Acts 18:17

Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. And Gallio cared for none of those things. THEN ALL [THE GREEKS]. The bracketed words, though they are in a majority of manuscript, are lacking in the three oldest manuscripts ['Aleph (') A B], and in the Vulgate version; and the probability is, that this being the obvious sense of the statement, the words were inserted as a marginal gloss, and afterward found entrance into the text. (Lachmann, Tischendorf, and Tregelles exclude them.) The parties who made the assault could be no other than Greeks, whose admission, uncircumcised, into the fellowship of believing Jews had enraged the unbelieving party of them and occasioned the prosecution. TOOK SOSTHENES, THE CHIEF RULER OF THE SYNAGOGUE - who probably succeeded Crispus on his conversion to the Christian Faith, th...

− 17._All the Grecians having taken Sosthenes. _This is that Sosthenes whom Paul doth honorably couple with himself as his companion in the beginning of the former Epistle to the Corinthians. And though there be no mention made of him before among the faithful, yet it is to be thought that he was then one of Paul’s companions and advocates. And what fury did enforce the Grecians to run headlong upon him, save only because it is allotted to all the children of God to have the world set against them, and offended with them and their cause, though unknown? Wherefore, there is no cause why such unjust dealing should trouble us at this day when we see the miserable Church oppugned on every side. Moreover, the frowardness of man’s nature is depainted out unto us as in a table, [picture.] Admit we grant that the Jews were hated everywhere for good causes, yet why are the Grecians rather displea...

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 18:17. _THEN ALL THE GREEKS TOOK SOSTHENES_] As this man is termed the chief ruler of the synagogue, it is probable that he had lately succeeded Crispus in that office; see Acts 18:8; and that he was known either to have embraced Christianity, or to have favoured the cause of St. Paul. He is supposed to be the same person whom St. Paul associates with himself in the first epistle to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 1:1. Crispus might have been removed from his presidency in the synagogue as soon as the Jews found he had embraced Christianity, and Sosthenes appointed in his place. And, as he seems to have speedily embraced the same doctrine, the Jews would be the more enraged, and their malice be directed strong...

THEN ALL THE GREEKS - The Greeks who had witnessed the persecution of Paul by the Jews, and who had seen the tumult which they had excited. TOOK SOSTHENES ... - As he was the chief ruler of the synagogue, he had probably been a leader in the opposition to Paul, and in the prosecution. Indignant at the Jews; at their bringing such questions before the tribunal; at their bigotry, and rage, and contentious spirit, they probably fell upon him in a tumultuous and disorderly manner as he was leaving the tribunal. The Greeks would feel no small measure of indignation at these disturbers of the public peace, and they took this opportunity to express their rage. AND BEAT HIM - ἔτυπτον etupton. This word is not what is commonly used to denote a judicial act of scourging. It probably means that they fell upon him a

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

THEN ALL THE GREEKS TOOK SOSTHENES,.... These were not the Greeks or Gentiles that were devout persons, or converted to Christianity, and were on the side of Paul, and fell foul on Sosthenes, as being his chief accuser; for this is not agreeably to the spirit and character of such persons, but the profane and unconverted Greeks, who observing that Gallio sent the Jews away, with some resentment and contempt, were encouraged to fall upon the principal of them, and use him in a very ill manner; it is very likely that this person was afterwards converted, and is the same that is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 1:1. The name is Greek, and there is one of this name mentioned among the executors of Plato's will w. This man was now CHIEF RULER OF THE SYNAGOGUE; chosen in, very likely, upon Crispus becoming a Christian, and being baptized: and beat him before t

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

CARED FOR Contrast (John 19:13); (Acts 24:26); (Acts 24:27)....

ACTS 18:17 pa,ntej {B} In order to identify the “all” who seized and beat Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, the Western and later ecclesiastical texts (and hence the AV) add the identifying words, “the Greeks,” i.e. the Gentile community. Several minuscule manuscripts read “all the Jews,” which is much more unlikely to represent the real situation. At the close of the verse the Latin text of codex Bezae reads _tunc Gallio fingebat eum non videre_ (“Then Gallic pretended not to see him”). The line in the Greek text of codex Bezae after bh,matoj is erased and nothing is now legible, but it is fair to assume that it corresponded to the Latin; Clark reconstructs to,te o` Galli,wn prosepoiei/to mh. ivdei/n....