Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Tuesday September 23, 2014 

Acts18:12-28

Today’s reading drops us abruptly into the middle of a long account of Paul’s travels around the eastern Mediterranean, as he preaches and teaches the Gospel of Christ in places that have never before heard it.  To make sense of the reading, we need some background.

The earlier part of Paul’s missionary story (Acts 13:1 – 16:8) is in towns and cities of areas now in Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and Cyprus.  When he and his companions were in Troas (the main seaport in what is now northwest Turkey), Paul had a vision that God wanted them to cross the Bosporus into what is now Greece, where the missionary work continues, sometimes received warmly but more often rejected, even with violence.

Philippi was the first town Paul and his companions stayed in.  (It is about 10km inland from present-day Kavala, Greece, right at the top end of the Aegean Sea.)  Wherever Paul went, his custom was to worship every Sabbath with his fellow Jews in the local synagogue and to talk about Jesus at every opportunity.  But Philippi was a Roman Imperial city with little Jewish presence and no synagogue.  Even so, on the Sabbath the missionaries found a small group of women praying down by the river, and these women gave them a warm welcome.  One, a wealthy merchant named Lydia, became a Christian believer and a generous sponsor of Paul’s work.  But Philippi was a very pagan place, and conflicts soon arose.  You know the story (Acts 16:16-40) of how Paul and Silas, badly beaten by the city authorities, were praying and singing in the town jail when God delivered them with an earthquake, and their jailor and his household were converted and baptized.  But the missionaries, injured as they were, were still forced to leave town.

The next city they stayed in was Thessalonica (at the northwest corner of the Aegean Sea), where (Acts 17:1-9) there was a Jewish synagogue, and Paul proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah.  A few of the Jews were converted, along with many Greeks, but some of the Jews recruited a mob and dragged the believers into court.  Paul and his companions had to get out of town that very night.  They went to Beroea (about 50km west), where (Acts 17:10-15) the people in the Jewish synagogue were more receptive and learned a great deal before Jews from Thessalonica came and stirred up the town against the missionaries.  Again, they had to leave in a hurry.

After this, the believers took Paul to Athens (about 350km south), where he, apparently alone, was to wait for his companions to rejoin him.  Athens (Acts 17:16-34) was an intellectual place but overwhelmingly pagan (rather like a university town), with philosophers of all sorts, some of whom enjoyed talking with Paul, as with anyone who brought strange new ideas that seemed interesting.  Paul began presenting Jesus not only in the synagogue (as usual) but in the marketplace, talking with anyone who was interested.  Before long, some of the more prominent intellectuals noticed him, and he was invited to come to the erudite circle of people who gathered at the Aeropagus (a hill opposite the Acropolis, centre of pagan worship).  Paul was invited to deliver a lecture to the philosophical assembly, many of whom were rather interested, and a few became believers.  Others, however, full of doubts and questions, derided Paul when he spoke about the resurrection of the dead.

Thus Paul left Athens and went on to Corinth (about 70km west), a commercial city with people from all over the Roman Empire.   That’s where today’s part of the story begins.  Please read all of Acts 18 to get a better idea of what happens.

I wonder if Paul may have been rather discouraged by the time he reached Corinth.  Yes, he had had some success and some converts in all the cities he had visited, but he had had much rejection too, violent rejection by the Romans in Philippi, hateful rejection by the Jews of Thessalonica, and more subtle intellectual rejection by the elite of Athens.  Paul was not only a Jewish scholar, but he was well educated in Hellenistic culture and familiar with the classic Greek literature.  Surely he must have known about Athens all his life; finally he had opportunity to be there and meet people who were his intellectual equals; perhaps he secretly hoped the Gospel would be accepted and he could settle into that attractive community.   But it was not to be.

Corinth was a very different city than Athens, and Paul was very much alone, as his missionary companions had not yet rejoined him.  Perhaps those first, isolated days in Corinth were some of the times of great difficulty of which Paul speaks in his epistles (for example, 1 Cor. 4:9-13).  But God does not leave his own people in despair, those who have given up everything to follow Christ.  God is faithful.  God provides a way, often unexpected, and usually through other people.  

That’s what happened for Paul.  He met (at synagogue?) a man named Aquila, a fellow Jew who had the same trade (a tentmaker) that Paul had practiced before he became a full-time missionary.  Aquila too, with his wife Priscilla, had just been through a major crisis:  The emperor Claudius Caesar had expelled all the Jews from Rome, and Aquila and Priscilla had to flee from Rome for their lives, leaving behind all their property, and ending up in Corinth.  Now, refugees, they were just starting to get back on their feet, and they welcomed Paul to stay with them and work together at their trade.  So Paul was again a tentmaker, but one who talked about Jesus every Sabbath at synagogue.  Priscilla, Aquila, and Paul became close, lifelong friends who were soon working together for the Gospel as well as in tentmaking.  

I wonder, too, if Priscilla may not have contributed to Paul’s teaching, especially in the ways in which Paul opens doors to women and women’s leadership, something foreign to his Jewish background.  Although in Acts 18:2 the author names Aquila first, as was customary, most of the following references (starting with verse 18) name Priscilla first.  Perhaps she took more of the spiritual leadership than her husband, and she was an influence for good in the Pauline churches and for Paul himself.  That’s conjecture, not something we can know.

There’s a point of culture, easy to overlook, showing how Paul was not only consoled by Priscilla and Aquila but was brought to greater humility at this time.  In the Hellenistic world, it was commonplace for wandering philosophers (like Paul) to give some lectures, answer questions, and go their way.  The most prestigious of these philosophers had private sponsors, wealthy patrons who would pay their expenses, giving the philosophers some independence.  Paul had been in this privileged position with Lydia, who sponsored him in Philippi and perhaps afterwards.  Many wandering philosophers, however, had no patron and solicited their audiences for donations.  The lowest class of wandering philosophers couldn’t raise money that way and had to do unrelated work to make their own living; they didn’t get much respect.  It was this lowest class that Paul now joined as a tentmaker.  So he learned humility.

Our account in Acts 18:5-17 picks out only a few incidents in the extended time (at least a year and a half) Paul spent in Corinth.  As usual, he started in the synagogue, but again he had to leave when he was opposed and reviled.  This time, however, he only went next door and held church in the home of a Gentile believer.  The ruler of the synagogue, too, became a believer, and Paul baptized him (1 Cor. 1:14).  Even after Paul left synagogue, some of the Jews were so opposed that they dragged him before the Roman magistrate, who had the good sense not to interfere in other people’s religion, and who therefore refused to hear the Jews’ complaint that Paul was teaching new doctrines.

In verses 18-19 we learn that Paul finally left Corinth after an extended time, taking Priscilla and Aquila with him.  They stayed in Ephesus while Paul went on all the way to Jerusalem before returning to the churches in Asia Minor, where he seems to be well received.  Paul eventually returned to Ephesus for a prolonged stay.

Our event-packed reading for today concludes with one more incident (verses 24-28) after Paul has left Ephesus.  Apollos, a Jew from Alexandria (in North Africa), came to Ephesus.  He was an eloquent, educated speaker, knowledgeable in the Scriptures, who knew something of the Way of Jesus.  Priscilla and Aquila took him aside and taught him more fully about the Way.  Eventually, he decided to go to Achaia, to Corinth, where he greatly helped the church and disputed with the Jews.  Thus God provided new leadership in Corinth to help the church continue its growth from where Paul had left off.  Paul and Apollos later met, became respected colleagues, and worked together to advance the Gospel.

The Scriptures are written for our instruction, and the stories of Paul, of Priscilla and Aquila, and of Apollos are written as examples for us, especially so we can learn from their attitudes and experiences.  Some people are more forward, like Paul, the pioneer.  Some have a more individualized ministry, like Priscilla, who helped others to cope with problems and to grow in the Lord.  Some, like Apollos, have a ministry that builds on the pioneering work of others and helps God’s people grow in faith and knowledge.  God accepts and uses all kinds of people, each in our own way, but always calling us to be faithful and devoted to Christ at all times and in every situation.  With God’s grace and strength, may we fulfill our call.

If you would like to learn more about the social setting in Corinth, two books I recommend are:

A Week in the Life of Corinth by Ben Witherington III (an eminent New Testament scholar), IVP Academic, 2012, 158 pages.  This short and engaging novella says a lot about what Corinth was like.  Paulos, Priscilla, and Aquila all make appearances, along with others, not from the Bible.

The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul by Wayne A. Meeks, Yale University Press, 1983, 299 pages.  This is the classic, scholarly introduction to its subject, very well written, accessible, and easy to read.

- Robert Kruse