Acts 18:13

Saying, This fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law. SAYING, THIS [FELLOW] (RATHER, 'THIS MAN') PERSUADETH MEN TO WORSHIP GOD CONTRARY TO THE LAW - meaning the Jewish law: "your law," as Gallio, correcting them, somewhat contemptuously calls it (). The charge probably refers to his not requiring his Gentile converts to be circumcised; and certainly it is a testimony to his success among them....

12-17 Paul was about to show that he did not teach men to worship God contrary to law; but the judge would not allow the Jews to complain to him of what was not within his office. It was right in Gallio that he left the Jews to themselves in matters relating to their religion, but yet would not let them, under pretence of that, persecute another. But it was wrong to speak slightly of a law and religion which he might have known to be of God, and which he ought to have acquainted himself with. In what way God is to be worshipped, whether Jesus be the Messiah, and whether the gospel be a Divine revelation, are not questions of words and names, they are questions of vast importance. Gallio spoke as if he boasted of his ignorance of the Scriptures, as if the law of God was beneath his notice. Gallio cared for none of these things. If he cared not for the affronts of bad men, it was commenda...

Verse Acts 18:13. _PERSUADED MEN TO WORSHIP GOD CONTRARY TO THE LAW._] This accusation was very insidious. The _Jews_ had permission by the Romans to worship their own God in their own way: this the _laws_ _allowed_. The _Roman_ worship was also _established_ by the _law_. The Jews probably intended to accuse Paul of acting contrary to _both_ laws. "He is not a Jew, for he does not admit of circumcision; he is not a Gentile, for he preaches against the worship of the gods. He is setting up a _worship of his own_, in opposition to _all laws_, and persuading many people to join with him: he is therefore a most dangerous man, and should be put to death....

CONTRARY TO THE LAW - Evidently intending contrary to all law - the laws of the Romans and of the Jews. It was permitted to the Jews to worship God according to their own views in Greece; but they could easily pretend that Paul had departed from that mode of worshipping God. It was easy for them to maintain that he taught contrary to the laws of the Romans and their acknowledged religion; and their design seems to have been to accuse him of teaching people to worship God in an unlawful and irregular way, a way unknown to any of the laws of the empire....

EXPOSITION ACTS 18:1 _He _for _Paul, _A.V. and T.R. AFTER THESE THINGS, etc. No hint is given by St. Luke as to the length of Paul's sojourn at Athens. But as the double journey of the Beroeans, who accompanied him to Athens, back to Beraea, and of Timothy from Beraea to Athens, amounted to above five hundred miles, we cannot suppose it to have been less than a month; and it may have been a good deal more. His reasonings in the synagogue with the Jews and devout Greeks, apparently on successive sabbaths, his daily disputations in the Agora, apparently not begun till after he had "waited" some time for Silas and Timothy, the knowledge he had acquired of the numerous temples and altars at Athens, and the phrase with which this chapter begins, all indicate a stay of some length. CAME TO CORINTH. If by land, a forty

SAYING, THIS FELLOW PERSUADETH MEN TO WORSHIP GOD CONTRARY TO THE LAW. Meaning either to the law of the Romans, which forbad the bringing in of any new gods, without the leave of the senate; Acts 16:21; or rather to the law of Moses: the Arabic version reads, "our law"; though this was false, for Moses in his law wrote of Christ, and ordered the children of Israel to hearken to him....

Paul had been preaching the gospel at Athens to the most famous men of that city gathered at Areopagus. Acts 18:1. _After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth:_ Another most important city of Greece, where he struck at the very center of the country by preaching the gospel, since these were the centers of commerce, and also of literature. Acts 18:2. _And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came unto them._ Lodged with them. Acts 18:3. And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their

CHAPTER 18 _ 1. In Corinth with Aquila and Priscilla. His Testimony and Separation from the Jews (Acts 18:1)._ 2. Encouragement from the Lord in a vision (Acts 18:9). 3. Paul and Gallio (Acts 18:12). 4. From Corinth to Ephesus and Antioch. The second journey ended (Acts 18:18). 5. Establishing disciples in Galatia and Phrygia (Acts 18:23). 6. Apollos, the Alexandrian (Acts 18:24). Aquila and Priscilla are mentioned here for the first time.

GALLIO AND PAUL. Gallio's proconsulship is fixed by an inscription at Delphi which came to light in 1905; and gives an absolute date in Pauline chronology (p. 655). He had not been proconsul when Paul came to Corinth (Acts 18:12); his arrival in Achaia is found to have been after midsummer (A.D. 51), while Paul came there early in 50. Gallio was the brother of the philosopher Seneca, who describes him as sweet (_dulcis),_ and was a man of the highest culture. After his arrival the Jews brought Paul before him on the same charge as that made at Philippi (Acts 16:21) and at Thessalonica (Acts 17:7), that he preached an illegal religion. Gallio at once decides that as no punishable act is alleged, he will not enter on discussion as to

PREACHING IN CORINTH (Acts 18:1-11) Its very position made Corinth (G2882) a key city of Greece. Greece is almost cut in two by the sea. On one side is the Saronic Gulf with its port of Cenchrea and on the other is the Corinthian Gulf with its port of Lechaeum. Between the two there is a neck of land less than five miles across and on that isthmus stood Corinth. All north and south traffic in Greece had to pass through Corinth because there was no other way, Men called her "The Bridge of Greece." But the voyage round the southern extremity of Greece was a voyage of great peril. The southernmost cape was Cape Malea and to round it was the equivalent of rounding Cape Horn. The Greeks had a proverb, "Let him who thinks of sailing round Malea make his will." Consequently the east to west trade of the Mediterranean also passed through Corinth, for men