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The position of Corinth on the Isthmus, with a harbour on either shore, Cenchreæ on the east, Lechæum on the west, had naturally made it a place of commercial importance at a very early stage of Greek history. With commerce had come luxury and vice, and the verb <span class= "ital">Corinthiazein=</span> to live as the Corinthians, had become proverbial, as early as the time of Aristophanes (<span class= "ital">Frag.</span> 133), for a course of profligacy. The harlot priestesses of the Temple of Aphrodite gave a kind of consecration to the deep dyed impurity of Greek social life, of which we find traces in <a href="/1_corinthians/5-1.htm" title="It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.">1Corinthians 5:1</a>; <a href="/context/1_corinthians/6-9.htm" title="Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,">1Corinthians 6:9-19</a>. The Isthmian games, which were celebrated every fourth year, drew crowds of competitors and spectators from all parts of Greece, and obviously furnished the Apostle with the agonistic imagery of <a href="/context/1_corinthians/9-24.htm" title="Know you not that they which run in a race run all, but one receives the prize? So run, that you may obtain.">1Corinthians 9:24-27</a>. Less distinguished for higher culture than Athens, it was yet able (standing to Athens in much the same relation as Venice did to Florence from the 13th to the 16th century) to boast of its artists in stone and metal (Corinthian bronze was proverbial for its excellence), of its rhetoricians and philosophers. On its conquest by the Roman general Mummius (B.C. 146), many of its buildings had been destroyed, and its finest statues had been carried off to Rome; and it was a Roman jest that the general had bound the captains of the ships that carried them, to replace them in case of loss. A century later, Julius Cæsar determined to restore it to its former splendour, and thousands of freed-men were employed in the work of reconstruction. Such was the scene of the Apostle’s new labours, less promising, at first sight, than Athens, but, ultimately, far more fruitful in results.<p>(1) There can be no doubt that the “vow” was that of the temporary Nazarite, as described in <a href="/context/numbers/6-1.htm" title="And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,">Numbers 6:1-21</a>. It implied a separation from the world and common life (this was the meaning of the word “Nazarite”), and while under the vow the man who had taken it was to drink no wine or strong drink, and to let no razor pass over his head or face. When the term was completed, he was to shave his head at the door of the Tabernacle, and burn the hair in the fire of the altar. It will be noted that the Nazarites in <a href="/acts/21-24.htm" title="Them take, and purify yourself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning you, are nothing; but that you yourself also walk orderly, and keep the law.">Acts 21:24</a>, who are completing their vow, <span class= "ital">shave</span> their heads. Here a different word (“shorn”) is used, which is contrasted with “shaving” in <a href="/1_corinthians/11-6.htm" title="For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.">1Corinthians 11:6</a>. It was lawful for a man to have his hair cut or cropped during the continuance of the vow, and this apparently was what St. Paul now did. But in this case also the hair so cut off was to be taken to the Temple and burnt there, and this explains the Apostle’s eagerness “by all means” (<a href="/acts/18-21.htm" title="But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that comes in Jerusalem: but I will return again to you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus.">Acts 18:21</a>) to keep the coming feast at Jerusalem.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-2.htm">Acts 18:2</a></div><div class="verse">And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came unto them.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">And found a certain Jew named</span> <span class= "bld">Aquila, born in Pontus.</span>—The name presents some interesting associations. Strictly speaking, the Greek form is <span class= "ital">Ahylas, </span>but this is undoubtedly the transliterated form of the Latin <span class= "ital">Aquila</span> (= Eagle). The name appears in a yet more altered form in <span class= "ital">Onkelos, </span>the traditional writer of one of the Targums, or Paraphrases of the Law, then current among the Jews. In Aquila, one of the later translators of the Old Testament into Greek, himself also born in Pontus, and possibly (but see Mr. Deutsch’s <span class= "ital">Remains, </span>p. 339) identical with Onkelos, we get the Greek form again. In the well-known chief Rabbi of the synagogues of the Jews of London, Dr. Adler, we have it reappearing in a German form (<span class= "ital">Adler=</span>Eagle). The tendency of Jews to take names derived from animals when sojourning in heathen countries, may be noted as not uncommon. Ursulus, Leo, Leopardus, Dorcas, which appear in the early Christian inscriptions in the Vatican and Lateran Museums, present analogous instances. His birth in Pontus indicates that he belonged to the dispersion of the Jews of that province (<a href="/1_peter/1-1.htm" title="Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,">1Peter 1:1</a>) which, as the north-eastern region of Asia Minor, lay between Bithynia and Armenia. Some from that province had been present at Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost (<a href="/acts/2-9.htm" title="Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,">Acts 2:9</a>). As the Jews at Rome consisted largely of freed-men, the <span class= "ital">libertinum genus</span> of Latin writers (see Note on the <span class= "ital">Libertines</span> in <a href="/acts/6-9.htm" title="Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.">Acts 6:9</a>), it is probable that Aquila belonged to that class.<p><span class= "bld">With his wife Priscilla.</span>—The name appears in some MSS., both here and elsewhere, in the form of Prisca, of which it is the diminutive. So we have Lucilla from Lucia, Domitilla from Domitia, Atticilla (in an inscription in the Museum of Perugia) from Attica. The name Prisca probably indicates a connection with the <span class= "ital">gens</span> of the <span class= "ital">Prisci, </span>who appear in the earliest stages of Roman history, and supplied a long series of prætors and consuls. The marriage was probably, therefore, an example of the influence gained by educated Jews over the higher class of women at Rome. It was, perhaps, a natural consequence of her higher social position that her name is sometimes placed before Aquila’s (<a href="/acts/18-18.htm" title="And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brothers, and sailed there into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow.">Acts 18:18</a>; <a href="/romans/16-3.htm" title="Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus:">Romans 16:3</a>; <a href="/2_timothy/4-19.htm" title="Salute Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus.">2Timothy 4:19</a>). The fact that she took part in the instruction of Apollos (see Note on <a href="/acts/18-26.htm" title="And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him to them, and expounded to him the way of God more perfectly.">Acts 18:26</a>), indicates that she was a woman of more than ordinary culture, a student and interpreter of the Old Testament Scriptures.<p>The question naturally suggests itself, whether the husband and wife, who were afterwards so prominent in the Apostolic Church, were, at this stage of their career, converted by St. Paul to the faith in Christ. The answer to that question must, it is believed, be a distinct and decisive negative. (1) There is no mention of their listening to St. Paul, and believing, as, <span class= "ital">e.g., </span>in the case of Lydia (<a href="/acts/16-14.htm" title="And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended to the things which were spoken of Paul.">Acts 16:14</a>); and it is hardly conceivable that St. Luke, who relates that case so fully, would have omitted a fact of such importance. (2) He joins himself to them, as able to share his thoughts and hopes, even before he begins preaching in the synagogue, as in <a href="/acts/18-4.htm" title="And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.">Acts 18:4</a>. (3) An unbelieving Jew was not likely to have admitted St. Paul into a partnership in his business. The question how and by whom the Church of Christ had been first brought to Rome will be discussed in the next Note.<p><span class= "bld">Because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome.</span>—The account of the expulsion is given by Suetonius (<span class= "ital">Claudius, </span>c. 25) in words which are in many ways suggestive—<span class= "ital">“Claudius, Judœos, impulsore Chresto, assidue tumultuantes, Româ expulit</span>” (“Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome on account of their continual tumults, instigated by Chrestus”). The Jews, at this period, were settled mainly in the Transtiberine region of Rome, at the base of the Janiculum, opposite the present <span class= "ital">Ghetto, </span>or Jewry, of the city. They exercised considerable influence over the upper classes, had synagogues and oratories (<span class= "ital">proseuchæ, </span>see Notes on <a href="/acts/16-13.htm" title="And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spoke to the women which resorted thither.">Acts 16:13</a>; <a href="/luke/6-12.htm" title="And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.">Luke 6:12</a>) of their own, were tolerated as possessing a <span class= "ital">relligio licita, </span>had their own cemeteries on the Appian Way. Suddenly there is a change in their relations to the civil power, and the name of Chrestus is connected with it. Of the man whom he so mentions, Suetonius tells us nothing further. But we know that the sounds of the Greek “i” and “ē” were hardly distinguishable. Tertullian (<span class= "ital">Apol.</span> c. 3) says that the name of <span class= "ital">Christus</span> was almost invariably pronounced <span class= "ital">Chrēstus, </span>and, as that word signifies “good,” “useful,” “honest,” founds a kind of <span class= "ital">argumentum ad hominem</span> on the prevalent mistake. So in Jewish inscriptions in the Lateran Museum, <span class= "ital">Alfius</span> appears as the equivalent for the Greek form <span class= "ital">Alphæus.</span> The probable explanation of Claudius’s decree, accordingly, is that men had come to Rome after the Day of Pentecost proclaiming Jesus as the Christ, that this had been followed by tumults like those of which we read in the Pisidian Antioch (<a href="/acts/13-50.htm" title="But the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts.">Acts 13:50</a>), and Lystra (<a href="/acts/14-19.htm" title="And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead.">Acts 14:19</a>), and Thessalonica (<a href="/acts/17-5.htm" title="But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took to them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.">Acts 17:5</a>), and Berœa (<a href="/acts/17-13.htm" title="But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people.">Acts 17:13</a>), and that as the name of Christus was much in the mouths both of those who received and those who rejected His claim to be the Messiah, the Roman magistrates, like Gallio, careless as to questions about names and words (<a href="/acts/18-15.htm" title="But if it be a question of words and names, and of your law, look you to it; for I will be no judge of such matters.">Acts 18:15</a>), naturally inferred that he was the leader of one of the parties, probably assuming, as at Thessalonica (<a href="/acts/17-7.htm" title="Whom Jason has received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus.">Acts 17:7</a>), that he claimed the title of king after the manner of the pretenders to an earthly throne. If we ask who were the first preachers of the new faith, the answer, though we may be unable to identify individuals, is not far to seek. (1) It was scarcely likely that twenty-three years should have passed since the Day of Pentecost, without bringing to the ears of the Jews of Rome some tidings of what was going on in Palestine. (2) In the list of those who were present at the Pentecostal wonder are strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes (<a href="/acts/2-10.htm" title="Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,">Acts 2:10</a>). (3) Among the Hellenistic Jews who disputed with Stephen were <span class= "ital">libertini, </span>or freed-men of Rome, and Stephen himself, we saw reason to believe, belonged to the same class. (See Notes on <a href="/acts/6-5.htm" title="And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch:">Acts 6:5</a>; <a href="/acts/6-9.htm" title="Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.">Acts 6:9</a>.) (4) Andronicus and Junias (contracted from Junianus, as Lucas from Lucanus), who are among those to whom St. Paul sends messages of affection at Rome, were “in Christ” before him (<a href="/romans/16-7.htm" title="Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellow-prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.">Romans 16:7</a>). To these, then, and not to St. Peter, we may probably look as among the real founders of the Church of Rome. The facts all indicate that the theology of the disciples of Rome was likely to be based upon the same great principles as that of Stephen, and this explains the readiness with which Aquila and Priscilla received the gospel as St. Paul preached it. It is obvious that many more of those who had been expelled from Rome were likely to have accompanied them from Rome to Corinth, and the long list of names in <a href="/context/romans/16-3.htm" title="Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus:">Romans 16:3-15</a> probably consists for the most part of those who had thus come within the range of St. Paul’s personal acquaintance, and had returned to Rome in the interval. The names in that list are many of them identical with those in the <span class= "ital">Columbaria, </span>or burial-place, on the Appian Way, which contains the names of the men and women of the freed-man class who belonged to the household of the Empress Livia, and make it almost certain that they were of the same class; and that when St. Paul speaks (<a href="/philippians/4-22.htm" title="All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar's household.">Philippians 4:22</a>) of the “saints of Caesar’s household” he is referring to such as these, and not to persons of high official rank. (See Notes on Romans 16) The name of Priscus occurs, it may be added, in a Christian inscription of uncertain date in the Collegio Romano. We need not wonder that Greek should be the medium of intercourse even with these Roman Jews. The inscriptions in the recently discovered Jewish cemetery in the <span class= "ital">Vigna Randanini, </span>at Rome, show a strange blending of the two languages, Greek words appearing sometimes in Latin characters, and Latin words in Greek. Hebrew does not appear, but the symbol of the seven-branched candlestick of the Temple recurs frequently.<p>(2) We cannot exclude from the probable motives the strong feeling of thankfulness for deliverance from danger, following upon fear which, as in nearly all phases of the religious life, has been the chief impulse out of which vows have grown. We have seen the fear, and the promise, and the deliverance, in the record of St. Paul’s work at Corinth, and the vow of self-consecration, for a season, to a life of special devotion was the natural result. St. Paul had not learnt to despise or condemn such expressions of devout feeling.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-3.htm">Acts 18:3</a></div><div class="verse">And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their occupation they were tentmakers.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">Because he was of the same craft.</span>—The calling was one which St. Paul had probably learnt and practised in his native city, which was noted then, as now, for the rough goat’s-hair fabrics known to the Romans, from the name of the province, as Cilicium ( = sack-cloth). The material was one used for the sails of ships and for tents, and on the whole, though some have supposed that leather was used for the latter, it seems more probable that this was the material which St. Paul worked at. It may be added that Pontus, from which Aquila came, was also famous for the same manufacture, the material in each case being furnished by the goats which fed upon the slopes of the Taurus, and the mountain ranges of that province. The fact that St. Paul had learnt this trade is not inconsistent with the comparative opulence suggested by his education both in boyhood at Tarsus and at the feet of Gamaliel in Jerusalem. The Rabbinic proverb, that “He who does not teach his son a trade, teaches him to be a thief,” made such instruction almost universal. So the great Hillel was a carpenter. Here, it is clear, he took the course of working for his livelihood, as he had done at Thessalonica, that he might keep himself from the suspicion of self-interest in his work as a teacher (<a href="/context/1_corinthians/9-15.htm" title="But I have used none of these things: neither have I written these things, that it should be so done to me: for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void.">1Corinthians 9:15-19</a>; <a href="/context/2_corinthians/11-7.htm" title="Have I committed an offense in abasing myself that you might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?">2Corinthians 11:7-13</a>). Such was the beginning of his labours at Corinth. A new artisan was working for wages, or as a partner, probably the latter, as afterwards with Philemon (<a href="/philemon/1-17.htm" title="If you count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself.">Philemon 1:17</a>), in the workshop of the Jew, not as yet known to the outer world as more than a Jew, who had recently arrived in Corinth from Rome.<p>(3) We may add to this motive the principle on which St. Paul acted of being “all things to all men,” and, therefore, as a Jew to Jews (<a href="/1_corinthians/9-20.htm" title="And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;">1Corinthians 9:20</a>). A Nazarite vow would testify to all his brethren by blood that he did not despise the Law himself nor teach other Jews to despise it. (See Notes on <a href="/context/acts/21-21.htm" title="And they are informed of you, that you teach all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.">Acts 21:21-24</a>.) Such a vow, involving, as it did, for a time a greater asceticism than that of common life, furnishes a link in the succession of thoughts in <a href="/context/1_corinthians/9-22.htm" title="To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.">1Corinthians 9:22-25</a>, between the Apostle’s being made “all things to all men” and his “keeping under his body, and bringing it into subjection.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-4.htm">Acts 18:4</a></div><div class="verse">And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">He persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.</span>—It is necessary to remind the reader that the latter word does not mean Greek-speaking Jews, or proselytes in the full sense of the word, but, as elsewhere (see Note on <a href="/acts/11-22.htm" title="Then tidings of these things came to the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem: and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch.">Acts 11:22</a>), is used for those who were Gentiles by birth, and who, though worshipping in the synagogue, had not accepted circumcision.<p>(4) So far we have found reasons for the vow. But taken by itself, the vow would seem to have involved a continuous growth of hair rather than cropping it. How was that act connected with the vow? A probable answer to the question is found in the Apostle’s language as to social customs in matters of this kind, in <a href="/1_corinthians/11-14.htm" title="Does not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame to him?">1Corinthians 11:14</a>. He condemns long hair as effeminate. But the Nazarite vow led to long hair as its natural consequence, and there was, therefore, the risk that while practising a rigorous austerity, he might seem to outside observers to be adopting an unmanly refinement. At Corinth men would, perhaps, know what his act meant, but in the regions to which he was now going it was wise to guard against the suspicion by a modification of the vow, such as Jewish law allowed.<p>Cenchreæ was, as has been said, the eastern harbour of Corinth on the Saronic Gulf. <a href="/romans/16-1.htm" title="I commend to you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea:">Romans 16:1</a> indicates the existence of an organised Church there. The warm language of gratitude in which St. Paul speaks of Phœbe, the deaconess of the Church there, is best explained by supposing that she had ministered to him as such when he was suffering from bodily pain or infirmity, and this, in its turn, may afford another probable explanation of the vow.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-5.htm">Acts 18:5</a></div><div class="verse">And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews <i>that</i> Jesus <i>was</i> Christ.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia.</span>—We learn from <a href="/1_thessalonians/2-18.htm" title="Why we would have come to you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.">1Thessalonians 2:18</a>, that the latter had come to St. Paul at Athens, but had been almost immediately sent back to Thessalonica to bring further news about the converts, for whose trials the Apostle felt so much sympathy and anxiety. They brought a good report of their faith and love (<a href="/1_thessalonians/3-6.htm" title="But now when Timotheus came from you to us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, and that you have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us, as we also to see you:">1Thessalonians 3:6</a>), possibly also fresh proofs of their personal regard, and that of the Philippians, in the form of gifts (<a href="/2_corinthians/11-9.htm" title="And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brothers which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome to you, and so will I keep myself.">2Corinthians 11:9</a>). This may, however, refer to a later occasion. The First Epistle to the Thessalonians was probably sent back by the brethren who had accompanied Silas and Timotheus on their journey to Corinth. The reader will note the parallelism (1) between the passage in <a href="/context/1_thessalonians/4-16.htm" title="For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:">1Thessalonians 4:16-17</a>, which treats of the Second Advent, with the teaching of <a href="/context/1_corinthians/15-51.htm" title="Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,">1Corinthians 15:51-52</a>, and (2) between the few words as to spiritual gifts, in <a href="/context/1_thessalonians/5-19.htm" title="Quench not the Spirit.">1Thessalonians 5:19-21</a>, with the fuller treatment of the same subject in 1 Corinthians 12-14.<p><span class= "bld">Paul was pressed in the spirit.</span>—The better MSS. give, “he was constrained <span class= "ital">by the Word.”</span> The words describe something of the same strong emotion as the “paroxysm” of <a href="/acts/17-16.htm" title="Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.">Acts 17:16</a>. The Word was within him as a constraining power, compelling him to give utterance to it. His “heart was hot within him, and while he was musing the fire kindled” (<a href="/psalms/39-4.htm" title="LORD, make me to know my end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am.">Psalm 39:4</a>). Whether there was any connection between the arrival of Silas and Timotheus and this strong feeling is a question which there are no sufficient <span class= "ital">data</span> for answering. It is hardly satisfactory to say, as has been suggested, that they probably brought pecuniary supplies from Macedonia (<a href="/2_corinthians/11-9.htm" title="And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brothers which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome to you, and so will I keep myself.">2Corinthians 11:9</a>), and that he was therefore relieved from the obligation of working for his livelihood, and able to give himself more entirely to the work of preaching. There is no indication of his giving up tent-making, and <a href="/1_corinthians/9-1.htm" title="Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are not you my work in the Lord?">1Corinthians 9:1</a> is decidedly against it. A more probable explanation may be found in the strong desire—of which he says, in <a href="/romans/15-23.htm" title="But now having no more place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come to you;">Romans 15:23</a>, that he had cherished it for many years—to see Rome and preach the gospel there. Now he found himself brought into contact with those who had come from Rome, who formed, in fact, part of its population, and the old feeling was stirred to a new intensity.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-6.htm">Acts 18:6</a></div><div class="verse">And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook <i>his</i> raiment, and said unto them, Your blood <i>be</i> upon your own heads; I <i>am</i> clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed.</span>—The latter word includes the reviling of which the Apostle himself was the object, as well as blaspheming against God. Assuming what has been suggested in the Note on <a href="/acts/18-2.htm" title="And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came to them.">Acts 18:2</a>, we may think of these disturbances as reproducing what had already taken place at Rome. We may, perhaps, trace an echo of such blasphemies in the words “Anathema be Jesus,” of which St. Paul speaks in <a href="/1_corinthians/12-3.htm" title="Why I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.">1Corinthians 12:3</a> as having been uttered as with the vehemence of a simulated inspiration, against which men needed to be warned.<p><span class= "bld">He shook his raiment.</span>—On the symbolic significance of the act, see Note on <a href="/matthew/10-14.htm" title="And whoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when you depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.">Matthew 10:14</a>. As done by a Jew to Jews no words and no act could so well express the Apostle’s indignant protest. It was the last resource of one who found appeals to reason and conscience powerless, and was met by brute violence and clamour.<p><span class= "bld">Your blood be upon your own heads.</span>—The phrase and thought were both essentially Hebrew. (See Note on <a href="/matthew/27-25.htm" title="Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.">Matthew 27:25</a>.) We can hardly think of the Apostle as using them without a distinct recollection of the language which defined the responsibility of a prophet of the truth in <a href="/context/ezekiel/3-18.htm" title="When I say to the wicked, You shall surely die; and you give him not warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand.">Ezekiel 3:18-19</a>.<p><span class= "bld">From henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.</span>—The words are almost identical with those in <a href="/acts/13-46.htm" title="Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing you put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, see, we turn to the Gentiles.">Acts 13:46</a>, and are explained by them. It is obvious in each case that the words have a limited and local application. The Apostle did not renounce all future work among the Jews, but gave up preaching to those at Corinth.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-7.htm">Acts 18:7</a></div><div class="verse">And he departed thence, and entered into a certain <i>man's</i> house, named Justus, <i>one</i> that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">And entered into a certain man’s house, named Justus.</span>—On the name, see Note on <a href="/acts/1-23.htm" title="And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.">Acts 1:23</a>. 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 <span class= "ital">Museo Christiano, </span>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 <a href="/acts/1-23.htm" title="And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.">Acts 1:23</a>, and <a href="/colossians/4-11.htm" title=" And Jesus, which is called Justus, who are of the circumcision. These only are my fellow workers to the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort to me.">Colossians 4:11</a>, 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 <a href="/acts/18-1.htm" title="After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth;">Acts 18:1</a>.) It would be rash to infer from this the identity of this Titus Justus with the Titus of <a href="/galatians/2-3.htm" title="But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised:">Galatians 2:3</a>, 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 <a href="/2_corinthians/2-12.htm" title="Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened to me of the Lord,">2Corinthians 2:12</a>; <a href="/2_corinthians/7-14.htm" title="For if I have boasted any thing to him of you, I am not ashamed; but as we spoke all things to you in truth, even so our boasting, which I made before Titus, is found a truth.">2Corinthians 7:14</a>; <a href="/2_corinthians/8-16.htm" title="But thanks be to God, which put the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you.">2Corinthians 8:16</a>; <a href="/2_corinthians/8-23.htm" title="Whether any do inquire of Titus, he is my partner and fellow helper concerning you: or our brothers be inquired of, they are the messengers of the churches, and the glory of Christ.">2Corinthians 8:23</a>, 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.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-8.htm">Acts 18:8</a></div><div class="verse">And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord.</span>—The article does not necessarily show that there was only one ruler—commonly, as at the Pisidian Antioch (<a href="/acts/13-15.htm" title="And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, You men and brothers, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.">Acts 13:15</a>), there were more—but that this Crispus was thus distinguished from others of the same name. The office was one which gave its holder an honourable position, and, as in inscriptions from the Jewish catacombs now in the Lateran Museum, was recorded on tombstones (<span class= "ital">Alfius Archisynagos</span>) as a personal distinction of which the family of the deceased were proud. In favour of so conspicuous a convert, St. Paul deviated from his usual practice, and baptised Crispus with his own hands (<a href="/1_corinthians/1-14.htm" title="I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius;">1Corinthians 1:14</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.</span>—The tense of the two verbs implies a process going on daily for an undefined period. Among the converts we may note Gaius, or Caius, probably a man of higher social position than others, who made his house the meeting-place of the Church, and at St. Paul’s second visit received him as a guest (<a href="/romans/16-23.htm" title="Gaius my host, and of the whole church, salutes you. Erastus the chamberlain of the city salutes you, and Quartus a brother.">Romans 16:23</a>), and the household of Stephanas, who, as “the first-fruits of Achaia,” must have been among the earliest converts (<a href="/1_corinthians/16-15.htm" title="I beseech you, brothers, (you know the house of Stephanas, that it is the first fruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints,)">1Corinthians 16:15</a>). These also St. Paul baptised himself (<a href="/context/1_corinthians/1-14.htm" title="I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius;">1Corinthians 1:14-15</a>). Fortunatus and Achaicus, and Chloe, a prominent female convert (<a href="/1_corinthians/1-11.htm" title="For it has been declared to me of you, my brothers, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.">1Corinthians 1:11</a>), with Quartus, and Erastus the chamberlain of the city (<a href="/romans/16-23.htm" title="Gaius my host, and of the whole church, salutes you. Erastus the chamberlain of the city salutes you, and Quartus a brother.">Romans 16:23</a>), and Epænetus, also among the “first-fruits of Achaia” (<a href="/romans/16-5.htm" title="Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my well-beloved Epaenetus, who is the first fruits of Achaia to Christ.">Romans 16:5</a>), may also be counted among the disciples made now or soon afterwards.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-9.htm">Acts 18:9</a></div><div class="verse">Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace:</div>(9) <span class= "bld">Then spake the Lord to Paul.</span>—We note the recurrence of these visions at each great crisis of the Apostle’s life. He had seen the Lord at his conversion (<a href="/context/acts/9-4.htm" title="And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why persecute you me?">Acts 9:4-6</a>), he had heard the same voice and seen the same form in his trance in the Temple at Jerusalem (<a href="/acts/22-17.htm" title="And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance;">Acts 22:17</a>). Now he saw and heard them once more. “In visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men,” he passed from the strife of tongues into the presence of the Divine Friend. The words “Be not afraid” imply that he too was subject to fear and depression, and felt keenly the trial of seeming failure and comparative isolation. His converts came chiefly from the slave or freed-man class, and those of a culture like his own, whether Greeks or Jews, were slow to accept his preaching (<a href="/context/1_corinthians/1-26.htm" title="For you see your calling, brothers, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:">1Corinthians 1:26-27</a>). And then, too, he carried, as it were, his life in his hands. The reviling of the Jews might any hour burst into furious violence or deliberate plots of assassination. No wonder that he needed the gracious words, “Be not afraid.” The temptation of such a moment of human weakness was to fall back, when words seem fruitless, into the safety of silence, and therefore the command followed, “Speak, and hold not thy peace.” We are reminded of the like passing mood of discouragement in one great crisis of Elijah’s life (<a href="/context/1_kings/19-4.htm" title="But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.">1Kings 19:4-14</a>), yet more, perhaps, of its frequent recurrence in Jeremiah (<a href="/context/jeremiah/1-6.htm" title="Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.">Jeremiah 1:6-8</a>; <a href="/context/jeremiah/15-15.htm" title="O LORD, you know: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in your long-suffering: know that for your sake I have suffered rebuke.">Jeremiah 15:15-21</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-10.htm">Acts 18:10</a></div><div class="verse">For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">For I am with thee.</span>—The command was followed by a promise which met the special trial of the time. Men might be against him, but Christ was with him. The general promise given to the Church at large, “Lo! I am with you always” (<a href="/matthew/28-20.htm" title="Teaching them to observe all things whatever I have commanded you: and, see, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Amen.">Matthew 28:20</a>), received a personal application, “I am with <span class= "ital">thee;</span>” and though called to a life of suffering, there was for the time an assurance that the wrath of men should be restrained, and that his work should not be hindered.<p><span class= "bld">I have much people in this city.</span>—The words remind us once more of those which Elijah had heard at a moment of like weakness, “Yet have I left me seven thousand men in Israel” (<a href="/1_kings/19-18.htm" title="Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth which has not kissed him.">1Kings 19:18</a>). Even in the sinful streets of Corinth, among those plunged deepest into its sin (<a href="/context/1_corinthians/5-10.htm" title="Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortionists, or with idolaters; for then must you needs go out of the world.">1Corinthians 5:10-11</a>), there were souls yearning for deliverance, in whom conscience was not dead, and was waiting only for the call to repentance.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-11.htm">Acts 18:11</a></div><div class="verse">And he continued <i>there</i> a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">And he continued there a year and six</span> <span class= "bld">months.</span>—This obviously gave time not only for founding and organising a Church at Corinth itself, but for work in the neighbouring districts, such as the port of Cenchreæ, where we find in <a href="/romans/16-1.htm" title="I commend to you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea:">Romans 16:1</a> a church duly furnished not only with presbyters and deacons, but with a sisterhood of deaconesses. The superscription of <a href="/2_corinthians/1-1.htm" title="Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia:">2Corinthians 1:1</a>, “to the Church that is in Corinth and <span class= "ital">to all the saints that are in all Achaia, </span>clearly indicates an extension of evangelising work beyond the limits of the city. The unimpeded progress of this period came to him as an abundant fulfilment of the Lord’s promise, and prepared him for the next persecution when it came.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-12.htm">Acts 18:12</a></div><div class="verse">And when Gallio was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul, and brought him to the judgment seat,</div>(12) <span class= "bld">And when Gallio was the deputy of Achaia.</span>—“Deputy” stands, as before (see Note on <a href="/acts/13-7.htm" title="Which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man; who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word of God.">Acts 13:7</a>), for “proconsul.” Here, also, St. Luke shows his characteristic accuracy in the use of official titles. Achaia, which included the whole of Greece south of the province of Macedonia, had been an imperial province under Tiberius (Tacitus, <span class= "ital">Ann.</span> i. 76), and had been governed by a prætor, but had been recently, in the same year as the expulsion of the Jews from Rome, restored to the senate by Claudius, as no longer needing direct military control (Suetonius, <span class= "ital">Claud.</span> c. 25). Gallio, or to give his full name, M. Annæus Novatus, who had taken the <span class= "ital">agnomen</span> of Gallio on his adoption by the rhetorician of that name, was the brother of L. Annæus Seneca, the tutor of Nero. The philosopher dedicated to him two treatises on Anger and the Blessed Life; and the kindliness of his nature made him a general favourite. He was everybody’s “dulcis Gallio,” was praised by his brother for his disinterestedness and calmness of temper, as one “who was loved much, even by those who had but little capacity for loving” (Seneca, <span class= "ital">Ep.</span> 104). On the whole, therefore, we may see in him a very favourable example of what philosophic culture was able to do for a Roman statesman. On the probable connection of the writer of the Acts with his family, see <span class= "ital">Introduction to the Gospel of St. Luke.</span><p><span class= "bld">Made insurrection . . . against Paul.</span> Better, perhaps, <span class= "ital">rose up against, </span>or <span class= "ital">rushed upon, </span>our word “insurrection” having acquired the special meaning of a revolt of subjects against rulers.<p><span class= "bld">And brought him to the judgment</span> <span class= "bld">seat.</span>—The habit of the Roman governors of provinces was commonly to hold their court in the <span class= "ital">agora, </span>or marketplace on certain fixed days (see Note on <a href="/acts/19-38.htm" title="Why if Demetrius, and the craftsmen which are with him, have a matter against any man, the law is open, and there are deputies: let them accuse one another.">Acts 19:38</a>), so that any one might appeal to have his grievance heard. Gallio was now so sitting, and the Jews, having probably preconcerted their plans, took advantage of the opportunity.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-13.htm">Acts 18:13</a></div><div class="verse">Saying, This <i>fellow</i> persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">This fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law.</span>—It is obvious that in this appeal to the proconsul the Jews must have meant, not the law of Moses, but that of Rome. Their contention was that though Jews had been banished from Rome as a measure of policy, Judaism as such was still a <span class= "ital">relligio licita, </span>tolerated and recognised by the State. Their charge against the Apostle was that he was preaching a new religion, which was not so recognised. The words “this fellow,” though the substantive is an interpolation, fairly expresses the contempt implied in the use of the Greek pronoun.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-14.htm">Acts 18:14</a></div><div class="verse">And when Paul was now about to open <i>his</i> mouth, Gallio said unto the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O <i>ye</i> Jews, reason would that I should bear with you:</div>(14) <span class= "bld">When Paul was now about to open his mouth.</span>—The phrase always implies, as has been noticed (see Note on <a href="/acts/8-35.htm" title="Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached to him Jesus.">Acts 8:35</a>), the beginning of a set discourse. St. Paul was about to begin a formal <span class= "ital">apologia.</span> This, however, proved to be unnecessary.<p><span class= "bld">Gallio said unto the Jews.</span>—The proconsul could hardly have resided in Achaia for eighteen months without hearing of the new movement. He knew the Jews. He probably knew something of St. Paul. On the assumption already referred to (see Note on <a href="/acts/18-12.htm" title="And when Gallio was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul, and brought him to the judgment seat,">Acts 18:12</a>) the knowledge may have been fuller than appears on the surface. In any case, from his standpoint, as philosopher and statesman, it was not a matter for his tribunal. He was not anxious to draw a hard and fast line as to the <span class= "ital">relligiones licitæ</span> recognised by the State.<p><span class= "bld">A matter of wrong or wicked lewdness.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">a matter of crime or fraud.</span> “Lewdness,” which to us suggests a special class of crimes, is used as “lewd” had been in <a href="/acts/17-5.htm" title="But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took to them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.">Acts 17:5</a>. The Greek word is very closely connected with that translated “subtlety” in <a href="/acts/13-10.htm" title="And said, O full of all subtlety and all mischief, you child of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?">Acts 13:10</a>. Both words were probably used in a strictly forensic sense—the first for acts of open wrong, such as robbery or assault; the second for those in which a fraudulent cunning was the chief element.<p><span class= "bld">Reason would that I should bear with you.</span>—The very turn of the phrase expresses an intense impatience. Even in the case supposed, his tolerance would have required an effort. As it was, these Jews were now altogether intolerable.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-15.htm">Acts 18:15</a></div><div class="verse">But if it be a question of words and names, and <i>of</i> your law, look ye <i>to it</i>; for I will be no judge of such <i>matters</i>.</div>(15) <span class= "bld">But if it be a question of words and names, and of your law.</span>—The second noun is in the singular number in the Greek. St. Paul was known as a speaker, one who preached the <span class= "ital">word</span> of God, and with that, as distinct from acts, Gallio had nothing to do. The “names” were those which he had probably heard of at Rome, even before he came to Corinth. (See Note on <a href="/acts/18-2.htm" title="And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came to them.">Acts 18:2</a>.) Was a teacher whom both parties spoke of as Jesus the Nazarene entitled also to bear the name of Christos? In the emphasis laid on “your law” (literally, <span class= "ital">the law which affects you</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>the judge intimates that he sees through their appeal to law. It is Jewish, and not Roman law, which they are seeking to vindicate, and he will not make himself, as Pilate, after a weak protest (<a href="/john/18-3.htm" title="Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, comes thither with lanterns and torches and weapons.">John 18:3</a>), had done (Gallio may well have known the history), the executioner of an alien code. With a strong emphasis on the pronoun, he ends with, “I, for my part, have no wish to be a judge of these things.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-16.htm">Acts 18:16</a></div><div class="verse">And he drave them from the judgment seat.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">He drove them from the judgment seat.</span>—The words imply a magisterial act. The order was given to the lictors to clear the court, and the Jews, who did not immediately retreat were exposed to the ignominy of blows from their rods.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-17.htm">Acts 18:17</a></div><div class="verse">Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat <i>him</i> before the judgment seat. And Gallio cared for none of those things.</div>(17) <span class= "bld">Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue.</span>—The better MSS. omit the word “Greeks,” which was probably inserted as an explanatory interpolation by some one who thought it more likely that a ruler of the synagogue should have been assaulted by the Greek bystanders than by those of his own race. Taking the better reading, and assuming the natural construction of the sentence to be “all of them (sc., the Jews) took Sosthenes and beat him,” we have to ask for an explanation of conduct which seems so strange. This is probably found in the appearance of the same name in <a href="/1_corinthians/1-1.htm" title="Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,">1Corinthians 1:1</a>, as associated with St. Paul in the Epistle to the Church of Corinth. It is a natural inference that Sosthenes, like his predecessor or partner in office (it does not necessarily follow that he succeeded him) became a convert to the new faith. If so, it is probable that he was already suspected of tendencies in that direction, and when the Jews at Corinth found their plans frustrated, it was natural that they should impute their failure to the lukewarmness or treachery of the man who ought to have carried them to a successful issue. They did not shrink from giving vent to their rage even before the tribunal of the proconsul.<p><span class= "bld">And Gallio cared for none of those things.</span>—More accurately, <span class= "ital">And Gallio cared nothing for these things.</span> The words have become almost proverbial for the indifference of mere politicians and men of the world to religious truth. We speak of one who is tolerant because he is sceptical, as a Gallio. It may be questioned, however, whether this was the thought prominent in St. Luke’s mind as he thus wrote. What he apparently meant was that the proconsul was clear sighted enough to pay no regard to the clamours of St. Paul’s accusers. If they chose, after failing in their attack on Paul, to quarrel among themselves, what was that to him? “<span class= "ital">Laissez faire, laissez alter</span>” might well be his motto in dealing with such a people. The general impression, however, as to his character is not without its truth. The easy-going gentleness of his character ill fitted him to resist the temptations of Nero’s court, and after retiring from Achaia in consequence of an attack of fever (Sen. <span class= "ital">Ep.</span> 104), he returned to Rome, and, to the distress of Burrhus and his own brother, Seneca, he took part in ministering to the emperor’s vices (Dio. lxi. 20). He finally fell under the tyrant’s displeasure, and, according to one tradition, was put to death by him. Another represents him as anticipating his fate by suicide; Tacitus, however (<span class= "ital">Ann.</span> xv. 73), only speaks of him as terrified by his brother’s death, and supplicating Nero for his own life.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-18.htm">Acts 18:18</a></div><div class="verse">And Paul <i>after this</i> tarried <i>there</i> yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn <i>his</i> head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow.</div>(18) <span class= "bld">And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">tarried yet many days, </span>the phrase probably covering a period of some months. The fact is noted as following on Gallio’s repression of the enmity of the Jews. The Apostle could stay and work on without molestation. The time of his voyage was probably, as in the second journey from Corinth to Jerusalem, after the Passover, and before Pentecost. (See Note on <a href="/acts/2-1.htm" title="And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.">Acts 2:1</a>.) It was the most favourable time of the year for travelling, and it brought the Apostle into contact with a larger number both of Hellenistic Jews and Hebrews than were found at other times. We can only infer, more or less conjecturally, the motives of his journey. (1) As afterwards, in <a href="/context/acts/20-3.htm" title="And there stayed three months. And when the Jews laid wait for him, as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia.">Acts 20:3-4</a>, he may have wished, in carrying out the terms of the compact with the Church of Jerusalem (<a href="/galatians/2-10.htm" title="Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.">Galatians 2:10</a>), to be the bearer of alms collected for the disciples there. By some writers, however, this visit is identified with that of which St. Paul there speaks. (2) The vow which he had taken (see Note below) required a visit to the Temple for its completion. (3) There might be a natural wish to report, as in <a href="/acts/15-4.htm" title="And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them.">Acts 15:4</a>, the results of his ministry among the Gentiles, in what, from the stand-point of Jerusalem, would seem the remoter regions of Macedonia and Achaia.<p><span class= "bld">Priscilla and Aquila.</span>—On the priority given to the name of the wife, see Note on <a href="/acts/18-2.htm" title="And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came to them.">Acts 18:2</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow.</span>—The grammatical structure of the Greek sentence makes it possible to refer the words to Aquila as well as St. Paul, but there is hardly the shadow of a doubt that the latter is meant. (1) If Aquila had taken the vow he too would have to go to Jerusalem instead of remaining at Ephesus. (2) The language of St. James in <a href="/context/acts/21-23.htm" title="Do therefore this that we say to you: We have four men which have a vow on them;">Acts 21:23-24</a>, implies a conviction, as resting on past experience, that St. Paul would willingly connect himself with those who had such a vow. It remains to inquire (1) as to the nature and conditions of the vow; (2) as to St. Paul’s motives in taking it.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-19.htm">Acts 18:19</a></div><div class="verse">And he came to Ephesus, and left them there: but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">He came to Ephesus, and left them there.</span>—The better MSS. give, “They came to Ephesus.” What follows seems to imply that he no longer continued to work with them, as at Corinth, but leaving them to establish themselves in their craft, began, under the pressure of his eagerness to reach Jerusalem, an independent course of teaching in the synagogues.<p>The first mention of Ephesus calls for a short account of its history. It had been one of the early Greek colonies on the western coast of Asia Minor. It fell under the power of Alyattes, King of Lydia, and his successor, Croesus. It had from the first been celebrated for the worship of Artemis (see Note on <a href="/acts/19-14.htm" title="And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so.">Acts 19:14</a>); and her Temple, with its sacred image, and stately courts, and its hundreds of priests and priestesses of various grades, was visited by pilgrims of all nations. It was one of the cities in which East and West came into close contact with each other, and the religion of Greece assumed there a more Oriental character, and was fruitful in magic, and mysteries, and charms. The Jewish population was sufficiently numerous to have a synagogue, and St. Paul, as usual, appeared in it as a teacher.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-20.htm">Acts 18:20</a></div><div class="verse">When they desired <i>him</i> to tarry longer time with them, he consented not;</div>(20) <span class= "bld">When they desired him to tarry longer</span> time with them.—This was, obviously, a hopeful sign, the earnest of the fruitful labours that followed. Nowhere, among the churches that he founded, does St. Paul seem to have found so great a receptivity for spiritual truth. While he looked on the Corinthians as being children requiring to be fed with milk (<a href="/1_corinthians/3-2.htm" title="I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for till now you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able.">1Corinthians 3:2</a>), he saw in the Ephesians those to whom he did not shun to declare “the whole counsel of God” (<a href="/acts/20-27.htm" title="For I have not shunned to declare to you all the counsel of God.">Acts 20:27</a>), to whom he could, at a later date, appeal as able to measure his knowledge of the mystery of the gospel (<a href="/ephesians/3-4.htm" title="Whereby, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)">Ephesians 3:4</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-21.htm">Acts 18:21</a></div><div class="verse">But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus.</div>(21) <span class= "bld">I must by all means keep this feast that Cometh.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">the coming, </span>or, <span class= "ital">the next feast.</span> This was, probably, as has been said, the Feast of Pentecost. (See Note on <a href="/acts/18-18.htm" title="And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brothers, and sailed there into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow.">Acts 18:18</a>.) If he missed that, there would be no other feast till that of Tabernacles; and then, in October, travelling, whether by sea or land, became dangerous and difficult. (See Note on <a href="/acts/27-9.htm" title="Now when much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now already past, Paul admonished them,">Acts 27:9</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">If God will.</span>—In this resting in the thought of the will of the Father as ordering all things well—even in their use of almost the same formula, to them much more than such a formula as the <span class= "ital">Deo volente</span> has often become in the lips of Christians—we find another point of agreement between St. Paul and St. James (<a href="/james/4-15.htm" title="For that you ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.">James 4:15</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-22.htm">Acts 18:22</a></div><div class="verse">And when he had landed at Caesarea, and gone up, and saluted the church, he went down to Antioch.</div>(22) <span class= "bld">And when he had landed at Cæsarea.</span>—It is obvious that a great deal is covered by the short record of this verse. In the absence of any <span class= "ital">data</span> in the Acts for settling the question, we may possibly refer to some casualty in this voyage, one of the three shipwrecks of <a href="/2_corinthians/11-25.htm" title="Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;">2Corinthians 11:25</a>. At Cæsarea, we may believe, he would probably renew his intercourse with Philip the Evangelist. At Jerusalem there would be the usual gathering of the Church, the completion of his Nazarite vow in the Temple, a friendly welcome on the part of St. James and the elders of the Church. Peter was probably at Antioch (<a href="/galatians/2-11.htm" title="But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.">Galatians 2:11</a>), or possibly at Babylon (<a href="/1_peter/5-13.htm" title="The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, salutes you; and so does Marcus my son.">1Peter 5:13</a>). To this visit to Antioch we may probably refer the scene which St. Paul narrates in <a href="/context/galatians/2-11.htm" title="But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.">Galatians 2:11-14</a>. His long absence from Antioch had left the Judaising party time to gather strength and organise a new attack on the freedom of the Gentiles, and they brought a fresh pressure to bear upon the element of instability which still lingered in St. Peter’s character, and he had not been able to resist it. It is, however, possible that the incident may have occurred before Paul and Silas had left Antioch. (See Note on <a href="/context/acts/15-39.htm" title="And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed to Cyprus;">Acts 15:39-40</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-23.htm">Acts 18:23</a></div><div class="verse">And after he had spent some time <i>there</i>, he departed, and went over <i>all</i> the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples.</div>(23) <span class= "bld">Went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order.</span>—It is clear from the Epistle to the Galatians that on this visit he found few traces, or none at all, of the work of the Judaisers. The change came afterwards. Some falling away from their first love, some relapse into old national vices, he may have noticed already which called for earnest warning (<a href="/galatians/5-21.htm" title="Contentions, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.">Galatians 5:21</a>). As he passed through the churches he had founded on his previous journey, he gave the directions for the weekly appropriation of what men could spare from their earnings (the term, a weekly “offertory,” though often employed of it, does not represent the facts of the case), to which he refers in <a href="/1_corinthians/16-2.htm" title="On the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God has prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.">1Corinthians 16:2</a>. What churches in Phrygia were visited we are unable to say. A possible construction of <a href="/colossians/2-1.htm" title=" For I would that you knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;">Colossians 2:1</a> might lead us to think of those of the valley of the Lycus, Colossæ, Hierapolis, Laodicea, as having been founded by him, but the more probable interpretation of that passage is, that he included them in the list of those who had not seen his face in the flesh.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-24.htm">Acts 18:24</a></div><div class="verse">And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, <i>and</i> mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus.</div>(24) <span class= "bld">And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria.</span>—The name was probably a contraction of Apollonius or Apollodorus. The facts in the New Testament connected with him show that he occupied a prominent position in the history of the Apostolic Church. Conjectures, more or less probable, indicate a yet more representative character and a wider range of influence. Luther, looking to the obviously Alexandrian character of the Epistle to the Hebrews and to the mystery which shrouds its authorship, and which led Origen to the conclusion that God alone knew who wrote it, hazarded the thought that Apollos was the writer. Later critics have adopted the hypothesis, and have brought it to a closer approximation to certainty by an induction from numerous parallelisms in thought and language between the Epistle and the writings of Philo, who lived between B.C. 20 and A.D. 40 or 50. The present writer has carried the inquiry one step further. Among the ethical books of the LXX. there is one, the Wisdom of Solomon, the authorship of which is also an unsolved problem. It is not named or quoted by any pre-Christian writer, Clement of Rome being the first writer who shows traces of its influence, just as he is the first who reproduces the thoughts of the Epistle to the Hebrews. It has been ascribed to Philo partly on the external evidence of a doubtful passage in the Muratorian Canon, partly on the internal evidence of numerous coincidences with his writings. A careful comparison of the two books shows so close an agreement in style and language between the Wisdom of Solomon and the Epistle to the Hebrews that it is scarcely possible to resist the inference that they must have come from the same pen, and that they represent, therefore, different stages in the spiritual growth of the same man. Those who wish to carry the inquiry further will find the subject discussed at length in two papers, “On the Writings of Apollos,” in Vol. I. of the <span class= "ital">Expositor.</span> Without assuming more than the probability of this inference, it is yet obvious that a Jew coming from Alexandria at this time could hardly fail to have come under Philo’s influence, and that his mode of interpreting the Scriptures would naturally present many analogies to that of the Alexandrian thinker. To him accordingly may be assigned, without much risk of error, the first introduction of the characteristic idea of Philo that the Unseen Godhead manifests itself in the <span class= "ital">Logos, </span>the Divine <span class= "ital">Word, </span>or <span class= "ital">Thought, </span>as seen in the visible creation, and in the spirit and heart of man (<a href="//apocrypha.org/wisdom_of_solomon/9-1.htm" title="O God of my fathers, and Lord of mercy, who hast made all things with thy word,">Wisdom Of Solomon 9:1-2</a>; <a href="//apocrypha.org/wisdom_of_solomon/9-4.htm" title="Give me wisdom, that sitteth by thy throne; and reject me not from among thy children:">Wisdom Of Solomon 9:4</a>; <a href="//apocrypha.org/wisdom_of_solomon/16-12.htm" title="For it was neither herb, nor mollifying plaister, that restored them to health: but thy word, O Lord, which healeth all things.">Wisdom Of Solomon 16:12</a>; <a href="//apocrypha.org/wisdom_of_solomon/18-15.htm" title="Thine Almighty word leaped down from heaven out of thy royal throne, as a fierce man of war into the midst of a land of destruction,">Wisdom Of Solomon 18:15</a>; <a href="/hebrews/4-12.htm" title="For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.">Hebrews 4:12</a>). It will be remembered that Jews of Alexandria were among those who disputed with Stephen (<a href="/acts/6-9.htm" title="Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.">Acts 6:9</a>). Some of these may have been more or less persuaded by his. preaching, and have carried back to their native city some knowledge, more or less complete, of the new faith.<p><span class= "bld">An eloquent man.</span>—The Greek adjective implies learning as well as eloquence. It was applied pre-eminently to those who wrote history with fulness and insight (Herod. i. 1; ii. 3, 77). The treatment of the history of Israel both in Wisdom 10, 11, 18, and Hebrews 11 might well be described by it.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-25.htm">Acts 18:25</a></div><div class="verse">This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John.</div>(25) <span class= "bld">This man was instructed in the way of the Lord.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">had been instructed.</span> The verb is the same as that used in <a href="/luke/1-1.htm" title="For as much as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us,">Luke 1:1</a> (where see Note), and was afterwards used technically in the form of <span class= "ital">Catechumen</span> to describe the status of a convert preparing for baptism. The “way of the Lord” is used in a half-technical sense, as in the phrase “those of the way” (see Note on <a href="/acts/9-2.htm" title="And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.">Acts 9:2</a>), as equivalent to what, in modern speech, we should describe as the “religion” of Christ.<p><span class= "bld">And being fervent in the spirit.</span>—The noun is obviously used, as in the identical phrase in <a href="/romans/12-11.htm" title="Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;">Romans 12:11</a>, for the spirit of the man, not for the Holy Spirit of God.<p><span class= "bld">He spake and taught diligently.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">he was speaking and teaching accurately.</span> Both verbs are in the tense which implies continuous action.<p><span class= "bld">The things of the Lord.</span>—The better MSS. give, “the things concerning Jesus.” We ask in what the teaching, which is thus described as accurate, was yet defective. The position of Apollos at this stage was, it would seem, that of one who knew the facts of our Lord’s life, and death, and resurrection, and had learnt, comparing these with Messianic prophecies, to accept Him as the Christ. But his teacher had been one who had not gone beyond the standpoint of the followers of the Baptist, who accepted Jesus as the Christ during His ministry on earth. The Christ was for him the head of a glorified Judaism, retaining all its distinctive features. He had not as yet learnt that “circumcision was nothing” (<a href="/1_corinthians/7-19.htm" title="Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.">1Corinthians 7:19</a>; <a href="/galatians/5-6.htm" title="For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision avails any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which works by love.">Galatians 5:6</a>), and that the Temple and all its ordinances were “decaying and waxing old, and ready to vanish away” (<a href="/hebrews/8-13.htm" title="In that he said, A new covenant, he has made the first old. Now that which decays and waxes old is ready to vanish away.">Hebrews 8:13</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Knowing only the baptism of John.</span>—The words are full of interest, as showing a wider extent in the work of the Baptist, as the forerunner of the Christ, than is indicated in the Gospels. Even at Alexandria, probably among the ascetic communities of the Therapeutæ, whose life was fashioned upon the same model, there were those who had come under his influence.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-26.htm">Acts 18:26</a></div><div class="verse">And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto <i>them</i>, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.</div>(26) <span class= "bld">Whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard . . .</span>—Many of the best MSS. put Priscilla’s name first, as in <a href="/acts/18-18.htm" title="And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brothers, and sailed there into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow.">Acts 18:18</a>. The fact mentioned is interesting as showing (1) that Aquila and his wife continued to attend the services of the synagogue, and (2) that Apollos appeared there, as St. Paul had done, in the character of a Rabbi who had a message to deliver, and was therefore allowed, or, it may be, requested (as in <a href="/acts/13-15.htm" title="And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, You men and brothers, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.">Acts 13:15</a>), to address the people.<p><span class= "bld">And expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.</span>—Better, as maintaining the right relation of the comparative to the positive adverb of the previous verse, <span class= "ital">more accurately.</span> The prominence given to Priscilla in this instruction implies that she was a woman of more than ordinary culture, a student of the older Scriptures, able, with a prophetic insight, to help even the disciple of Philo to understand them better than he had done before. It follows of necessity that “the way of God” which they “expounded” to him was the gospel as they had learnt it from St. Paul, perhaps as they had learnt it, at an earlier stage, from the lips of Stephen or his followers. (See Note on <a href="/acts/18-2.htm" title="And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came to them.">Acts 18:2</a>.) It would include, to put the matter somewhat technically, the doctrines of salvation by grace, and justification by faith, and the gift of the Spirit, and union with Christ through baptism and the Supper of the Lord. It would seem to follow almost necessarily, as in the case of the twelve disciples in the next chapter (<a href="/context/acts/19-1.htm" title="And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,">Acts 19:1-6</a>), that Apollos, who had before known only the baptism of John, was now baptised into “the name of the Lord Jesus.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-27.htm">Acts 18:27</a></div><div class="verse">And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace:</div>(27) <span class= "bld">And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia.</span>—In the absence of the name of any city in the province, Corinth naturally suggests itself as the place to which he went. <a href="/acts/19-1.htm" title="And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,">Acts 19:1</a>, and the mention of Apollos in <a href="/1_corinthians/1-12.htm" title="Now this I say, that every one of you said, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.">1Corinthians 1:12</a>, turns this into a certainty. He felt, we may believe, that his training in the philosophical thought of Alexandria qualified him to carry on there the work which St. Paul had begun both there and at Athens. One who had written, or even read, the noble utterances of Wisdom 1, 2, was well qualified to carry an aggressive warfare into the camp of the Epicureans, while thoughts like those of Wisdom 7, 8, especially <a href="//apocrypha.org/wisdom_of_solomon/8-7.htm" title="And if a man love righteousness her labours are virtues: for she teacheth temperance and prudence, justice and fortitude: which are such things, as men can have nothing more profitable in their life.">Wisdom Of Solomon 8:7</a>, with its recognition of the four cardinal virtues of Greek ethics, “temperance and prudence, justice and fortitude,” would attract the sympathy of the nobler followers of Zeno.<p><span class= "bld">The brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him.</span>—This is the first instance of what were afterwards known technically as “letters of commendation” (see Note on <a href="/2_corinthians/3-1.htm" title="Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, letters of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?">2Corinthians 3:1</a>), written by one church to another in favour of the bearer. The fact that they were given by the Christian community at Ephesus shows now favourable an impression Apollos had made there. It is probable that St. Paul alludes indirectly to these letters in the passage just referred to. The partisans of Apollos had referred to them as one of the points in which he excelled St. Paul. He had come with letters of commendation. He had received them when he left Corinth. The Apostle answers the disparaging taunt in the language of a noble indignation. He needed no such epistle. The church which he had planted was itself an epistle, “known and read of all men” (<a href="/2_corinthians/3-3.htm" title="For as much as you are manifestly declared to be the letter of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.">2Corinthians 3:3</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Helped them much which had believed through grace.</span>—The two last words admit, in the Greek as in the English, of being taken either with “helped” or “believed.” The former construction seems preferable. It was through the grace of God, co-operating with the gift of wisdom, that Apollos was able to lead men to a higher stage of thought. It will be noted that this exactly corresponds with the account which St. Paul gives of his relation to the teacher whom some set up against him as a rival: “I have planted; Apollos watered,” “I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon” (<a href="/1_corinthians/3-6.htm" title="I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.">1Corinthians 3:6</a>; <a href="/1_corinthians/3-10.htm" title="According to the grace of God which is given to me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds thereon. But let every man take heed how he builds thereupon.">1Corinthians 3:10</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/18-28.htm">Acts 18:28</a></div><div class="verse">For he mightily convinced the Jews, <i>and that</i> publickly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ.</div>(28) <span class= "bld">He mightily convinced the Jews.</span>—The conclusion to which he led the Jews was the same as that which St. Paul urged on them. The process was, perhaps, somewhat different, as the line of argument in the Epistle to the Hebrews differs from that in the Epistle to the Galatians. To lead men on, after the manner of Philo, into the deeper meanings that lay beneath the letter of Scripture, to deal with them as those who were pressing forwards to the perfection of maturity in spiritual growth (<a href="/context/hebrews/5-11.htm" title="Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing.">Hebrews 5:11-14</a>), instead of treating them as children who must be fed with milk and not with “strong meat” (<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>solid food), as St. Paul had done (<a href="/1_corinthians/1-2.htm" title="To the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and our's:">1Corinthians 1:2</a>)—it was natural that this should attract followers to the new preacher, and give him a larger measure of real or apparent success in dealing with the Jews than had attended the labours of St. Paul. As Apollos does not appear again in the Acts, it may be well to bring together what is known as to his after-history. At Corinth, as has been said, his name was used as the watchword of a party, probably that of the philosophising Jews and proselytes, as distinguished from the narrower party of the circumcision that rallied round the name of Cephas (<a href="/1_corinthians/1-12.htm" title="Now this I say, that every one of you said, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.">1Corinthians 1:12</a>). Not a word escapes from St. Paul that indicates any doctrinal difference between himself and Apollos, and as the latter had been instructed by St. Paul’s friends, Aquila and Priscilla, this was, indeed, hardly probable. It would appear from <a href="/1_corinthians/16-12.htm" title="As touching our brother Apollos, I greatly desired him to come to you with the brothers: but his will was not at all to come at this time; but he will come when he shall have convenient time.">1Corinthians 16:12</a>, that he returned to Ephesus, probably with letters of commendation from the Church of Corinth (<a href="/2_corinthians/3-1.htm" title="Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, letters of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?">2Corinthians 3:1</a>). St. Paul’s confidence in him is shown by his desire that he should return once more to Corinth with Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus. His own reluctance to be the occasion even of the semblance of schism explains his unwillingness to go (<a href="/1_corinthians/16-12.htm" title="As touching our brother Apollos, I greatly desired him to come to you with the brothers: but his will was not at all to come at this time; but he will come when he shall have convenient time.">1Corinthians 16:12</a>). After this we lose sight of him for some years. These, we may well believe, were well filled up by evangelising labours after the pattern of those which we have seen at Ephesus and Corinth. Towards the close of St. Paul’s ministry (A. D. 65) we get our last glimpse of him, in <a href="/titus/3-13.htm" title="Bring Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their journey diligently, that nothing be wanting to them.">Titus 3:13</a>. He is in company with Zenas, the lawyer (see Note on <a href="/matthew/22-35.htm" title="Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,">Matthew 22:35</a>), one, <span class= "ital">i.e.</span>, who, like himself, had a special reputation for the profounder knowledge of the Law of Moses. St. Paul’s feeling towards him is still, as of old, one of affectionate interest, and he desires that Titus will help him in all things. He has been labouring at Crete, and there also has gathered round him a distinct company of disciples, whom St. Paul distinguishes from his own; “Let <span class= "ital">our’s</span> also learn to maintain good works” (<a href="/titus/3-14.htm" title="And let our's also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful.">Titus 3:14</a>). After this, probably after St. Paul’s death, he wrote—if we accept Luther’s conjecture—the Epistle to the Hebrews, addressed, as some have thought, to the Jewish Christians of Palestine, and specially of Cæsarea, but, more probably, as I have been led to believe, to the Christian ascetics, known as Therapeutæ, trained, like himself, in the school of Philo, with whom he had formerly been associated at Alexandria. The mention of disciples of, or from, Italy in <a href="/hebrews/13-24.htm" title="Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints. They of Italy salute you.">Hebrews 13:24</a> suggests a connection with some other Italian Christians than those of Rome, probably with those of Puteoli. 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