as the people of God. This shows that now the people of God “embraces all believers without distinction, Gentiles as well as Jews.”20 As a result of these encouraging signs, Paul stayed in Corinth “for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God” (v. 11).
Gallio’s Crucial Verdict (18:12–17)
LUKE DOES NOT describe Paul’s relatively long ministry in Corinth in much detail. His emphasis is on the response to Christianity of the proconsul Gallio, who was a well-known figure in the Roman empire. His proconsulship of Achaia is attested in an inscription found in Delphi dated around A.D. 52 and in the writings of his famous brother, the Stoic philosopher Seneca.21 His positive response toward Christianity was a key building block in the church’s case for a positive legal standing in the Roman empire.
The Jews brought Paul to Gallio, charging him with “persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law” (v. 13). The reason behind making this charge was to show that Christianity was not truly Jewish and therefore could not be included with Judaism or claim protection under Roman law. Gallio did not even give time for Paul to speak. Rather, he said that what Paul was doing was not a crime for him to judge; it was instead a matter of Jewish law, and he was not going to tackle issues pertaining to their theology (vv. 14–15). The ejection of the Jews from the court (v. 16) resulted in the ruler of the synagogue being beaten by the people (not Christians, we hope!). Unfortunately, Gallio did not interfere to stop the beating (v. 17).
Itinerating En Route to Antioch (18:18–22)
THANKS TO GALLIO’S favorable ruling, Paul was able to stay on in Corinth after he had been brought to trial. But after some time he set off for Antioch, taking Aquila and Priscilla with him (vv. 18–19a). Paul went into the synagogue in Ephesus, reasoned with the Jews (v. 19b), and won an invitation to spend more time with them. He declined it with the promise that he would return if it was God’s will (vv. 20–21). It is interesting that earlier too he had “been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia” (16:6). Now for a second time he seemed to discern that the time was not ripe for a full-blown ministry in Ephesus.
Paul left Aquila and Priscilla behind in Ephesus and set off for Caesarea, where he “greeted the church and then went down to Antioch” (v. 22). One would not go “down” to an inland city from a coastal city. This has led scholars to assume that the church he greeted was the church in Jerusalem, from which we could then speak of Paul traveling “down” to Antioch.22 This ended Paul’s second missionary journey.
Luke adds a note about Paul’s having his hair cut in connection with a vow he had taken before leaving Cenchrea, the eastern port of Corinth (v. 18). Hair was cut (usually shaven) after completion of a vow. It would probably be taken to Jerusalem and offered to God. Many have felt that Paul took this vow when he was in a discouraged state at the start of his ministry in Corinth, or perhaps in connection with the vision he received with the promise of God’s blessing. If so, cutting his hair was an act of thanksgiving for protection while in Corinth.23
Bridging Contexts
EVANGELISM IN PROFLIGATE places. It is significant that the church in the notoriously profligate city of Corinth was founded by Paul, whom we know as being forthright in his call for moral purity among Christians and strict about dealing with immorality in the church. He was obviously uneasy when he went to Corinth for more reasons than one (1 Cor. 2:3). But he persevered in ministry and was responsible for founding a church that still exists almost twenty centuries later. While Christians may be reluctant to work in such places, those living there also need the Savior and are not beyond redemption.
Of course the Corinthian church was a scandal-ridden church. Just as Isaiah had said that while living among a people of unclean lips, his lips too had become unclean (Isa. 6:5), the church in Corinth was not immune to influence by the sins of the culture around it. Some will succumb to temptations that come from the environment around them. But such an environment did not cause Paul to give up on this church. He wrote urgent letters to it, two of which made their way into the Bible, presenting remedies for their maladies. We too are challenged to have a burden for the evangelization of the Corinths of today.
Tentmaking. Paul sometimes did manual labor as a tentmaker in order to meet his needs (v. 3), and the term tentmaking is much in vogue today. Christians who work at a paid job with the hope that it will open doors for Christian ministry are called tentmakers. From Paul’s words regarding this activity we see that he did this for two reasons: out of necessity and out of a desire to maintain his credibility as a servant of Christ.24
This does not mean that it is unscriptural for so-called “full-time” Christian workers to be paid for their services. Paul argues that the church should pay its workers adequately (1 Cor. 9:1–12a). “But,” he says, “we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ” (9:12b). Thus, while we must not relegate paid workers to a lower status because they are paid for their services,25 we must remember that there is a great tradition in the Bible of people, such as Nehemiah and Daniel, who while doing other jobs, fulfilled great tasks usually associated with paid workers.
Evangelism as a serious responsibility. This passage clearly illustrates the seriousness of one’s personal responsibility to evangelism. Our look at the word translated “testify” (diamartyromai; v. 5) pointed to the personal responsibility of those who have found the truth to testify to it. This serious responsibility is illustrated in the Old Testament story of the four lepers outside the starving city of Samaria. They discovered that not only had the besieging army left, but they had also left behind food and treasures. After a hearty meal and a plundering session they realized that their wonderful discovery also brought with it a great responsibility. So they said, “We’re not doing right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace” (2 Kings 7:9).
This idea appears again in Ezekiel 3:18–19, which presents the prophet as God’s watchman who must warn the wicked of their sin and of impending judgment:
When I say to a wicked man, “You will surely die,” and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself.
While we are responsible to share the message faithfully, we are not responsible for the response of our audience. In fact, if we face continued refusal to consider the claims we present, we may come to the stage where we can wash our hands of the responsibility and move to a more receptive group of people (cf. v. 6).
God’s encouragement. Paul arrived in Corinth as a discouraged man. The reaction of the Jews to his message did not help improve this situation (cf. v. 6). But in this passage we have four clear instances of God’s encouragement, which did much to enable him to persevere with his ministry there for eighteen months. (1) Paul established a friendship with fellow tentmakers Aquila and Priscilla, who became his partners in ministry (vv. 2–3). Few things encourage a lonely traveler as much as welcoming him or her into a loving Christian family. (2) As the synagogue doors were closing to Paul, God opened the door of the home next door (v. 7). (3) Although by and large the Jews rejected the gospel, the synagogue ruler, Crispus, and his entire family were converted (v. 8). (4) The greatest of encouragement was the Lord’s vision to Paul (vv. 9–10). We have already seen how God reassures his troubled servants at crucial times (4:31).26 Here we see this comfort from the Lord with even greater clarity. Such comfort is an almost essential ingredient for persevering ministry in a fallen world.
Are vows for us? Many readers may be surprised to find Paul performing vows (v. 18), which they see as alien to the spirit of Christianity. The New Testament, outside Acts, says little about vows except to warn about their misuse (Matt. 5:34–37). But we have two instances in Acts in which Paul made vows, which may suggest that they deserve a second look. This is especially so because they were an integral part of biblical religion in the Old Testament. Paul, being a Jew, continued to practice this discipline, which, though not mandatory, was regarded as helpful for one’s spiritual health.
Vows have always been important within Roman Catholicism, but the Reformers reacted to them “on the grounds that, amongst other things, they implied a form of righteousness by works, [and] imposed human obligations that were not demanded by Christ.”27 R. J. Song has shown that John Calvin, however,
regarded them as a valuable tool for personal spiritual discipline and laid down rules for their use. . . . Handled discerningly and with imagination, vows could be a God-given resource to strengthen resolve and enable one to rise above immediate circumstances, and to restore continuity to our lives fractured by the pressures of a disorienting world.28
We should take a second look at this practice as a source of spiritual help.
Contemporary Significance
EVANGELIZING THE CORINTHS of today. As we think of the challenge of evangelizing the Corinths of today, we might be compelled to conclude that the whole world has become a Corinth. The rampant disregard for moral standards is no longer confined to a few cities. It is brought right into homes through television. The church is inevitably affected by it. Just as some Corinthian Christians succumbed to the temptations surrounding them, contemporary Christians also give in to the loose moral lifestyles portrayed in the media. Sadly, it seems that far too many have been doing this, so much so that in certain Western countries the percentage of Christians involved in extramarital sexual activity is not different from the percentage in the rest of society.29 Even Christian ministers and evangelists succumb to immorality. There is equal cause for concern in the Third World church.
What is equally as bad, churches seem reluctant to be forthright in condemning these sins. Some leaders think that they have no right to pry into the personal lives of other people, so they ignore what they hear about their members. Perhaps with the marketing orientation that has hit ecclesiastical thinking (large congregations being seen as a sign of success), preachers are afraid to condemn sin because they might lose some of their people to the church “down the road.”
This is all contrary to Paul’s attitude. He urged the church in Corinth to take urgent action against such sins in the church. “And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? . . . God will judge those outside. ‘Expel the wicked man from among you.’ ” (1 Cor. 5:2, 13). The fact that the Corinthians lived in an immoral culture did not cause Paul to lower his moral standards. God calls us to go out into this immoral world as witnesses not only to his love but also to his holiness. The church must show the world that one can be morally pure and that this is the best, the happiest, way to live.
Today’s tentmakers. There has been a surge of interest in tentmaking ministry over the past two decades.30 Situations today may require tentmakers for the same two reasons that Paul had: economic necessity and credibility. In certain situations, where there is no trust yet concerning the Christian workers, it may be best for them not to take support from the people to whom they minister (cf. 1 Cor. 9). Sometimes a work cannot afford to support a worker. This is true of churches in poorer areas and in predominantly non-Christian cultures.
Sometimes a church may have some workers who are full-time and others who are tentmakers. I know of vibrant churches in Sri Lanka and the United States where the senior pastors do so-called “secular” jobs while some paid full-time workers are also on the staff. Tentmakers bring great enrichment to a ministerial team in that they have much more intimate contact with the world, which can enhance the team’s relevance and impact on the culture. Ruth Siemens writes, “The secular job is not an inconvenience, but the God-given context in which tentmakers live out the gospel in a winsome, wholesome, non-judgmental way, demonstrating personal integrity, doing quality work and developing caring relationships.”31
It is on the mission field that tentmaking is becoming most valuable. In fact Ruth Siemens feels that the international job market, a key feature in today’s business world, “is an argument for tentmaking because it does not exist by accident, but by God’s design.” She describes it as God’s “ ‘repopulation program,’ transferring millions of hard-to-reach people into freer countries (Turks to Germany, Algerians to France, Kurds to Austria, etc.), and opening doors for Christians in hard-to-enter countries—so that many can hear the gospel!”32 Here are some of the examples she gives:
A tentmaker couple translated the New Testament for five million Muslims while he did university teaching and she tutored English! A science teacher evangelized his students in rural Kenya, and preached every third Sunday in the local church. A symphony violinist in Singapore had Bible studies with fellow musicians. A faculty person and an engineer set up a Christian bookstore in the Arab Gulf region.33
I know of Christians who sometime take jobs in difficult and unreached areas of their own country, such as the inner city or a remote village, so that they can witness in those places. Thus, when challenging Christians to missions, which we should all be doing, we can also place before them the possibility of going as tentmakers to needy places.
Implications of “evangelism as responsibility” thinking. With almost embarrassing repetitiveness this commentary has been highlighting the priority of evangelism in a church’s agenda.34 The focus in this study of the Corinthian ministry is on the personal responsibility of Christians to testify to God’s truth. With today’s aversion to guilt (possibly because our generation does not know the freedom of forgiveness), many are reluctant to push this aspect of personal responsibility in the church. We speak of how we should witness and the joy of doing it. But sometimes the anticipation of joy in witness is overcome by fear of rejection and failure or by spiritual lethargy, so that we do not fulfill our calling to witness for Christ. At such times a sense of responsibility can be a great help. We may not feel like doing it, but we know we should be doing it, and so we do it. And after doing it we are usually glad, for we have become channels through which the Spirit’s love flows.
Yet we are sobered by the knowledge that, just as the master evangelist Paul experienced rejection, so will we. Our own people may reject the message. We may have to give them stern words of warning, as Paul did with the Jews. We may even move away from them because of their contempt for the truth. But, like Paul, we will not lose our yearning for them. We will mourn their rejection of the gospel (Rom. 9:1–3) and pray for their salvation (10:1). And may Paul’s stern rebuke to the hardhearted Jews never be used as an excuse for anti-Semitism!
We must be careful about making absolute principles out of Paul’s action of moving away from ministering to the Jews in Corinth (v. 6). Some people have a worldview so different to ours that it may take a long time for them to understand the gospel or be receptive to it. God may be calling us to dedicate an entire career in ministry to serve among a resistant people and not see any visible fruit. Our calling may be to prepare unproductive ground for a harvest that comes after we die. But this passage does give us freedom to ask whether groups we are seeking to reach for Christ have hardened their hearts so much through their blasphemous attitude that we are released from our responsibility to them, so that we can concentrate on others.
Winter sunshine. In an earlier study we noted how God’s specific acts of encouragement can give us a strong sense of his presence and assist us to persevere in our calling.35 Here we will look at the great blessing that flows from God’s specific intervention on our behalf. All of life is tinged with pain and frustration. That is an inevitable result of the curse that accompanied the Fall (Rom. 8:20). So the familiar song—“Oh what a beautiful morning! O what a beautiful day! I’ve got a beautiful feeling, Everything’s going my way!”—is almost never true. Yet we have a capacity for pleasure and enjoyment that cannot be denied. Can we be happy if life is tinged with frustration and if the possibility of pain always looms above us?
A peasant living in the woods composed a brilliant piece of music called “Winter Sunshine.” In this piece, “against a subdued and even somber background, there stood out melodious patches of remarkable beauty and infectious gaiety.” When asked about the inspiration behind this piece, he replied that he “had always held that the happiest man on the face of the earth is the man who can make most of the sunshine that breaks up and brightens the winter.”36 For a Christian the bursts of sunshine that God gives us in the midst of our deepest crises are evidences that he is with us, that he will see us through. Such truths provide a sudden release from the grip of gloom, and we are liberated to give ourselves to unfettered celebration. Only the grasp of the eternal God can help us to be truly happy in the midst of trouble. And if we can have happiness in the winter, we are truly happy people.
Evangelicals and vows. Most Protestants today have little place for vows. Why? (1) We have seen vows used in an unbiblical way by both Christians and non-Christians. People have used vows in a somewhat magical way: “We will do this so that we can get that.” The vow does not affect daily life or enhance commitment; rather, it is a means of getting what we want. A Christian use of vows in a given situation should be different. Rather than being an act of bargaining with God, it is a means of affirming that we do not trust in ourselves but in him alone. Viewed in this way, vows will help us focus on God. We should always welcome that, given our tendency to focus on the things of the world rather than on God.
(2) We have neglected the symbolic in our understanding of Christianity, in part because we have spiritualized the Old Testament ritual. Now that the real thing has come in Christ, we feel these shadows are unnecessary. This is, to a great extent, true. Only people who do not experience the real thing—a heart-to-heart relationship with God—need symbols. But we know that even in this era of the new covenant with its intimate tie with God through the Spirit, we are at times prone to forget certain spiritual truths as we get engrossed in the affairs of life.
This is one reason why we still need the Lord’s Day—to remind us that every day belongs to the Lord. We still need the Lord’s Supper to remind us of the significance of what Christ did for us. In a similar way, we may still find vows helpful to bring to special focus spiritual realities that we are prone to forget. If the climax of Paul’s vow focused on thanksgiving, then it touches on an area that we are often weak in. We pray earnestly for something, but neglect to thank God after he answers the prayer. Bringing in a structure like a vow can help us avoid this serious oversight. We will do well, then, to incorporate into our spiritual walk certain special spiritual exercises like vows to help us put first things first in life.