Chapter 18
Paul leaves Athens after being mocked as to the resurrection of the dead in Chapter 17. The Chronological Bible puts both 1 and 2 Thessalonians into the gap between Acts 17 and 18 also. Per the MSB outline, these events occur during Paul's second missionary journey. Re-looking at the map (shown in the entry for Acts 13, 14), Paul's second journey went in a clockwise manner. He had been to Thessalonica in Acts 17, and then went on to Berea and then to Athens. So what the Chronological Bible is implying is that Paul wrote back to those he'd left in Thessalonica from Athens. Acts is unclear about just how long Paul was in Athens, but he waited there for Timothy and Silas for more than just a few days it seems. But in Thessalonians, it says that Paul was so anxious to get back to them that he'd sent Timothy in his place, and Timothy had been and come back before Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians. I don't see how you can fit this all in between Acts 17 and 18...So I'm going to disagree with the Chronological Bible that Paul wrote them from Athens. MSB says the letter to the Thessalonians - the first anyway, was written from Corinth - where Paul goes from Athens, and I believe stays for an extended time. So maybe the chronological put it in before the place it was written instead of after. That makes fine sense, and is something to keep an eye out for in the future.
Is the point that they weren't worth the time it would have taken to undo this? That the whole culture was like this, and there were other places more receptive? Or was Paul just anxious to get back with his friends?
Paul goes to Corinth and meets Aquila and Priscilla. Jews who live there. It says they were in Corinth because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. Not Christians...Jews. So they were being persecuted also at this time.
Since they are tent makers, as Paul is, he moves in with them and works there to support himself, while teaching to both Jews and Greeks in the synagogue each Sunday. So he was sort of a "bi-vocational pastor" during this time. He worked, he studied, and on Sunday he preached. Isn't it interesting that Paul preached to religious people, not to street rabble, not in the civil gathering places like the Areopagus. There was little return on those places. Preaching to those who already believed was a big deal. There were places without synagogues where he preached at the river bank and such, so it wasn't that he wouldn't do that, it was seemingly about how many he could reach, and about how far "out of touch" they were coming from.
2021 - This is still an interesting thought - that he preached to the Jews and not to the rabble - but it occurs to me that these "religious people" often ran him out of town, accused him of crimes, and once, stoned him nearly (or completely) to death. The street rabble gets incited to riot by the religious. So...still an interesting thing to think about.
Silas and Timothy catch up with Paul in Corinth. They never got to Athens, but Paul seems to have gotten word to them that he's gone on to Corinth...of course, they might have passed through Athens on the way to Corinth if they walked. But they may have sailed. We don't know. Paul works hard in the synagogues, but they reject him, and there is this verse:
6 And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles." [Act 18:6 ESV]
I guess all that about teaching to the religious didn't work out at all in Corinth. However, the part about going to those more likely to be receptive still holds. I believe this is the second time Paul has done this. There was another place, on the first journey I believe, where Paul left off preaching to the Jews and went to the Gentiles. Where was that? It was Antioch of Pisidia. And in the next town, Paul went straight to the synagogue and again preached to the Jews. BUT, when they are un-receptive, he has no qualms about talking to Gentiles also. To the Jew first....
God tells Paul in a dream to stay in Corinth for a while. He is there a year and a half, preaching and teaching. Here are the verses:
9 And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, "Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, 10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people." 11 And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. [Act 18:9-11 ESV]
How interesting is this? God has "many" in this city. And we know from Paul's two letters back to them later that they were about as messed up a church as you could be with their error filled ideas about Spiritual gifts. Yet these were God's people, and he protected Paul and his friends from any Jewish retaliation here for 18 months to establish and ground this city in Christianity. And yet...they were so messed up...what happened to them after those two letters I wonder? So much time was invested here...
The Jews unite against Paul, and try to have him condemned by the Roman Pro-consul, Gallio. This is also how they tried to get rid of Jesus - by charging him with civil crimes. Gallio sees through it, knows it is about a religious disagreement, and runs them out of the tribunal. In their rage, they beat Sosthenes right there in the tribunal chambers, and the Romans do nothing about it. They tolerate violence if it is motivated by religion. As we do today. If it is about race it is a hate crime. But about religion?
After some more time, Paul sets off for Syria, and takes Priscilla and Aquila with him. They stop in Ephesus, and Paul returns to the Synagogue to reason with the Jews. So apparently vs 6 above applied only to Corinthian Jews? (2021 - I have seen the overall pattern now. Paul always went to the Jews first in a new place, no matter what had happened in the last place.)
We have a pretty short paragraph of Paul's travels from Corinth to Ephesus to Ceasarea and then to Antioch in Syria. Basically, he "hurries" back to Antioch. We aren't told much that happens, other than he promised those at Ephesus that we would return if he could. It seems to me, from reading. that he isn't in Antioch very long before he is on the road again with his third journey "strengthening all the disciples". This is a reprise journey it seems, going back the way he'd been before, dealing with problems, setting things right, and so on. He follows the same route as he did on the second journey until he gets to Antioch Pisidia, and then he cuts across straight to Ephesus, making good on his promise at the first real opportunity to do so.
(2021 - Looking at this map of his journeys, it seems he visited Thessalonica three times. He went on the second journey, then on the third he went through there to Athens (all by land) and then returned through there, also by land, and so with all those cities at the north end of the Aegean. Philippi and Berea were also visited three times each. Paul bypasses Athens entirely on this third journey.)
We are introduced to Apollos, a powerful speaker, eloquent, and competent in the scriptures. He refutes the arguments of many Jews in Achaia (the southern "island" of Greece, across the channel.) when they will not accept that Jesus was the Messiah. It says that Apollos knew only the Baptism of John. He was also Jewish. So should we think that when we first meet Apollos, he was unsaved, unbaptized in the Holy Spirit? MacA's book on gifts says this was the case with those in Acts 19 when some were asked if they'd been baptized in the Holy Spirit. They said only into John's baptism, and they got baptized again. So if that is going to be the case in Acts 19, shouldn't it also apply to Apollos? We are not told that Apollos got another baptism, not told he "became a true Christian" under the tutelage of Aquila and Priscilla...none of these things. So...we could make the argument that MacA's whole assessment of Acts 19 is wrong because Acts 18 doesn't handle this very situation the same way. Makes no big deal of it at all. And in this verse: 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. [Act 18:25 ESV] Ahh. Here is the answer. Apollos understood that Jesus was the Christ, which is fundamental to salvation. Those in 19 clearly had not connected that the Messiah had come, and that it was Jesus. That's how this is explained.
I would also point out that Apollos is a non-apostle missionary. He is an evangelist then, using the "gift" terms.
2025 - And here is one more thing. Alexandria is in Egypt, and at this very early time in the very first century, Christianity had already spread to that area. It had been preached, it had been learned, and based on what we're told here about Apollos, understanding of the detail, of the depths of the Word, had been expanded. Christianity did not spread to Africa by the white guys in the 12th Century. It had been there a thousand years before they brought it.