Act 18:5-6, 12-13 | Barnes | STEP | Verse 5. And when Silas and Timotheus , etc. They came to Paul according to his request, which he had sent by the brethren who accompanied him from Thessalonica, . Paul was pressed . Was urged; was borne away by an unusual impulse. It was deeply impressed on him as his duty. In spirit . In his mind, in his feelings. His love to Christ was so great, and his conviction of the truth so strong, that he laboured to make known to them the truth that Jesus was the Messiah. That Jesus was Christ . That Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. Comp. . The presence of Silas and Timothy animated him; and the certainty of aid in his work urged him to zeal in making known the Saviour. (1) "was Christ" "is the Christ"

Acts 18:5-6

Verse 5. And when Silas and Timotheus, etc. They came to Paul according to his request, which he had sent by the brethren who accompanied him from Thessalonica, Acts 17:16.

Paul was pressed. Was urged; was borne away by an unusual impulse. It was deeply impressed on him as his duty.

In spirit. In his mind, in his feelings. His love to Christ was so great, and his conviction of the truth so strong, that he laboured to make known to them the truth that Jesus was the Messiah.

That Jesus was Christ. That Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. Comp. Acts 17:16. The presence of Silas and Timothy animated him; and the certainty of aid in his work urged him to zeal in making known the Saviour.

(1) "was Christ" "is the Christ" Verse 6. And when they opposed themselves. To him and his message.

And blasphemed. Acts 13:4.

He shook his raiment. As an expressive act of shaking off the guilt of their condemnation. Comp. Acts 13:45. He shook his raiment to show that he was resolved henceforward to have nothing to do with them; perhaps, also, to express the fact that God would soon shake them off, or reject them. (Doddridge.)

Your blood, etc. The guilt of your destruction is your own. You only are the cause of the destruction that is coming upon you. Mt 27:25.

I am clean. I am not to blame for your destruction. I have done my duty. The gospel had been fairly offered, and deliberately rejected; and Paul was not to blame for their ruin, which he saw was coming upon them.

I will go, etc. See Acts 13:46.

Acts 18:12-13

Verse 12. And when Gallio. After the Romans had conquered Greece, they reduced it to two provinces, Macedonia and Achaia, which were each governed by a proconsul. Gallio was the brother of the celebrated philosopher Seneca, and was made proconsul of Achaia, A.D. 53. His proper name was Marcus Annaeus Novatus; but having been adopted into the family of Gallio, a rhetorician, he took his name. He is described by ancient writers as having been of a remarkably mild and amiable disposition. His brother Seneca (Pref. Quest. Natu. 4) describes him as being of the most lovely temper: "No mortal," says he, "was ever so mild to any one, as he was to all; and in him there was such a natural power of goodness, that there was no semblance of art or dissimulation."

Was the deputy. See this word explained in Acts 13:7. It means, here, proconsul.

Of Achaia. This word, in its largest sense, comprehended the whole of Greece. Achaia Proper, however, was a province of which Corinth was the capital. It embraced that part of Greece lying between Thessaly and the southern part of the Peloponnesus.

The Jews made insurrection. Excited a tumult, as they had in Philippi, Antioch, etc.

And brought him to the judgment seat. The tribunal of Gallio; probably intending to arraign him as a disturber of the peace.

(a) "judgment seat" Jas 2:6 Verse 13. Contrary to the law. Evidently intending contrary to all law--the laws of the Romans and of the Jews. It was permitted to the Jews to worship God according to their own views in Greece; but they could easily pretend that Paul had departed from that mode of worshipping God. It was easy for them to maintain that he taught contrary to the laws of the Romans, and their acknowledged religion; and their design seems to have been, to accuse him of teaching men to worship God in an unlawful and irregular way, a way unknown to any of the laws of the empire.