And after these things, having left Athens, he came to Corinth;
Paul leaves the lecture halls of Athens, where his preaching drew sneers, and heads for Corinth, a rich port with a foul moral name. Why did he move on, and why did the best harvest come in the least likely place?
One writer sees Paul's exit as part of a pattern that runs through Scripture.
It does seem in Scripture that when unbelief rises to the height of mockery, the testimony stops — see Jeremiah 15:17; Acts 13:41; and Acts 17:32 with Acts 18:1.
Athens gave little fruit. One writer ties that small result to the kind of people God chooses.
There was little fruit in this gifted but frivolous city. For God has chosen the foolish, the weak, and the despised things of the world, to bring to nothing the things that are. The wisdom of this world is foolishness before God, and the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. The apostle continues his journey to the other important Greek centre, Corinth. It was a commercial city in a superb setting, but deeply corrupt. Even at this time wealth was everywhere, and the city had become a byword for luxury and loose living.
The sixty-mile walk took Paul into a different world. The city's name had even become a verb for moral ruin.
Corinth lay about sixty miles away. The change was great. Athens was a beautiful city, with striking buildings, philosophies and learning. Corinth was the big bustling commercial capital of those parts. The city had a name for open vice. People said that many a country youth drawn into that city was Corinthianised.
The two cities were famous for opposite things, and Paul traded one reputation for the other.
He left what had been the great seat of learning to work in the centre of vice. Athens was famous for its philosophers. Corinth had a bad name for immorality, tied above all to its temple of Venus.
By any human reckoning, Corinth was the wrong place to build. That is the point.
The ways of grace are wholly above man's thoughts. No one could have expected that God would raise a monument to His Son, not in intellectual Athens, but in demoralised Corinth. Was there any prior link, or any natural fit at all, between the Holy One of God and this notorious seat of impurity? The grace of God gives no account of its dealings, but works to the glory of Christ — and most of all where man is most needy. The wisdom of this age had proved its folly in Athens. The compassion of God yearned over Corinth, in the face of all its loose living and corruption.
What looked like a step down was the place of the greatest yield.
In the deeply self-indulgent state of Corinth the gospel, strange to say, was to take a great and effective hold on part of the people. Not so at Athens. There the souls were few, and the work weak by comparison. But in Corinth, known as the most corrupt of Greek cities, how unexpected yet how good the ways of the Lord!
Paul knew the city he had walked into, and he settled his method before he opened his mouth.
The apostle came into that city led by the Holy Spirit, and he knew the character of the people. From the very start, guided by God, he had decided the spirit in which he would work there. He took care to avoid anything that would have pleased the natural man and so drawn people to hear him.
His support came from Philippi, not from Corinth.
In the middle of this luxury the ambassador of God appears as a poor working man of the world. From his letters we know that he refused to take anything from the wealthy Corinthians. Yet he received with joy the gift sent as the fruit of their love by the simple believers of Philippi.
- Move on. When unbelief hardens into mockery, as at Athens, the testimony stops. Paul left.
- Move down. He exchanged the seat of learning for the centre of vice, a city whose name had become a byword for corruption.
- Grace chooses. Nothing in Corinth fitted the Holy One of God. Grace gives no account of itself, and works most where need is greatest.
- Grace yields. The most corrupt city gave the gospel its strong hold. Cultured Athens gave a weak work.
- Grace shapes the worker. Paul settled his method in advance. He avoided whatever would flatter the natural man, took no money from the wealthy, and lived among them as a poor working man.
and finding a certain Jew by name Aquila, of Pontus by race, just come from Italy, and Priscilla his wife, (because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome,) came to them,
Paul arrives in Corinth alone and meets a Jewish couple just driven out of Rome by an imperial order. Luke records the plain facts, and behind them sits a question: what was God doing through a hostile decree?
Paul had just left Athens, the city of philosophers, for a city known for its immorality. One writer sees in this the way God chooses His ground:
The ways of grace are far above human thinking. No one could have guessed that God would raise a monument to His Son, not in intellectual Athens, but in corrupt Corinth. Was there any earlier link, or any natural fitness at all, between the Holy One of God and this famous seat of impurity? The grace of God gives no account of what it does. It works for the glory of Christ, and most of all where man is neediest.
The couple were in Corinth for political reasons. An emperor had driven the Jews out of Rome, and one Roman writer records the same expulsion:
Suetonius, who wrote the lives of the Caesars, states that Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome because of a Jewish disturbance, "at the instigation of Chrestus". The Latin words quoted are probably a mistake on his part. They may point to violence by unbelieving Jews against those who believed. Or they may be a confusion, caused by Roman suspicion, with the preaching of the Messiah elsewhere.
Kelly also answers those who say Luke got the history wrong:
... Some have supposed that Dio Cassius contradicts Luke, and Suetonius as well, when he says the emperor did not expel the Jews but ordered them not to gather in Rome. If we distinguish the times, all is clear and true.
The edict was an act of hostility, but it delivered two lifelong friends and helpers to Paul's door. One writer follows what came of it:
The harsh decree of Claudius worked to throw them across Paul's path, and this led to their conversion and then their later service, which earned the high praise of Romans 16:3-4. God overruled the decree of expulsion for good, making the wrath of man to praise Him.
It met a personal need too. Paul had come to Corinth without his companions:
Soon after his arrival he unexpectedly found two friends and fellow workers in Aquila and his wife Priscilla. The Lord used the banishment of Aquila and Priscilla to provide lodging for His lonely servant. They were of his own country — of his own trade — of his own heart and spirit.
Luke introduces Aquila as a Jew, not as a disciple. Older translations read "a certain Jew." Commentators differ on what the wording implies:
Many make much of Aquila being called "a certain Jew" rather than a disciple. But the wording is easy to explain. It marks where he was born, and it gives the reason he left Rome for Corinth. Remember too that in those early days Romans and foreigners did not tell Christian Jews apart from other Jews by natural descent. So Paul more than once calls himself a Jew later in this book. The apostle never speaks of them as his children in the faith, however warmly he may greet them.
Another writer leaves the question open but fixes the outcome:
There is no indication of whether they were Christians at that time... At least they were certainly Christians before Paul left Corinth.
Paul and Aquila shared a trade. Years later Paul greets the couple in his letter to Rome:
Here the apostle marks them out as his fellow workers in Christ Jesus. He does this with all the more care, because Aquila and he had worked at the same trade of tent-making. But the everyday trade drops out of sight, however right it is to note it in its own place... The trade of tent-maker, if carried on at Rome, would give him a large room where quite a few could gather.
Their story does not end in Corinth. It runs to the last letter Paul wrote:
A converted Jew of Pontus, husband of Priscilla, whom Paul first met at Corinth... They travelled with Paul to Ephesus, where they were able to help Apollos spiritually... they were at Rome when Paul wrote his letter to the saints there. In it he said they had laid down their necks for his life, and that all the churches, along with him, gave thanks to them. In Paul's last letter he still sends his greeting to them.
- Decree — Claudius banished the Jews from Rome. A Roman writer records the same expulsion, perhaps linked to disputes over the Messiah.
- Displacement — the edict uprooted Aquila and Priscilla from Italy. It set them down in the very city where Paul, travelling alone, was about to arrive.
- Dwelling — a shared trade gave Paul lodging and work, and later gave believers a large room to gather in.
- Devotion — commentators differ on whether the couple were already converted. They certainly were before Paul left Corinth. Later they helped Apollos and risked their lives for Paul.
- Design — grace chose corrupt Corinth over clever Athens. It used a hostile emperor's order to build a friendship that served churches across the Gentile world.
and because they were of the same trade abode with them, and wrought. For they were tent-makers by trade.
Paul reached Corinth alone, and the first thing recorded of him there is not a sermon but a workbench. Why does the leading missionary of the early church stitch tent cloth, and who should pay for the work of God?
Aquila and Priscilla were in Corinth only because Rome had expelled them. That expulsion put a roof over Paul's head.
Soon after he arrived, he unexpectedly found two friends and fellow workers in Aquila and his wife Priscilla. At this time there must have been more Jews in Corinth than usual, "because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome." So the Lord used the banishment of Aquila and Priscilla to provide a lodging for His lonely servant. They were of his own country — of his own trade — of his own heart and spirit.
Paul's skill with cloth was no accident. It came from a rule Jewish fathers followed, and it gave him something he wanted at Corinth.
It was a custom among the Jews that all boys should learn a trade. "What is commanded of a father towards his son?" asks a Talmudic writer. "To circumcise him, to teach him the law, to teach him a trade." Another Rabbi wrote, "He that does not teach his son a trade does the same as if he taught him to be a thief." In line with these sayings, Paul's father had him trained in tent-making. When he came to Corinth, his first concern seems to have been to find a way to carry on his trade. He wanted to stay independent of any man. He would not use his right to "get his living by the gospel," so that he might "present the gospel free of charge."
The setting matters. Corinth was a city of wealth, and there the apostle works with his hands.
It pleased God to arrange things this way. In the wealthiest and most luxurious city of Greece, the great apostle worked at an honest job to meet his own needs. What a death-blow to clericalism on the one hand, and to worldliness on the other! Yet look at Paul's own situation, and at Corinth. This was the very course worthy of the gospel of the grace that sent it out.
Paul made one rule for other workers and kept another for himself.
To everyone who offered him a gift, he could say, I do not want your support. Before he was a prisoner, he supported himself by making tents. I guarantee they were the best tents on the market (Acts 18:3). He would not give any man a chance of saying, Paul was paid for it; or, I have made Paul rich. He supported himself. And I think a man who earns his bread by an honest trade, and then gives himself to the Lord's work, is the happiest and freest of men. He depends on no one but his Master. Paul would not take a penny from the Corinthians, though he laid down the rule that the servant should be supported. He laid the rule down for others and gave it up for himself.
The example cuts one way only. It says what the trade was for, and what it can never excuse.
In Paul's case he was not laying the Lord's work aside to take up a respectable, well-paid profession. He used a trade he already knew, to provide honestly for himself and to help others in need. It is a good word from a man who works like this to his fellow workers, small or great. But it is out of place when God's people use it to hold back the faith of a spiritual worker, or to forget their own duty to those who are given up to the Lord's work.
Their shared trade led to more than shared work.
This godly couple now got to know Paul, and began a friendship that lasted for life. Their being of the same trade — tent-makers — may have first drawn them together. These two were zealous workers in the Lord's work. Apollos owed much to them. In the towns where they lived, Christians had them to thank for a place to meet and proclaim the Lord's death.
- Providence. A hostile order drove a Jewish couple from Rome to Corinth. The Lord used it to give His lonely servant a lodging, a trade partner, and a friend for life.
- Preparation. Jewish custom put a trade in every boy's hands, so Paul had the skill years before he needed it.
- Purpose. He worked so he could offer the gospel free of charge, dependent on no man's purse.
- Position. Honest work in the richest city of Greece struck at clericalism and at worldliness at once.
- Proportion. Paul taught that God's people should support His workers, then refused that support himself. It is an example for workers, never an excuse to neglect them.