I Am With You

 

Chapter 18

Luke is picking up the pace of the story now. This short chapter squeezes an 18-month stay in Corinth into 17 verses. It seems to have been a pretty fruitful 18 months, full of Paul’s usual activities – and more.

We hear for the first time that Paul has a trade. In addition to being an evangelist, he is a tentmaker. How much time he has spent practicing this trade, we have no idea. Maybe it was something he did on a more regular basis before that Damascus Road experience (see Chapter 9). It is hard to imagine he was able to do much tentmaking while traveling around the world with the gospel.

But in Corinth, perhaps it was a matter of being in the right place at the right time. There he meets Aquila and Priscilla, who are in the tentmaking business. They are also Jews who were, Luke says, evicted from Rome. Other historical sources tell us that the emperor Claudius (41-54 CE) issued an edict banning at least some Jews from Rome in 49 CE. There was a disturbance in the community about the preaching on Christ.

As we can see from the book of Acts, there was quite a lot of tension between the Jews who did not believe Jesus to be the Messiah and those who did (we see it again in this chapter.) Perhaps there was the same kind of tension in Rome. The Roman authorities really didn’t like anybody causing disturbances – it messed with their ideal of the Pax Romana. It is likely that Aquila and Priscilla were Christian evangelists, since they were among the banished.

So, possibly because Paul found himself in their company, he took up his trade once more. Again, it is not at all clear that this is something he did everywhere he went, but perhaps it was important to him that he knew he could do it. In his letters, Paul sometimes mentions the concern he had about not being a burden on others. In writing to the Thessalonian church, he reminds them of how he “worked night and day” so as not to be a burden (1 Thessalonians 2:9). Often, he relied on the patronage of other Christians. Sometimes he may have relied on his tentmaking skills.

Incidentally, this is why you call a pastor who has another job that pays the bills a tentmaker.

It is worth noting that Paul came to Corinth directly from Athens, and that there would have been some significant differences between the two cities. While Athens was an academic center, full of intellectuals who loved nothing better than to argue about ideas all day, Corinth was a center of commerce. Athens was the Ivory Tower; Corinth the Chamber of Commerce.

Corinth was well-situated for trading – a seaport city on the isthmus connecting the Peloponnese to the mainland of Greece, it was full of diversity. At the time Corinth was a Roman colony with new settlers who came from elsewhere in the empire. Many of these were former slaves. The city had importance, politically, as the seat of the Roman proconsul. So, we can imagine there were places and times when all these groups clashed with one another. There are indications, from Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, that cultural norms surrounding social and economic status found their way into the life of the church, creating tension there.

The anecdote about Paul being brought before the proconsul, Gallio, is interesting. Gallio viewed this as an intra-religious dispute (between two sects of Judaism) in which he had no desire to intervene. The scene feels a bit like the wild west.

When Paul departs from Corinth and arrives in Ephesus we meet Apollos – who was apparently a man well-admired. Passionate, an excellent preacher, he lacked only one thing. He knew nothing about the baptism of Jesus – that is, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is, of course, an essential element of the gospel.

To summarize, Chapter 18 moves the story along, but without any big momentum. In it there are reminders for us that Christianity was still a movement of Judaism – evidenced by 1) the remarks about Claudius’ edict, 2) Gallio’s decision, and 3) Paul’s adherence to Jewish customs and laws. (He continues to spend time in the synagogues among the Jews; Luke’s mention of his vow (v. 18) is another indication of his obedience to the law.)

In addition, the chapter introduces some key players: Aquila and Priscilla, both of whom take leadership roles, teaching and evangelizing. And Apollos, a rising leader who will play an important role in Corinth. In a subtle way, the chapter suggests the issues that can arise when personality of leaders becomes important – the risk of becoming a personality cult.

Questions for Reflection:

·        That Paul practiced a trade and took his evangelism work outside the synagogue in Corinth, suggests that, in a way, he took the gospel to the workplace. This, some would argue, is the calling of every Christian: to take the good news out into the world. How does one take the gospel to work?

·        It seems that Apollos’ deficit was his lack of knowledge about the Holy Spirit. John taught a baptism of repentance, in preparation for the new age to come with Jesus Christ. The baptism Jesus ordained is a baptism in the Spirit. Imagine what might be missing if we had only a baptism of repentance. How would the teaching, beliefs, and life of the church be different?