Paul, leaving Athens, travels fifty-three miles south-southwest to Corinth. Corinth was politically and economically the main city of Achaia, for it was ideally situated on the three-and-a-half-mile-wide isthmus between the Peloponnesian peninsula and the Greek mainland. Cenchrea was its eastern port city on the Saronic Gulf leading to the Aegean, while Lechaeum was its western port city on the Gulf of Corinth leading to the Adriatic. Thus Corinth (population 200,000) was a key commercial center at the juncture of north-south land and east-west sea routes. Having risen from ruins a little more than a century earlier, when Julius Caesar constituted it a Roman colony (44 B.C.), the city was now dubbed "wealthy Corinth" and had served since 27 B.C. as the capital of the senatorial province of Achaia. The cosmopolitan mix of "local Greeks, freedmen from Italy, Roman army veterans, businessmen and government officials, Orientals, . . . including a large number of Jews," lived in a "rip-roaring town" where, as Horace put it, "none but the tough could survive" (Epistles 1.17.36; Longenecker 1981:480).

To such a city, with all its peril and promise, Paul comes alone (1 Cor 2:3). Given that by the year 2000, we are told, there will be five hundred "world-class" cities (one million-plus population) and twenty-three "megacities" (ten million-plus population), we must have the same strategic eyes Paul had in choosing to evangelize Corinth.

Paul experiences Christian companionship in a common trade when he finds (NIV met) Aquila ("eagle") and Priscilla ("ancient or venerated woman"; this form is a diminutive of Prisca; compare Acts 18:26; Rom 16:3; 1 Cor 16:19; 2 Tim 4:19). Luke introduces Aquila as a native of Pontus, an area of north-central Asia Minor, bordering on the Black Sea, which formed an administrative unit with Bithynia. Aquila and his wife have recently arrived from Rome, having been expelled with all the Jews by Claudius (A.D. 49). Suetonius tells why—"since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus" (Claudius 25.4). Writing seventy years after the event, Suetonius may have assumed "Chrestus" was simply a local troublemaker; however, the dispute in the Jewish community over Jesus Christus (the names would have been pronounced similarly) was the real issue. Through the Roman Jews' resistance to the gospel and an emperor's edict, God's sovereign care worked to bring Paul and this couple together.

Their common trade is "tentmaking," or better "leatherworking." Most tents in that day were constructed of leather, but the meaning of skenopoios was extended (as was the case with the English "saddler") to refer to an artisan who produced a variety of leather articles. While Jewish rabbis were bivocational so that they would not have to charge for their teaching (m. 'Abot 2:2), other traveling teachers in the Hellenistic world received remuneration for their lectures. In Greco-Roman culture the manual labor of the artisan class was despised.

Paul engaged in leatherworking to offer his gospel without charge and model a good work ethic (Acts 20:34-35; 1 Cor 4:12; 9:15, 18; 1 Thess 2:9; 2 Thess 3:8). He probably used his workshop as a place of witness, as some Greek philosophers used theirs as a teaching venue (Hock 1979). His departure from the workshop and exclusive devotion to preaching after Timothy and Silas's arrival from Macedonia probably shows that he did not view his leatherworking as essential to his evangelism strategy (18:5).

Today "tentmaker" missionaries enter "creative access" countries through secular employment when there is no way to enter as a full-time missionary. If they keep Paul's motives in mind, they will be able to see their bivocationalism as beneficial to the spiritual health of churches they plant. Not only will they model a work ethic that is essential to sanctification, but they will avoid creating wrongful dependency, for they will be offering the gospel of grace "free of charge."

When Timothy and Silas arrive from Macedonia, they likely bring Paul a monetary gift (2 Cor 11:9; Phil 4:15). Paul can now be exclusively devoted to ("engrossed or absorbed in") preaching (literally, "the word"; compare Acts 6:4). Bivocationalism may be a good pattern for evangelistic church planting, but for Luke it is not the best. To be free to be fully engrossed in evangelism is best. Paul's work now is to engage in an apologetic (reasoned . . . trying to persuade) and proclamation (testifying) that "the Messiah is Jesus" (so the word order in 18:4-5; compare 17:2-3).

The saints' practical protection now takes the form of a co-opted meeting place. The familiar pattern of the gospel's confrontation with Judaism—proclamation, division, rejection, separation, further advance—occurs here in rapid succession (see comment at 13:42). Jews "oppose and blaspheme" the gospel and the Lord Jesus Christ, who is at its center. In an acted parable, "shaking out his robes," Paul disassociates himself from the Jews for several reasons. He wants to be clear of the judgment that their blasphemy will incur. He wants them to know that their rejection of the message places them in the same position as Gentiles: facing judgment. He wants to declare his freedom from any further responsibility for their eternal destiny (Neh 5:13; Lk 9:5; 10:10-11; Acts 13:46, 51). Using Old Testament phraseology (2 Sam 1:16; compare Mt 27:24-25), Paul's declaration says as much. Their guilt and coming punishment are their own responsibility.

Through with his mission to the Jews here, though he will continue it elsewhere (see Acts 18:19), Paul will now focus on the Gentiles. His base of operations will be the house of God-fearer Titius Justus, next door. Again God has providentially protected his mission by giving it an ideal venue for harvesting Gentile God-fearers. That harvest is not long in coming: first Crispus, the synagogue ruler, holding that highly visible position of supervising sabbath services and maintaining order, and his entire household believed in the Lord (compare 16:15, 33). Then many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized.