Acts 18:7 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

And entered into a certain man’s house, named Justus. — On the name, see Note on Acts 1:23. It may be added here that it occurs also in early Christian inscriptions in the Vatican Museum, in one case at the bottom of a glass cup, in the Museo Christiano, in conjunction with the name of Timotheus. In some of the better MSS. the name Titus is prefixed to Justus, and it will be noted that both in Acts 1:23, and Colossians 4:11, the latter is used as an epithet after the names of Joseph and of Jesus. It is found by itself in the Jewish cemetery above referred to. (See Note on Acts 18:1.) It would be rash to infer from this the identity of this Titus Justus with the Titus of Galatians 2:3, as the disciple left in Crete. The name Titus was, like Gaius or Gains, one of the commonest Roman names, and, if the reading be genuine, we may think of the epithet as added to distinguish the Titus of Corinth from his namesake. On the other hand, to state the evidence on both sides fairly, the Titus who appears in 2 Corinthians 2:12; 2 Corinthians 7:14; 2 Corinthians 8:16; 2 Corinthians 8:23, was obviously very closely connected with the Church of Corinth, and was not unlikely to be sent to Crete to exercise a mission analogous to that which he had been entrusted with at Corinth, and the combination of the names Timotheus and Justus, above referred to, as equally entitled to reverence, is more intelligible if we assume that the latter name belonged to Titus, and that both stood therefore in the same relation to St. Paul as disciples and friends. In any case the Justus who is here named was, like Titus, an uncircumcised Gentile, attending the synagogue as a proselyte of the gate. Up to this time apparently, St. Paul had been lodging in the house of a Jew, in some region of Corinth analogous to the Ghetto of modern Rome, in the hope of conciliating his brethren according to the flesh. Now, in sight of the wild frenzied fanatics, he goes into a house which they would have shrunk from entering, even though it was next door to the synagogue, and though the man who lived in it was a devout worshipper.