Acts 18:1-17 Paul in Corinth
1 After this he left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 And he found a Jew named Aq′uila, a native of Pontus, lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them; 3 and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them, and they worked, for by trade they were tentmakers. 4 And he argued in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded Jews and Greeks.
5 When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedo′nia, Paul was occupied with preaching, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. 6 And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be upon your heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” 7 And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God; his house was next door to the synagogue. 8 Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with all his household; and many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. 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.
12 But when Gallio was proconsul of Acha′ia, the Jews made a united attack upon Paul and brought him before the tribunal, 13 saying, “This man is persuading 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 vicious 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 yourselves; I refuse to be a judge of these things.” 16 And he drove them from the tribunal. 17 And they all seized Sos′thenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to this.
Paul came to Corinth early in 51AD and stayed for an intense year-and-a-half, working as a tentmaker while teaching, debating and forming a Christian community in this Roman colony. Thanks to Paul’s letters we know more about this church than any other mentioned in the New Testament.
This passage has a number of notable points.
1. Aquila and Priscilla (Prisca in Paul’s letters) worked together as a married couple supporting the mission. They were already Christians (evidence of the early spread of the Gospel to Rome) and comfortable in the Roman/Italian ethos of Corinth.
2. Paul is bold, but this doesn’t mean he isn’t afraid. The Lord sends him a dream to encourage and strengthen him to keep speaking despite constant opposition. The Lord also reminds him that His people are everywhere, even if unseen as yet to Paul (just as Jesus told the disciples that “I have other sheep who are not of this fold,” John 10:16.)
3. Gallio, assigned to Corinth, was the older brother of the famous Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca. He refuses to intervene in a strictly religious dispute (or the beating of Sosthenes on “religious” grounds) where there is no transgression of Roman law.
4. Paul was “purpose driven,” to use Rick Warren’s famous expression. He directed his missionary efforts, first towards his own people and then, when finally exasperated with them, towards the Gentiles. And look how “in your face” he is: he sets up shop right next door to the synagogue, and with the leader of the synagogue! (Incidentally, Crispus and Sosthenes are probably one and the same person according to Saint John Chrysostom and some modern scholars. He’s mentioned as a co-sender of 1 Corinthians and was one of the few Paul personally baptized, 1 Cor 1:1,14. It was common to have two names: Cephas/Peter, Saul/Paul, Silas/Silvanus.)
5. Saint John Chrysostom takes the beating of Crispus/Sosthenes—and his refusal to retaliate—as evidence that he is a true disciple of Christ and worthy of being a leader of the Corinthian church. Saint John exhorts his hearers to adopt the same dispassionate response to the insults they receive in daily life. “For to endure when insulted is God’s part: to be merely abusive, is the part of the devil.”
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This man let us also imitate: to them that beat us, let us return blow for blow, by meekness, by silence, by long-suffering…. Now in insults, nothing pains us so much, as the opinion passed by the spectators; for it is not the same thing to be insulted in public and in private, but those same insults we endure even with ease, when we suffer them in a solitary place, and with none to witness them, or know of them. So true is it that it is not the insult, as it is in itself, that mortifies us, but the having to suffer it in the sight of all men: since if one should do us honor in the sight of all men, and insult us in private, we shall even feel obliged to him.
The pain then is not in the nature of the insult, but in the opinion of the beholders; that one may not seem to be contemptible. What then, if this opinion should be in our favor? Is not the man attempting to disgrace us himself more disgraced, when men give their opinion in our favor? Whom do the bystanders despise? Him who insults, or him who being insulted keeps silence? Passion indeed suggests, that they despise him who is insulted: but let us look into it now while we are free from that excitement, in order that we may not be carried away when the time comes.
Whom do we all condemn? Plainly the man who insults: and if he be an inferior, we shall say that he is even mad; if an equal, that he is foolish; if a superior, still we shall not approve of it. For which man, I ask, is worthy of approval, the man who is excited, who is tossed with a tempest of passion, who is infuriated like a wild beast, who demeans himself in this sort against our common nature, or he who lives in a state of calm, in a haven of repose, and in virtuous equanimity? Is not the one like an angel, the other not even like a man? For the one cannot even bear his own evils, while the other bears even those of others also: here, the man cannot even endure himself; there, he endures another too: the one is in danger of shipwreck, the other sails in safety, his ship wafted along the favoring gales: for he has not suffered the squall of passion to catch his sails and overturn the ship of his understanding: but the breath of a soft and sweet air fanning upon it, the breath of forbearance, wafts it with much tranquility into the haven of wise equanimity.
And as when a ship is in danger of foundering, the sailors know not what they cast away, whether what they lay hands upon be their own or other men’s property, but they throw overboard all the contents without discrimination, alike the precious and what is not such: but when the storm has ceased, then reckoning up all that they have thrown out, they shed tears, and are not sensible of the calm for the loss of what they have thrown overboard: so here, when passion blows hard, and the storm is raised, people in flinging out their words know not how to use order or fitness; but when the passion has ceased, then recalling to mind what kind of words they have given utterance to, they consider the loss and feel not the quiet, when they remember the words by which they have disgraced themselves, and sustained most grievous loss, not as to money, but as to character for moderation and gentleness…
We are forever saying these things, but we do not see them exhibited in works. You, a human being, insult your fellow-man? You, a servant, your fellow-servant? But why do I wonder at this, when many even insult God? Let this be a consolation to you when suffering insult. Are you insulted? God also is insulted. Are you reviled? God also was reviled. Are you treated with scorn? Why, so was our Master also. In these things He shares with us, but not so in the contrary things. For He never insulted another unjustly: God forbid! He never reviled, never did a wrong. So that we are those who share with Him, not you. For to endure when insulted is God’s part: to be merely abusive, is the part of the devil.
(On Acts, Homily XXXIX).
Update
After dealing with a few office matters (clergy cases, Department of Pastoral Life and Ministry, phone calls with diocesan chancellors) I’ll set out this afternoon for Saints Peter and Paul Church in Springfield, MA. Treasurer Melanie Ringa will be there too for the meeting with the Archbishop Nikon and the New England Diocesan Council. Vespers at 6:30 pm, meeting at 7:30 pm.
It has been many years since I’ve visited this church, but during the years1968-71 (age 13-16) my family lived in northern Connecticut and Saints Peter and Paul was our parish and Father Eugene Pianovich was our priest. I remember the first time we attended. Growing up in Russian churches I had never seen pews in church, but quickly learned to appreciate them. We were also accustomed to arriving late. So we were unprepared to find everyone seated and in order when we walked in, my mother and us five children. The singing was glorious, and outside we heard the choir as we walked up the long set of front steps and into the beautiful church.