CRITICAL REMARKS
Acts 18:1. Paul.—Omitted in the best texts. How long the Apostle stayed in Athens—Weiseler suggests fourteen days; Ramsay, three or four weeks—and how he came to Corinth, whether by land or sea, cannot be determined.
Acts 18:2. Aquila born in Pontus.—Or, a man of Pontus by race. Though Pontius Aquila was a noble Roman name (compare Pontius Pilate), there is no ground for supposing that Luke has here fallen into a mistake. Ramsay suggests that Aquila may have been a freedman, since a freedman of Mæcenas was called (C. Cilnius) Aquila. That Aquila was born in Pontus Acts 2:9 and 1 Peter 1:1 render probable. Possibly his real name was Onkelos, but the Onkelos who translated the old Testament into Greek lived half a century later. Priscilla.—Diminutive for Prisca (Romans 16:3). That she was more energetic than her husband has been inferred (Ewald, Plumptre, Farrar) from her being mentioned first in several places (Acts 18:26; Romans 16:3; 2 Timothy 4:19). Claudius.—The fourth Cæsar of Jewish origin (41–54 A.D.), a son of the elder Drusus, and therefore the nephew of Tiberius (see Acts 11:28). During the last years of his reign the Jews were expelled from Rome—“Judæos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantes Româ expulit” (Suetonius, Claudius, 25). Schürer thinks the occasion of this edict was the violent controversies which then prevailed among Roman Christians about the person of Christ (Riehm’s, Handwörterbuch des Biblischen Altertums, art. Claudius).
Acts 18:3. Tentmakers.—I.e., not weavers of, but makers of tents from hair cloth. Most of the Rabbis had a trade by which they could earn their living. Hillel was a hewer of wood, Johanan a shoemaker, Nanacha a blacksmith; Jesus was a carpenter. The Jews after the exile held manual labour in high esteem. The man who neglected to teach his son a trade, said Rabbi Judas, practically taught him to be a thief.
HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Acts 18:1-4
Paul at Corinth; or, Meeting with New Friends
I. His arrival in the city.—
1. His departure from Athens.
1. When? “After these things”—i.e., after the incidents recorded in the preceding chapter, his survey of the idolatrous city, and his address to its leading philosophers and counsellors, though how long after cannot be ascertained.
2. Why? Because the character of his mission required him to move on, but chiefly because in that renowned capital of philosophic triflers and superstitious idol-worshippers the good seed of the kingdom, which it was his business to sow, had found no congenial soil. It may be that Paul felt “disappointed and disillusioned by his experience in Athens,” and recognised that he had gone far enough in the way of “presenting his doctrine in a form suited to the current philosophy;” it may even be that this was the reason why, on reaching Corinth, he “no longer spoke in the philosophic style” (Ramsay); it would, however, be an error to conclude that Paul left behind him in Athens no converts (see Acts 17:34), as undoubtedly a Christian Church was eventually established there.
3. How? Alone as to companionship, Luke having remained behind at Philippi, and Silas and Timothy at Berœa, or Silas at Berœa and Timothy at Thessalonica; or, if these latter had previously come to Athens, they were again on the way back to Macedonia (1 Thessalonians 3:2), or had not yet returned from it (Acts 18:5). Sad as to his feelings, since he could not fail to be depressed at the decidedly cold reception which had been given to his gospel of a crucified and risen Saviour by “the Gentile Pharisaism of a pompous philosophy” (Farrar).
2. His journey towards Corinth. Whether he sailed from the Piræus to Cenchrea, a voyage of five hours across the Saronic bay, or travelled on foot the forty miles which separated the two cities, cannot be determined. Farrar suggests that “the poverty of the apostle’s condition, his desire to waste no time, and the greatness of his own infirmities, render it nearly certain” that the sea route was that selected; but against this stands the circumstance that when he sailed from Berœa to Athens the brethren did not suffer him to go without a convoy (see Acts 17:14-15), whereas he was now alone.
3. His entrance into the city. This, which took place in A.D. 50, say Conybeare and Howson, was like passing “from a quiet provincial town to the busy metropolis of a province, and from the seclusion of an ancient university to the seat of government and trade” (The Life and Epistles of Paul, i. 355). Situated on the isthmus between the Ionian and Ægean seas, Corinth was in Paul’s day the political capital of Greece, and the seat of the Roman proconsul. “It was not the ancient Corinth—the Corinth of Periander, or of Thucydides, or of Timoleon—that he was now entering, but Colonia Julia or Laus Juli Corinthus, which had risen out of the desolate ruins of the older city” (Farrar, The Life and Work of St. Paul, i. 554). The older city had been destroyed in B.C. 146 by the Romans under Mummius; the newer town was in B.C. 44 constructed by Julius Cæsar, who “sent thither a Roman colony, consisting principally of freedmen” (Strabo, viii. 6), “amongst whom were no doubt great numbers of the Jewish race” (Lewin). Distinguished for its wealth, the Julian city was no less renowned for its profligacy, the verb, to Corinthianise—i.e., to live like the Corinthians, having been from the days of Aristophanes used to describe a life of luxury and vice. Its temple of Aphrodite had a thousand courtesans for its priestesses. Its Isthmian games periodically attracted towards it, if all the athletes and geniuses, without doubt also all the scoundrelism of the empire. In short, as Farrar well expresses it, “Corinth was the Vanity Fair of the Roman empire, at once the London and the Paris of the first century after Christ.”
II. His lodging in the city.—
1. The names of his hosts. Aquila and Priscilla, diminutive for Prisca (Romans 16:3, R.V.). “Probably Prisca was of higher rank than her husband, for her name is that of a good old Roman family” (Ramsay). (For conjectures as to who Aquila was, see “Critical Remarks.”) The historian introduces him as a Jew, born in Pontus (see on Acts 2:9), who had lately come from Rome in consequence of Claudius’s edict (A.D. 50), which had banished all Jews from that city because, according to Suetonius, they were continually making a disturbance, being impelled thereto by one Christ (see “Critical Remarks.”)
2. The attractions they had for him.
(1) They were Jews, and Paul never ceased to cherish a warm regard for his kinsmen according to the flesh. Even when they hated him the most fiercely he loved them the most tenderly (Romans 9:3; Romans 10:1).
(2) They were tent-makers—i.e. of the same craft as himself. Every Jew was required to learn a trade, and that followed by Aquila and his wife was not the weaving of goats’ hair into cloth, but the manufacturing of that cloth into tents. Such cloth was woven in both Cilicia, from which Paul came, and Pontus, to which Aquila belonged.
(3) Whether they were Christians before Paul met them (Kuinoel, Olshausen, Neander, Hackett, Spence, Farrar), or were converted by him in Corinth (De Wette, Meyer, Alford, Holtzmann), is debated. The former opinion is certainly not impossible, since the gospel may have been, and probably was, carried to Italy by some of the “sojourners from Rome” who had been converted at Pentecost (Acts 2:10). Yet as Luke does not represent them as having been Christians when Paul met them, the latter idea is quite as probable.
III. His occupation in the city.—
1. He worked for a living to himself (see 1 Corinthians 9:6; 2 Corinthians 11:7). This
(1) of necessity, because, to begin with at least, he had no Christian converts to whom he could look for support, and because he declined to live by charity while his own hands could minister to his necessities; and
(2) of choice, because, as a rule, he preferred not to be burdensome to those he taught. Already he had observed this custom in Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 2:9; 2 Thessalonians 3:8), and afterwards he followed it in Ephesus (Acts 20:34). Whether he worked for a wage or as a partner is left unrecorded; but in either case the profits were probably not large (2 Corinthians 11:9). “It was a time of general pressure, and though the apostle toiled night and day, all his exertions were unable to keep the wolf from the door” (Farrar).
2. He preached the gospel to others free of charge.
(1) In the customary place—the city synagogue, where the Jews, who had there long established a residence or recently found a refuge, were wont to assemble.
(2) At the usual times—on the Sabbaths, Paul probably requiring the weekdays to provide for himself things honest in the sight of men.
(3) After his peculiar fashion—with skilful argument and reasoning, proving out of the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
(4) To his ordinary audience—a mixed assembly of Jews and Greek proselytes.
(5) With the old effect—that he persuaded—i.e., won over to believe—a number of both classes of his hearers.
Lessons.—
1. The providence of God in fetching Aquila and Paul to Corinth at the same time—Aquila to lodge Paul, and Paul to convert or establish Aquila.
2. The facility with which God’s people can recognise each other even in a foreign country.
3. The power of the gospel to secure converts even in a debauched and drunken city like Corinth (1 Corinthians 6:11).
4. The duty of all, not excepting ministers, to provide things honest in the sight of men.
5. The dignity of labour.
6. The glory of being a Christian.
HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Acts 18:2. Aquila and Priscilla.
I. Husband and wife.—A beautiful example of the marriage union.
II. Joint workers in trade.—A happy illustration of individual independence and family co-operation
III. Willing entertainers of Paul.—A bright specimen of hospitality and kindness.
IV. Fellow-believers in Christ.—Whether before or after they met Paul, they became Christians. A sweet instance of the marriage union being sanctified by grace.
V. Earnest teachers of Apollos (Acts 18:26).—A noble pattern of Christian zeal.
Acts 18:3. Paul in Aquila’s Workshop.
I. An example of manly independence.—Rather than depend on others, the apostle would work for his living (1 Thessalonians 4:11).
II. A pattern of Christian humility.—Though an apostle he did not disdain to labour with his hands (2 Thessalonians 3:12).
III. An illustration of sincere piety.—Providing things honest in the sight of men (2 Corinthians 8:21).
IV. An instance of religious zeal.—“Diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord” (Romans 12:11).
Acts 18:2-3. Aquila and Paul; or, Christian Companions.
I. Are always desirable, but especially in strange cities.
II. Are often providentially brought together.—As in the case of Aquila and Paul.
III. Are commonly helpful to one another. As these were.
IV. Are mostly parted with regret. As doubtless these were when Paul left Aquila and his wife at Ephesus (Acts 18:19).
Acts 18:2-4. Christian Journeymen on their Travels.
I. The dangers in the foreign country.—The temptations in luxurious Corinth.
II. The acquaintance by the way.—Aquila meeting with Paul.
III. The work at the trade.—Honest toil a great safeguard against temptation.
IV. The care for the soul.—Sanctification of the Sabbath and worship of God.—From Gerok.
Acts 18:3-4. Work and Worship; or, Week-days and Sabbath-days.
I. Week-days for work and Sabbath-days for worship.—This their distinctive characters. All attempts to reduce both to one platform unscriptural, and therefore foredoomed to failure. As the work of week days must not be encroached upon by worship, so the worship of Sabbath-days must not be hindered by work.
II. As the work of week-days does not exclude worship, so the worship of Sabbath-days must not exclude work.—If week-day work prevents worship, then week-day work is excessive. If Sabbath worship leaves no room for works of necessity and mercy, then Sabbath worship is in danger of becoming burdensome as well as formal.
III. Week-day work should prepare for Sabbath worship, and Sabbath worship for week-day work.—The man who has spent his week-days in unlawful idleness is not likely to employ his Sabbath in worship. He who devotes Sabbath to the duties of religion is most likely to prove a vigorous, industrious, and faithful worker throughout the week. “Weekly labour creates hunger and thirst after Sabbath-rest and Sabbath-fare. Sabbath sanctification imparts strength and pleasure to the daily work of the week.”—Gerok.