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Chapter 18

Paul in Corinth. After this he left Athens and went to Corinth. There he met a Jew named Aquila,(A) a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla[a] because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. He went to visit them and, because he practiced the same trade, stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. Every sabbath, he entered into discussions in the synagogue, attempting to convince both Jews and Greeks.

When Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began to occupy himself totally with preaching the word, testifying to the Jews that the Messiah was Jesus. When they opposed him and reviled him, he shook out his garments[b] and said to them, “Your blood be on your heads! I am clear of responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”(B) So he left there and went to a house belonging to a man named Titus Justus, a worshiper of God;[c] his house was next to a synagogue.(C) Crispus,[d] the synagogue official,(D) came to believe in the Lord along with his entire household, and many of the Corinthians who heard believed and were baptized. (E)One night in a vision the Lord said to Paul, “Do not be afraid. Go on speaking, and do not be silent, 10 for I am with you. No one will attack and harm you, for I have many people in this city.” 11 He settled there for a year and a half and taught the word of God among them.

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Footnotes

  1. 18:2 Aquila…Priscilla: both may already have been Christians at the time of their arrival in Corinth (see Acts 18:26). According to 1 Cor 16:19, their home became a meeting place for Christians. Claudius: the Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome ca. A.D. 49. The Roman historian Suetonius gives as reason for the expulsion disturbances among the Jews “at the instigation of Chrestos,” probably meaning disputes about the messiahship of Jesus.
  2. 18:6 Shook out his garments: a gesture indicating Paul’s repudiation of his mission to the Jews there; cf. Acts 28:17–31.
  3. 18:7 A worshiper of God: see note on Acts 8:26–40.
  4. 18:8 Crispus: in 1 Cor 1:14 Paul mentions that Crispus was one of the few he himself baptized at Corinth.