The Return To Antioch
THE RETURN TO ANTIOCH
ACTS 18:12-23
God does prepare some people to listen, while others reject what we have to say. Paul concentrated on those who wanted to hear.
Verses 12-17 give details of the kind of opposition which Paul met at Corinth (18:10), and his policy of setting up a rival center next door to the Jewish synagogue led, not unnaturally, to this “united attack” on him. He was hauled before the tribunal of Gallio, who was proconsul of Achaia in AD 51. In his capacity as local magistrate, Gallio heard the charge (18:13), but did not stay for the defendant’s reply (18:14). He just couldn’t be bothered, as verse 17 implies, even when a flagrant injustice was done before his eyes.
18:18-23. Paul’s itinerary took him from Corinth via Ephesus to Antioch, and then back to Galatia to re-visit the churches in that province. At Ephesus he parted company with Aquila and his wife (18:26; and in 1 Corinthians 16:19, written from Ephesus, he conveys a greeting from them to their friends at Corinth). The allusion to a vow (18:18) is interesting. Based on Numbers 6:1-21, the custom of taking a Nazirite vow was followed by a man before setting out on a dangerous journey. The traveler would vow not to cut his hair until the trip was completed; then he would shear his head at a ceremony of thanksgiving in the Jerusalem temple (21:23-24). It was Paul’s intention, once his hair was cut at Cenchreae, not to have it cut again until he reached Jerusalem in safety. Then the hair would be offered as a token of thankfulness for “journeying mercies.” Probably we may understand a visit to Jerusalem in the phrase “went up” (18:22). This is Luke’s ending of the second missionary tour, the final stage being told with breathless rapidity.
Notes 18:12: Gallio was the brother of the famous philosopher Seneca, who in turn was a tutor of Nero. 18:13: it is not certain what this accusation means; whose law is Paul supposedly contravening, Jewish or Roman? Gallio replies that on both counts Paul is no criminal, as far as he can see. He clears Paul of breaking a Roman law, and professes no interest in the domestic issue of Jewish affairs. 18:17: Sosthenes may be the same as in 1 Corinthians 1:1. If so, he too (like Crispus, 18:8) may have then been converted, and the Jews show their anger at losing two leaders to the Christian cause. But it may have been Greeks who gave Sosthenes a beating, taking advantage of Gallio’s unconcern (so the Western text). 18:22f.: “in these two verses and 19:1 is compressed a journey of 1,500 miles” (F.F. Bruce).