Father Callan’s Commentary on Acts 18:9-18

Text in red are my additions.

9. And the Lord said to Paul in the night, by a vision: Do not fear, but speak; and hold not thy peace,

The theme of visions is an important element in the middle part of Acts (Acts 9:10, 12; 10:3, 17, 19; 11:5; 12:9; 16:9-10; 18:9). Often these events recall OT theophanies (i.e., divine manifestations), see Ex 3:3; 19:16-20.

10. Because I am with thee: and no man shall set upon thee, to hurt thee; for I have much people in this city.

I am with thee. Not simply a statement of the divine presence but, also, a guarantee of divine help for the mission. The phrase is found throughout the Bible in the context of mission. See for example Isaiah 41:10; 43:5; Jer 1:8, 19; Luke 1:28; Matt 28:20.

11. And he stayed there a year and six months, teaching among them the word of God.

And he stayed there a year and six months.The fact that St Luke gives so little information about the events that took place during this time period indicates that attempts to construct a strict chronology of Paul’s mission in Acts in relation to the details of his mission which we find in his letters is impossible. Saints Luke and Paul were not co-authors writing a single work. What each tells us regarding the missionary activity of St Paul is dictated by their individual concerns and the needs of their readers.

12. But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul, and brought him to the judgment seat,

The Jews with one accord rose up. The Greek word ὁμοθυμαδόν (homothumadon) is used only twelve times in the NT; ten of which appear in Acts.  It most often designates the active unity of the Church (see Acts 1:14; 2:1, 46; 4:24; etc.  Here and in Acts 7:57 (Stephen’s martyrdom) it is used to designate hostile opposition to preachers of the Gospel.

Gallio, whose earlier name was Marcus Annaeus Novatus, Worshipped God means that the man was a proselyte of Judaism. was the brother of Seneca, the philosopher. His assumed name was taken from Gallio, the famous rhetorician, by whom he was adopted. Achaia was the Roman province embracing all of Greece proper and Peloponnesus. Gallio became proconsul of Achaia in the summer of A.D. 51.

The appearance before Gallio helps to date St Paul’s ministry and, especially, the time during which he was in Corinth. Between 1905 and 1910 a series of limestone fragments were found which contained an inscription now know as the “Gallio Inscription“.  This inscription, along with another discovered from Kys in Caria, allow scholars to date St Paul’s arrival in Corinth to the spring of A.D. 51. On this see ACCORDING TO PAUL, by Fr. Joseph Fitzmyer, S.J., pgs. 43-46.

13. Saying: This man persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law.

Contrary to the law; i.e., to the Law of Moses, as appears from the two following verses. The Roman law freely permitted the Jews to practise their religion (Josephus, Antiq. xiv. 10, 20-24).

14. And when Paul was beginning to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews: If it were some matter of injustice, or an heinous deed, O Jews, I should with reason bear with you.
15. But if they be questions of word and names, and of your law, look you to it: I will not be judge of such things.
16. And he drove them from the judgment seat.

Gallio replies to the accusers of Paul by saying that if there were question of some crime or grievous offense he would hear them; but if the question is one of words, names, or doctrines, whether, namely, Jesus was the Messiah or not, it does not pertain to him to settle it.

17. And all laying hold on Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, beat him before the judgment seat; and Gallio cared for none of those things.

Sosthenes, the ruler, etc. Sosthenes had been the leader and promoter of many disturbances among the Jews, and now, when Gallio had contemptuously dismissed them without a hearing, he was pounced upon and severely beaten by all the Gentiles who were present in the court. It is uncertain whether this was the Sosthenes who was later converted to Christianity, and of whom St. Paul
speaks in 1 Cor 1:1.

18. But Paul, when he had stayed yet many days, taking his leave of the brethren, sailed thence into Syria (and with him Priscilla and Aquila), having shorn his head in Cenchrse: for he had a vow.

Having shorn his head. Some think these words refer to Aquila; but the context shows they refer to Paul, as also the majority of interpreters understand them. It is disputed whether the vow made by St. Paul was only an ordinary one to offer victims in the Temple at Jerusalem, either as a thank offering or as a prayer for deliverance from danger; or whether it was the Nazarite vow (Num 6:1-21). That it was not the latter seems probable, because one who had made this vow was not allowed to shave his head until he had made his offering in the Temple at Jerusalem. It is argued, however, that St. Paul did not shave his head at this time, but only cropped his hair.

Cenchra, or Cenchreae, was an eastern port of Corinth on the Saronic Gulf.