Acts 18:1-17
Dear RTB’ers,
Paul’s second missionary journey continued, in Corinth. Two leaders/rulers of the synagogue are mentioned, Crispus in verse 8 and Sosthenes in verse 17. More on each of them below.
Paul rejects the Jews and says that he’s going to the Gentiles (Acts 18:6). Then we see Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, turning to faith (Acts 18:8) and Paul moving in with Titius Justus, whose house was next to the synagogue. So even if Paul rejected the Jews, he was still readily available to them. And very possibly, many of the Corinthians who believed (Acts 18:8) could have been Jews.
We see the Jews hassling Paul again: …the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal… (v. 12) Why are they so persistent??!! The Roman proconsul would have none of it and dismissed them all. But then the Jews …seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. (v. 17) That sounds really strange. Did they beat Sosthenes because he also became a believer? Or maybe he was just sympathetic toward Paul? Later Sosthenes is mentioned in Paul’s introduction when he writes back to the Corinthians in his first letter: Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother… (I Corinthians 1:1) Is this Sosthenes in Paul’s Corinthian introduction the same man who was beaten in front of the proconsul? And if so, when did he become a “brother”? So this later mention could be the same Sosthenes as in verse 17 – or not.
Paul spent 18 months in Corinth (Acts 18:11), at times working as a tentmaker (Acts 18:3). Many smaller churches in Protestant denominations have pastors who have full-time or part-time jobs that are not related to their ministry. We refer to these pastors as “bi-vocational”. When we have U.S. missionaries in foreign lands also working full-time or part-time in other jobs, we refer to these missionaries as “tentmakers”. Paul’s “other job” in Corinth is where we get that phrase. Fundamentally, we should all be tentmakers, sharing the Lord with others in whatever we’re doing!
Blessings!