AP

Studies in Acts

Paul in Corinth (Acts 18:1-17)      

Corinth was not a prestigious church. Not many of the Corinthian Christians “were wise, according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth” (1 Corinthians 1:26). Most of them were of modest ancestry. Some were slaves.

Corinth: a world-famous seaport

In Paul’s day, Corinth was a cosmopolitan city of perhaps 70,000 inhabitants; it was an international port. It was the largest transportation port for shuttling passengers and goods between the eastern and western basins of the Mediterranean Sea. It was situated on the isthmus connecting Middle Greece and Southern Greece. All land traffic had to pass on this narrow piece of land. It also separated the Aegean Sea from the Adriatic Sea, so that Corinth had two harbours: East and West. The freight was transferred, and those travelling through could spend a few days in Corinth to catch their next ship. Smaller ships were pulled with rollers via a small path from one port to the other.

Corinth was an international intersection and a commercial city. On its streets Paul must have constantly seen Greek, Jewish, Roman, Syrian, and Egyptian merchants, sailors, shipowners, and travellers. The Corinthians themselves worked at the wharves, in the warehouses, the foundries, the pottery factories, the fabric mills, and the paint factories. Since it is possible that more than half of the population consisted of slaves, the city must also have known significant social contrasts. This would have characterized the church as well (1 Corinthians 11:20-21).

When the apostle lived there, the city was still rather new. In 146 BC, it had been destroyed by the Romans, but since then had been rebuilt as a more modern and imposing city. It had three theatres, the largest of which could seat 20,000 spectators. The main market was 225 metres by 127 metres, making it one of the largest plazas in all of Greece. Many of its streets were wide for ease of travel. The city featured five market malls, two basilicas (large buildings for court cases and commercial dealings), five bathhouses, a complex system of waterways connected to five sources of water. There was a synagogue as well, for many Jews were living in this immense business centre.

For the most part, the population was thoroughly pagan. There were at least 23 temples, to accommodate every possible Graeco-Roman and Asiatic form of worship. One of them was dedicated to Aesclepius, the god of healing. He had the title Soter (i.e., saviour), the same word that Scripture uses for the Lord Jesus. The Corinthian Christians daily passed by innumerable idols, some of which were quite tall, like the one in Athens in the middle of the great market, and that of Artemis (i.e., Diana; cf. Acts 19:23-24), and Poseidon (i.e., Neptune), the god of the sea. The priests took care of the finances as well, so that the temples functioned also as banks and meat markets.

The burning question for the church in Corinth was whether, as a Christian, you were permitted to eat meat that had been devoted to an idol in such a temple (cf. 1 Corinthians 8:1-8; 10:23-11:1). The city was notorious for its immorality! To “live like a Corinthian” was a reference in the ancient world to drunkards and whoremongers. Thousands of consecrated female slaves related to the temple of Aphrodite (i.e., Venus), which perhaps existed still in Paul’s time. These female slaves had devoted their bodies for “sacred prostitution” to the goddess of “love.” Paying a visit to such a public woman was for the Corinthians the most ordinary thing in the world. Therefore, the apostle had to explain to the newly converted pagans in Corinth why involvement with a prostitute was forbidden for a Christian (1 Corinthians 6:13-17).

We get a clear impression of the degenerate life in ancient Corinth when we read Romans 1:18-32. Paul wrote this letter during his second visit to Corinth. Every day while he was in Corinth, he was seeing the unmatched immorality that he was describing in these verses. Some of the church members had, before their conversion, fully participated in these activities (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

In this depraved metropolis, the apostle was permitted to establish in the power of the Holy Spirit a large and gifted church. But also, a difficult church. If the church in Philippi was his favourite child, the church in Corinth was his problem child, whom he also loved very dearly.

Acts 18:1-3 Paul’s second apostolic journey had not gone as he had planned (cf. Acts 16:6-7). The Spirit of Jesus had pushed him constantly westward and led him via Troas from Asia to Europe. There he could plant churches in Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens. From there he travelled 80 km, still without Silas and Timothy, to Corinth. Later he humbly acknowledged that he had not entered immoral Corinth like a spiritual giant, but with much fear and trembling: “I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling” (1 Corinthians 2:3). In addition, he was lonely and constantly concerned about the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 2:17-3:5).

In that frame of mind, he had to work first, and find lodging. He could not set up shop among Gentiles as a Jewish rabbi, for this would make him suspect in the synagogue. But looking for lodging among Jews also presented problems. Suppose that they were already familiar with Messiah Jesus but wanted nothing to do with him!

The Lord led him to a Jewish couple with whom he would find deep friendship and support for the rest of his life. His name was Aquila and he had come from Pontus, a seaport on the Black Sea. Her name was Priscilla. In Romans 16:2-3 Paul testifies that they “risked their necks for my life.” When shortly before his death he wrote his farewell letter to Timothy, he requested him to greet Priscilla and Aquila (2 Timothy 4:19), who had been driven from Rome. According to the Roman historian Suetonius, many Jews living there constantly caused disturbances. Therefore, emperor Claudius, who had been favourably inclined toward them, commanded them to leave Rome. Aquila and Priscilla fled at that point to Corinth, and there Paul foundthem when he was looking for work. According to the custom of the rabbis, in his youth he had learned a trade. He was a leatherworker and could make portable leather tents, saddles, belts, and the like. The equipment needed for this work could easily be taken along on his journeys. When it became evident that they were colleagues in the trade, and that Aquila could use a servant, Paul moved in with the couple and for those early weeks in Corinth, he earned his keep. “We labour, working with our own hands,” he wrote later, and he worked “day and night” (1 Corinthians 4:12; 1 Thessalonians 2:9). He never accepted from the Corinthians any “honorarium” (1 Corinthians 9:6-18; 2 Corinthians 11:7-12; 12:13-16).

Acts 18:4-5 Every Saturday, the work of tentmaking ceased. Aquila and Paul walked through the busy streets to the synagogue, the only place in this pagan city where the living God was invoked, and Scripture was read publicly. In addition to the Jews there were also the proselytes and the uncircumcised Greeks who worshipped the God of Israel. On the seat of honour sat Crispus, the synagogue ruler. He led the service, and after the Scripture readings and prayers he would invite someone to speak an edifying word (cf. Acts 13:15). So it happened that rabbi Saul from Tarsus was asked to address the gathering. Paul proclaimed the Good News that according to his centuries-old promises, Yahweh had graciously sent the Messiah. Jesus of Nazareth was the long-awaited Messiah-King of Israel. On subsequent Sabbaths, Crispus repeatedly gave Paul the pulpit, and thus for several weeks, the apostle attempted to persuade the Jews, the proselytes, and the Greeks that Jesus was the Messiah.

Paul’s delivery did not impress the Jewish intellectuals, who loved Greek eloquence and erudition. He admitted this later: “My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Corinthians 2:4). In that time, Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia. To Paul’s immense relief, they brought a good report about Thessalonica: “They are standing in the Lord and they long for you!” (cf. 1 Thessalonians 3:6). Thankful and joyful, he wrote back immediately his first letter to the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 3:1, 2, 6). About a half year later this was followed by his second letter. Both were written from Corinth.

Because Paul’s co-workers brought him a monetary gift (2 Corinthians 11:9; Philippians 4:14-15), he could leave his job and focus completely on preaching. He testified powerfully to the Jews that Jesus was the promised Messiah. He showed that Jesus’ life, resurrection, and ascension fit completely with the image of the Messiah that Moses and the Prophets had sketched. When he communicated his apostolic testimony about Jesus, some of the Jews hung on his every word, while others stared daggers at him. They expected the Messiah to be a powerful, national hero. They would never have expected someone as offensive as a King on a cross, the example of shame and impotence (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:22-23).

Gradually, opposition to the Word that Paul was proclaiming grew. It was clear: a portion of the Jewish synagogue in Corinth rejected Jesus as the Son of God, as Messiah-King, and as Saviour of the world. With this, one of the two limits was reached that God’s Word had appointed with respect to our duty to bear with the defects of a church: (1) People will flog you and expel you from the synagogue (Matthew 23:34; John 16:2). And (2) blasphemy of Jesus Christ and of God’s Word (Acts 18:6; 19:9). In the latter, Paul saw a Scriptural basis for separating from the synagogue. The Master had also commanded: “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs” (Matthew 7:6).

We may certainly not turn our back on a church of God. But where open enmity against God’s Word and his Son occurs, we may not stay any longer. So it happened that Paul severed every relationship with these Jews. He said to his opponents: “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles” (see also Acts 13:51; 20:26; cf. Nehemiah 5:13). Perhaps now they would become jealous and repent (cf. Romans 11:11). As those familiar with Scripture, they naturally heard Paul’s allusion to Ezekiel 3:17-19, which referred to the unique responsibility of both hearers and proclaimers of God’s Word. With an appeal to this, Paul testified that he was innocent with respect to their perishing. He had shown them the way unto salvation.

Titius Justus, one of the God-fearing Gentiles who worshipped with the Jews, owned a large house next door to the synagogue. He offered Paul the opportunity to continue preaching in his house. For Paul it was a blessed solution. An incidental advantage was that Gentiles would more easily enter someone’s home than a Jewish place of worship.

From that time on, in the building next door to the synagogue, those Jews and Greek gathered who had accepted Jesus as Messiah. When later Paul wrote his letters to these “separated” believers, he addressed them as “the church of God in Corinth” (1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 1:1). The next Sabbath, the split became painfully visible. Some Jews were walking down the street where the synagogue was located, and entered it, but others walked past the synagogue to attend the service in the home of Titius Justus.

Paul experienced constant sorrow about Israel’s unbelief, but he rejoiced when native Jews came to faith here in Corinth. Among them was Crispus, the former head of the synagogue who had been expelled along with his entire household. In his place, Sosthenes was appointed to the synagogue administration (18:17). Priscilla and Aquila also attended worship with the house church at the home of Justus.

Time and again, Corinthians who had heard Paul came to faith and were baptized. Heads of entire households, together with their children. As we see from 1 Corinthians, “the church of God in Corinth” consisted largely of converted Gentiles. For the rest, Paul himself had baptized only a few believers: Crispus, Gaius, and the family of Stephanas (1 Corinthians 1:14-17). In addition to them, we know several members of the church by name: Erastus, the administrator of city finances, and a certain Quartus (Romans 16:23). Also Tertius, who would later function as Paul’s secretary and write down the letter to the Romans (Romans 16:22); Chloe and her household, Fortunatus and Achaicus (1 Corinthians 1:11; 16:17). Their hearts burned with their first love, they all listened to the gospel of the Lord Jesus, who had come to save depraved sinners in Corinth as well.

Was Paul afraid, after that initial confrontation and break with the synagogue, that he would have to leave Corinth prematurely? After all the troubles he encountered in Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea, that would not be a surprise. At that point, the Lord Jesus Christ powerfully encouraged him in a night vision. Paul recognized him immediately (Cf. Acts 9:3-5; 22:17-18; 23:11). The Lord gave his three commands: stop being afraid, do not be silent, but continue speaking.

In addition, he received the promise that he would not receive one scratch: “For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city” (cf. John 10:16). The apostle was to see this promise abundantly fulfilled. Apart from Antioch in Syria, he had nowhere preached the gospel with such blessing as in Corinth. He remained in the port city for a year and a half and taught many the Word of God concerning the Saviour of the world. In Cenchrea as well, one of the suburbs, a church came into existence. Phoebe served it as a deaconess (Romans 16:1). Indeed, throughout the entire province of Achaia, people came to faith in the Lord Jesus.

Acts 18:12-17 The Jews still attempted to make preaching impossible for Paul. They were unwilling to acquiesce to the separation. They did not shy away from inciting the Roman government to declare the Christian church in Achaia to be unlawful. The opportunity appeared favourable. As we can infer from inscriptions, the emperor had just appointed a new proconsul in the province of Achaia, whose capital city was Corinth. He was Gallio, the oldest brother of Seneca, the famous Stoic philosopher and teacher of emperor Nero. This Gallio was known as a very charming person. Seneca had once written about him: “No mortal is more beloved to anyone than this man is to everyone.” Gallio had been in office only briefly when the Jews turned as one man against Paul. Probably under the guidance of Sosthenes, the new ruler of the synagogue, they brought the apostle before the judge.

Paul was standing once again before a Roman proconsul (cf. Acts 13:7). The people accused Paul of making propaganda for a religion prohibited by law. The Jewish religion was a “religio licita,” a religion recognized and protected by Roman law. But Paul, as a Jew, was proclaiming a religion that deviated from Judaism. With this new faith, however, he came into conflict with Jewish Law. (That they were referring not to Roman law, as in Philippi and Thessalonica, but to the Mosaic legislation, appears from Gallio’s response, v. 15).

They argued that because a new religion was involved here, one not acknowledged as a “religio licita,” Paul was acting in conflict with Roman law. So he could not appeal to Roman law for legal defence and protection. On the contrary, this man had to be punished. The church services that he was leading in the house of Titius Justus were illegal and for that reason ought to be prohibited. If Gallio were not to uphold Roman law in this case, this church would continue to disrupt and endanger the public order, both among the Jewish population as well as among all of Corinth. Gesticulating violently, the enraged Jews stood before the court. ‘How long would this have to continue? This disruption was the fault of that agitator. Wherever he has come with his new religion, he sows turmoil: in Antioch, in Lystra, in Philippi, in Thessalonica, and now in Corinth as well.’

Paul would undoubtedly have defended himself against this accusation just as he would later do before the governors Felix and Festus, and before king Agrippa. To them he testified that the gospel of Jesus Christ was not at all in conflict with the Law of Moses but was precisely its fulfillment (Acts 24:14; 25:8; 26:22-23). But Gallio apparently considered any self-defence by the apostle to be out of order, for he did not provide him opportunity for that. When Paul wanted to speak, the proconsul began speaking instead. As the ruler, he was called to curb the licentiousness of the people and to maintain public order. Before him were fanatics who for religious reasons were threatening to disturb the public order and attempting to enlist him in their own cause.

Gallio struck the proper posture immediately: disturbance of public order was not tolerated. This attitude was characteristic for the order-loving nature of the Roman regime. For this reason, the city secretary of Ephesus was afraid that a riot would occur (Acts 19:40). Emperor Claudius had expelled the Jews from Rome on account of riots connected with a certain ‘Chrestus.’ On the other hand, the tribune Claudius Lysias protected Paul later from a Jewish attempt to murder him (Acts 23:12-35). And Festus refused to hand him over to the Jews (Acts 25:1-5). In Corinth, Gallio was following the same line of response.

If the enraged Jewish people had accused Paul of a serious form of criminal behaviour, he would naturally have declared their accusation to be admissible. But Gallio saw through their zeal. They were not interested in any disturbance of civil legal order but were preoccupied with religious differences. Therefore, he declared the Jewish accusation inadmissible: “I know that you Jews are constantly arguing with each other about the interpretation of a word and terms in your own Law (cf. Matthew 23). As long as state security is not being endangered by this, I will not engage as judge in resolving your internal religious differences and hair-splitting. Resolve it yourselves!” If only every government after Gallio’s had followed his wise example! Then far less innocent Christian blood would have been shed.

Apparently, the Jews protested vehemently against this verdict and refused to leave the judge’s court. In so doing, they were openly resisting the Roman proconsul, and this made them liable to punishment. So Gallio commanded the bailiffs to clear the courtroom and to push the people out on the street. There the mass of people stood, who knew what the situation was at this point, for many Greeks had heard Paul (v. 8). Perhaps it was also known that Crispus had been deposed as the head of the synagogue and Sosthenes had taken his place. In short, the public knew who the real oppressors and agitators were. When they saw that the Jewish men were ejected, they turned on Sosthenes and beat him.

Gallio was certainly not supposed to allow such an illicit thrashing, but this time he closed his eyes to it. His verdict was apparently consistent with the sense of justice of his subjects. This time he was indifferent to the fact that the Jewish leader was beaten. This would have given even more reason to the Jews never to bother him again with such nonsense. If the Sosthenes who was beaten was the same person as the one mentioned in 1 Corinthians 1:1, then the synagogue leader later came to Christ.

In this way, the Lord fulfilled his promise that no one in Corinth would be able to harm Paul (v. 10). Nor did the church face any more impediments. The significance of Gallio’s pronouncement reached further, however, than Corinth. In fact, he had recognized Christianity as religio licita, a religion protected by law. In so doing, he simultaneously created an important precedent for the entire province of Achaia, which included a large part of the Greek mainland and the surrounding islands. When Paul’s opponents elsewhere would approach provincial governors with the same accusation, these judges would certainly look to the pronouncement of Gallio – at least during the decade of the 50s (Paul was in Corinth around AD 51). It was in the decade of the 60s that the attitude of the Roman government would change. But thanks to Gallio’s pronouncement, for a brief time the proclamation of the gospel could not be impeded by an appeal to Roman law. On the other hand, Christians in Corinth and Achaia were good citizens under Gallio. “Everyone must be subject to the government,” Paul had taught them (cf. Romans 13:1).

Questions:

Was Christianity really a new religion – or the fulfilment of the Old Testament?

How does Paul’s conduct guide us as Christians in an assertively (neo)pagan society?

– Alida Sewell