ESV Global Study Bible :: Footnotes for Acts 18

Acts 18:1–22 Corinth was Paul’s last major place of witness on his second journey.

Acts 18:1 Corinth was 46 miles (74 km) west of Athens. It was a Roman colony and the most influential city of the province of Achaia.

Acts 18:2 Claudius’s expulsion of the Jews from Rome in a.d. 49 seems to have resulted from trouble in the synagogues created by the Christian message. Aquila and Priscilla were possibly already Christians when they fled from Rome.

Acts 18:4 Greeks. God-fearers.

Acts 18:5 Paul apparently had sent Silas and Timothy from Athens to visit the Macedonian churches (see note on 17:15). When they rejoined Paul in Corinth, they probably brought a contribution for Paul’s ministry from the Macedonian churches (see 2 Cor. 11:9).

Acts 18:6 shook out his garments. A gesture of rejection, much like shaking the dust from one’s feet (compare 13:51; and note on Matt. 10:14). Your blood be on your own heads. Paul has told them the truth. It is not his fault if they reject it.

Acts 18:7 Paul did not completely give up on witnessing to the Jews of Corinth, as his relocating next door to the synagogue indicates.

Acts 18:8 Crispus. See 1 Cor. 1:14. believed and were baptized. Baptism seems to have occurred soon after each person’s profession of faith.

Acts 18:9–11 The Lord assured Paul that, “I have many in this city who are my people,” meaning that many in Corinth would come to faith in Christ. Yet Paul did not conclude that his work in Corinth was done. Rather, he stayed a year and six months (c. a.d. 49–51, during which time he wrote 1–2 Thessalonians), longer than in any other city except Ephesus.

Acts 18:12 The proconsul of a province was its chief judicial officer. Gallio served in this role a.d. 51–52. This provides one of the keys for determining the dates of Paul’s missionary journeys. The tribunal was the proconsul’s judgment seat in the marketplace.

Acts 18:14 Gallio’s decision that the Jewish accusations against the Christians concerned only matters of their own religion established the important legal precedent that Christians were not violating Roman law when merely teaching Christian doctrine. A similar judgment comes later, in 25:19.

Acts 18:17 Sosthenes may have been a Jewish convert to Christianity. Paul mentions someone by that name as his “coauthor” in 1 Cor. 1:1. In Acts 18:8, Crispus is called “the ruler of the synagogue.” Sosthenes may have succeeded him when Crispus became a Christian, or there may have been more than one person with this office in that synagogue.

Acts 18:18 The many days longer that Paul continued in Corinth seems to be in addition to the 18 months noted in v. 11. Syria refers to his sponsoring church of Antioch in Syria. Cenchreae was about 6.5 miles (10.5 km) east of Corinth and was Corinth’s main port to the Aegean Sea. The cutting of Paul’s hair probably indicates he had completed a vow (see Num. 6:1–21; Acts 21:20–24). One took a vow to seek divine blessing or to express thanksgiving.

Acts 18:21 will return . . . if God wills. Paul’s brief appearance in the synagogue prepared the way for his later ministry in Ephesus (ch. 19) during his third missionary journey.

Acts 18:22 Leaving from the main Palestinian port of Caesarea in the spring of a.d. 51, Paul went up and greeted the church (in Jerusalem). Then Paul went down (from Jerusalem) to Antioch (see note on 11:19).

Acts 18:23–21:16 The Witness in Ephesus. This section reports Paul’s third missionary journey (c. a.d. 52–57). It took place primarily in Ephesus, the capital of the Roman province of Asia. Ephesus was a major commercial center and home of the famous temple of the goddess Artemis.

Acts 18:23 Again sponsored by the church in Antioch of Syria, Paul began his third missionary journey in the spring of a.d. 52. He traveled by foot through the region of his first mission on into Galatia and Phrygia. On the second missionary journey the Spirit had prevented him from continuing west into Asia (16:6). This time Paul headed directly west toward Ephesus.

Acts 18:24 Alexandria was an intellectual center in Egypt with a world-famous library.

Acts 18:25 Apollos knew only the baptism of John. This suggests that he had not heard about the baptism that Jesus commanded after his resurrection (see Matt. 28:19). Apollos taught accurately the things concerning Jesus as far as he knew them. He certainly knew about Jesus’ life and teachings. He may not have known about Jesus’ death and resurrection, or about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Acts 18:26 Presumably Priscilla and Aquila . . . explained the things about Jesus that Apollos did not yet know (see note on v. 25). It is noteworthy that both of them “explained” to Apollos the way of God more accurately. This supports the idea that both men and women can explain God’s Word to each other in private or informal settings (such as personal conversation or a small group Bible study) without violating 1 Tim. 2:12. they took him aside. They corrected him in private (compare Mark 8:32).

Acts 18:27 Achaia refers particularly to Corinth (in the province of Achaia), where Paul had already established a church. Aquila and Priscilla were well known there, so a letter from them on Apollos’s behalf would carry great weight. Later, Paul acknowledged Apollos’s ministry in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:12; 3:4–6; 22). Apollos evidently returned to Ephesus after his time at Corinth. He was with Paul in Ephesus when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians (Acts 19:1–20:1; 1 Cor. 16:12).