What is the significance of Cenchrea in the Bible?

Eastern sea-port of Corinth, from which it was distant 9 miles. Paul once sailed from thence, and a church was formed there. Acts 18:18; Rom. 16:1. The modern village has a similar name, Kekhries.

IN CHAPTER 16 we get the closing salutations. Phebe seems to have been the bearer of the epistle, and Paul works in this word of commendation concerning her so that the saints at Rome might freely and without question receive her. She had succoured many and even Paul himself in the course of her service at Cenchrea. The word, "servant" is really, "deaconess."

However this may be, the apostle goes into remarkable detail in his salutations to those at Rome. "Now I commend to you Phoebe our sister, being minister of the assembly that is in Cenchreae, that ye may receive her in [the] Lord, worthily of the saints, and assist her in whatever matter she has need of you; for she also has been a helper of many and of myself." (Ver. 1, 2.) We know from elsewhere that elderly females, especially widows, held a position official or quasi-official in which they rendered service to the assembly where they lived. A deaconess such as Phoebe was distinct from these widows; but the one illustrates the other: the value of this would be specially felt of old before Christianity had vindicated the place of women, and this too, particularly in the east as well as in dissolute Greece. Indeed at all times and in all places there are functions to be discharged from time to time more fittingly by a godly female rather than by any man, however pure-minded or elderly. Phoebe was one of these in the assembly of the port of Corinth — Cenchreae. As she had thus been honoured of the Lord and recognized by His chief servants in the ordinary circle of her christian duty, so the apostle now introduces her thus to the saints at Rome that they might receive her in a becoming sort, and this, not merely in spiritual things but in whatever business she might need their help, for she too, as he affectionately adds, had been a helper of many and of himself.

A christian woman commended by the apostle to the saints at Rome as 'a servant of the church.' He desired that they should assist her in anything in which she needed their aid. She had been a succourer of many and of Paul. The word for 'servant' is διάκονος, 'deaconess,' but may not imply any official service. Rom. 16:1.

The only instances of vows in the N.T. are those of Paul (or Aquila, as some judge) at Cenchrea, which is shrouded in mystery, and the four men at Jerusalem. Acts 18:18; Acts 21:23. These were probably the vows of Nazariteship, by the head being shaven. According to the law the final shaving must be at the tabernacle or temple. Num. 6:18.

Thus protected according to the Lord's assurance, the apostle still remains a considerable time at Corinth; but nothing more is related to us than the fact. This is the end of his progress westward; and from Cenchrea, the port of Corinth, he sets sail for Syria, taking Ephesus, however, by the way. At Cenchrea we have a circumstance given which has divided the opinions of commentators, — that of the vow on the part of one of these travelers. Lechler ventures even to say that it is "involved in an obscurity which will never be removed;" but this is an accusation of an inspired writer which only shows for how little inspiration counts with many professedly orthodox today. That there is difficulty in deciding more than one question with regard to it, is quite another matter: the same may be said of multitudes of things in Scripture, which give us needful exercise, and that is all; surely a thing which we cannot expect to be saved from. To say, it cannot be cleared up, is to say, either that Luke meant nothing by it, or meant us to learn nothing (which is practically the same thing), or else that he blundered so painfully as to miss entirely the object for which he has written!

The first question we have to ask is, who is it of whom it is recorded here that "he shaved his head in Cenchrea: for he had — or, had had — a vow"? On the one hand Aquila is the one who stands immediately before; on the other, Paul (it is urged) is the principal subject here, and before the mind of the Spirit all through, rather than Aquila. Both these things, however, may be fully allowed without the consequence which is pressed as following. Paul's relation to the vow may be primary or secondary; it may be related to him simply as having to do with one of his company who, if not converted by his means, was yet in fullest connection and sympathy with him. It has been rightly noticed also, as it would seem, that in the passage Priscilla being named first brings Aquila into that place in which he would most naturally appear as the maker of the vow. Still, in two of Paul's epistles (Rom. 16:3; 2 Tim. 4:19) it has been objected, that the same order of the names occurs; and here we may believe that the reason is one of personal character and usefulness, in which the wife may have been in advance of her husband; and though in ver. 2 Aquila has the precedence, this is not at all certain as to ver. 26. We can only say therefore, that according to the structure of the sentence, the maker of the vow would seem to be Aquila.

Paul, we read, having tarried after this yet many days, took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence for Syria, having shorn his head at Cenchrea: for he had a vow (18:18). To whom the last remark refers has been much questioned. We believe Luke referred to Paul. We know no reason why he should not have made a vow, ignorant as we are under what circumstances it was made; though Rom.16:1,2 may afford a little light on the matter, from the way the Apostle there writes of Phoebe, a deaconess of the assembly at Cenchrea, who carried subsequently the apostolic letter to Rome. "A succourer of many, and of myself also," he says. It may well have been that, overtaken with some illness, he had been indebted to the ministrations of Phoebe, and in gratitude to God for his recovery had made a vow. Putting Acts 18:18 and Rom.16:2 together, the latter suggests a possible explanation of the former. Reaching Ephesus, he left Aquila and Priscilla there, he himself entering into the synagogue and reasoning with the Jews. Allowed now of God to visit that city, his reception by his countrymen was encouraging, since they asked him to abide for a little time. Desirous, however, to visit Jerusalem, he consented not to their expressed wish, but promised to return to them if God permitted. The historian's real account of his answer is much shorter than that commonly ascribed to him, so we reproduce it, quoting the Revised Version: "And when they asked him to abide a longer time, he consented not; but taking his leave of them, and saying, I will return again unto you, if God will, he set sail from Ephesus" (Acts 18:20,21). Ending his voyage at Cæsarea, he went up and saluted the Church, and went down to Antioch. Thus came to a conclusion his second great missionary journey. What an interesting tour it must have been. Not only in Asia Minor had he preached - breaking up, too, entirely new ground - but to Europe the work had extended, and in the capital cities of Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, and Corinth he had planted the standard of the cross. How true is the description he gives of himself a few years later, when writing to the Corinthians: "Thanks be unto God, which always leadeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest through us the savour of His knowledge in every place. For we are a sweet savour of Christ unto God, in them that are being saved, and in them that are perishing: to the one a savour from death unto death; to the other a savour from life unto life" (2 Cor.2:14-16). What a description of his apostolic service! Truly the word was not spoken in vain.

It is interesting to note also that the apostle did not quit Corinth at once, as indeed the failure of the Jews before the governor left him free. 'And Paul having remained yet many days took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence to Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila, having shorn his head in Cenchreae, for he had a vow' (ver. 18). It was during his stay at Corinth that the two Epistles to the Thessalonians were written, with an interval between them, short but sufficient to show what mischief could befall the saints in a brief time, so mistaken are those who think it was only after centuries that error was able to enter. So it also was, as we know, among the assemblies of Galatia in a more fatal way, and on a subject yet more fundamental. And both occasions were where the saints had the inestimable benefit of an apostolic planting, which Rome had not any more than other places, which vaunted as proudly as with scanty reason. Indeed Corinth itself was to manifest the same liability to go astray, though it was chiefly in ecclesiastical truth and order, though by no means confined to it and yet there Paul stayed many days before the charge made to Gallio, and, as we are told, 'yet many days' after. But at length he bade the brethren adieu and sailed thence to Syria, and with him his beloved companions Priscilla and Aquila.

There is a clause at the end of verse 18 which has afforded matter for debate. The ancients do not seem to have doubted that Paul himself is in question, the preceding words being parenthetical. Others, especially of late, as Wieseler and Meyer, have been more willing to attach the vow, and shaving of the head, to Aquila. But the great apostle went far in compliance with, and in condescension to, Jewish forms in certain circumstances which left the grace of the gospel untouched. It was the effort to impose the law on the Gentiles who believed, which roused a tempest of feeling and irresistible argument, as indeed his whole soul was engaged with burning zeal at once for the cross of his Master, and for the liberty of the souls imperilled by that effort. Some ancients indeed, not the Aethiopic Version only, gave the sense that more than one shaved the head according to vow; but I see no sufficient reason to doubt that it was Paul; for he is the one before the mind of the inspiring Spirit, rather than to speak of Aquila.

Not only was Paul's head shorn in Cenchreae, and this as a vow, but we ought to gather from the subsequent history, if not from the immediate context, that it was of the Spirit to reveal the fact as important for us to observe in the account He is giving of that blessed man and of his labours. Not that we are meant to infer that Paul in thus acting was at the height of the fresh revelations of Christ given to him, but that along with these he acted thus with a good conscience. He was apostle of the Gentiles and minister of the church, but he was also, as he said, a Pharisee, son of Pharisees, who even after this charged himself to his nation with alms and offerings, and was found purified in the temple. Grace was bringing out its new and hitherto unrevealed wonders in Christ, and in the church, to God's glory; but the most deeply taught and fully furnished witness of heavenly truth heartily loved the ancient people of God and never forgot that he too was an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin; and this, not only within the precincts of Jerusalem and the land, but, as we see here, among the Greeks. This is often a great difficulty to those imbued with the spirit and habits of traditional Christianity, but it is because they are and would be logical, where the Holy Spirit is giving in those most honoured of the Lord things just as they were. Prejudices and prepossession are not so quickly shaken off, even where we behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile. The Lord deals pitifully with a true heart, where a cold intellect can only spy out an inconsistency; but the criticizing mind could not follow that heart for a moment either in its zealous service or in the spiritual might and power which pursues the service to the Lord's glory. We shall see that more follows of a similar character, which in the inspired record points beyond controversy to no less a man than the apostle.

Let Paul be the subject on the other hand, and there is very great difficulty. It is of no use to urge, as has been done, his purification afterwards at Jerusalem, which was undoubtedly a step taken to conciliate the Christian Jews, and conformable enough to his avowed principle to be to those under the law as under the law, that he might gain those who were under the law. A vow was a voluntary act between the person and God, not required of any, and therefore which could give no offence in its non-observance; there was no breach of law in not assuming it. Aquila might have assumed it in his pre-Christian state, when he would naturally let it run on to its termination and have honored Moses in that which was to him as a Christian a thing indifferent; but how could Paul's doctrine of being "dead to the law by the body of Christ" (Rom. 7:4) consist with the deliberate taking up of that which no conscience of another required, and which, if of his own free choice, would be the going back to build up again the things he had destroyed? Why then should we attribute that to the apostle to which certainly no necessity of the language here obliges us, and for which we have presently to seek all possible excuse in vain? The ethical argument is after all surely the decisive one, unless we are to be content to make an unasked for sacrifice of the apostle's character to show a liberality which is by no means that, in things that are not our own.

Just at the same time another remarkable feature appears here. In Cenchrea Paul shaves his head according to a vow. It is plain that, whatever might be the strength of divine grace, there was a certain concession to his old religious habits, even in the greatest of apostles, and the most blessed instrument of New Testament inspiration.