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From: Acts 18:9-18

Preaching to the Jews and Gentiles (Continuation)

[9] And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak
and do not be silent; [10] for I am with you, and no man shall attack you to harm
you; for I have many people in this city.” [11] And he stayed a year and six
months, teaching the word of God among them.

Paul before Gallio

[12] But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack
upon Paul and brought him before the tribunal, [13] saying, “This man is persua-
ding men to worship God contrary to the law.” [14] But when Paul was about to
open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vi-
cious crime, I should have reason to bear with you, O Jews; [15] but since it is
a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it your-
selves; I refuse to be a judge of these things.” [16] And he drove them from the
tribunal. [17] And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and
beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to this.

Return to Antioch via Ephesus

[18] After this Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brethren
and sailed for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he cut his
hair, for he had a vow.

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Commentary:

9. In this vision, given him to strengthen his resolve, Paul sees the Lord, that is,
Jesus. The brief message he receives is reminiscent of the language God uses
when he addresses the prophets and just men of the Old Testament (cf. Ex 3:12;
Josh 1:5; Is 41:10). The words “Do not be afraid” occur often in divine visions and
are designed to allay the impact of God’s overpowering presence (cf. Lk 1:30).

In this case, the words are meant to allay Paul ‘s premonitions about the severe
treatment his opponents will hand out to him in Corinth. The vision once again
indicates the graces which the Lord is bestowing on him to support his intense
contemplative life, which is also a life of action in the service of Jesus and the
Gospel.

“I tell you,” St Teresa of Avila writes, “those of you whom God is not leading by
this road [of contemplation], that, as I know from what I have seen and been told
by those who are following this road, they are not bearing a lighter cross than
you; you would be amazed at all the ways and manners in which God sends
them crosses. I know about both types of life and I am well aware that the trials
given by God to contemplatives are intolerable; and they of such a kind that,
were he not to feed them with consolations, they could not be borne. It is clear
that, since God leads those whom he most loves by the way of trials, the more
he loves them, the greater will be their trials; and there is no reason to suppose
that he hates contemplatives, since with his own mouth he praises them and
calls them his friends.

“To suppose that he would admit to his close friendship people who are free from
all trials is ridiculous. [...] I think, when those who lead an active life occasionally
see contemplatives receiving consolations, they suppose that they never expe-
rience anything else. But I can assure you that you might not be able to endure
their sufferings for as long as a day” (”Way of Perfection”, chap. 18).

10. God has foreseen the people who are going to follow the call of grace. From
this it follows that the Christian has a serious obligation to preach the Gospel to
as many people as he can. This preaching has a guaranteed effectiveness, as
can be seen from its capacity to convert men and women of every race, age, so-
cial condition etc. The Gospel is for all. God offers it, through Christians, to rich
and poor, to the educated and the uneducated. Any person can accept this invi-
tation to grace: “Not only philosophers and scholars believed in Christ [...], but
also workmen and people wholly uneducated, who all scorned glory, and fear
and death” (St. Justin, “Second Apology,” 10, 8).

12. Gallio was a brother of the Stoic philosopher Seneca. He had been adopted
in Rome by Lucius Iunius Gallio, whose name he took. From an inscription at
Delphi (reported in 1905) we learn that Gallio began his proconsulship of Achaia,
of which Corinth was the capital, in July 51. Paul must have appeared before
Gallio around the end of 52. This is one of the best-established dates we have
for the Apostle.

17. It is not quite clear what happened. Sosthenes may have been assaulted by
the citizens of Corinth who were using the incident to vent their anti-Jewish fee-
lings. But it is more likely that Sosthenes was in sympathy with the Christians
and that the Jews were venting their frustration on him. In 1 Corinthians 1:1, a
Christian called Sosthenes appears as co-author (amanuensis) of the letter;
some commentators identify him with the ruler of the synagogue in this episode.

18. The vow taken by a “Nazarite” (one “consecrated to God”) is described in the
sixth chapter of the Book of Numbers. Among other things it involved not cutting
one’s hair (to symbolize that one was allowing God to act in one) and not drinking
fermented drinks (meaning a resolution to practise self-denial). It is not clear whe-
ther it was Paul or Aquila who had taken the vow; apparently the vow ended at
Cenchreae, for the devotee’s hair was cut there. For more information, see the
note on Acts 21:23-24.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.