Journey to Syria. No special object, is stated; the facts are placed before us abruptly, and some are hard to understand. An apostle is by his office a traveller who does not give himself to any one church, and Paul had been the best part of two years at Corinth when he bade the brethren there farewell and sailed for Syria. It was Aquila, not Paul, who had a vow and terminated it at Cenchreæ. For the hair sacrifice, see *Numbers 6,,; cf. Numbers 21:24 below; it would refer here to an escape from some danger of which we know nothing
Acts 18:19. At Ephesus Paul addresses, as elsewhere, the Jews in the synagogue, and is well received, but he will not stay there. With a promise to return he sets off on the voyage. He lands at Cæ sarea, and goes up and greets the church. Jerusalem is not mentioned, nor any errand which would take him there, and, so far as the words show, the church may have been that at Cæ sarea. The D text of Acts 19:1 denies that Paul went to Jerusalem at this time. The phrase went down to Antioch does not imply that he went there from Jerusalem (cf. Acts 8:5). He would reach Antioch in late autumn and spend the winter there, and go westwards when the roads were open in spring. The route is the same as that of Acts 16:6.