Acts 18:5 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And when Silas and Timotheus were come, &c.— St. Paul was at Corinth some time before his two assistants came up to him, and so long he frequented the synagogue; but when Timothy was come from Thessalonica, and Silas from Berea, and they had told him what success they had met with in watering the gospel which he had planted in Macedonia, he was pressed in the spirit, and grieved that he had hitherto preached to the Jews in Corinth with so little success; for which reason he resolved to push the matter in the synagogue there; and therefore, instead of merely reasoning and persuading in a more cautious manner, he asserted in the most bold, pointed, and awakening terms, that Jesus was actually the Messiah; which holy freedom, plainness of spirit, and flaming zeal, presently made the unbelieving Jews discover themselves. See the next verse, and Ezekiel 33:4; Ezekiel 33:8. 1 Kings 2:33.Matthew 27:25. Some explain the phase, which we render pressed in spirit, by "He was borne away by an unusual impulse in his spirit." Compare Acts 18:25; Acts 19:21.Romans 12:11.