Soon after Paul had written his second epistle to the Thessalonians, he
left Corinth, in the spring of A. D. 56, as it is commonly calculated,
and after bidding the brethren farewell, journeyed back to Asia, from
whose shores he had now been absent not less than three years. On
his return journey, he was accompanied by his two acquaintances and
fellow-laborers, Aquilas and Priscilla, who were now his most intimate
friends, and henceforth were always esteemed among the important aids
of the apostolic enterprise. Journeying eastward across the isthmus,
they came to Cenchreae, the eastern port of Corinth, and at the head
of the great Saronic gulf, about seven miles from the city itself.
At this place Paul discharged himself of the obligation of a vow,
which he had made some time before, in conformity with a common Jewish
custom of thus giving force to their own sense of gratitude for the
accomplishment of any desired object. He had vowed to let his hair grow
until some unknown end was attained, and now, having seen the prayers
which sanctioned that vow granted, he cut off his hair in token of the
joyful completion of the enterprise on which he had thus solemnly and
formally invoked the blessing of heaven. The actual purpose of this
vow is not recorded,――but when the occasion on which he thus exonerated
himself is considered, it seems most reasonable to suppose that now,
embarking from the shores of Europe, after he had there passed so many
years of very peculiar labor and trials, he was thus celebrating the
prosperous and happy achievment of his first great western mission, and
that this vow had been made for his safe return, when he first sailed
from the eastern coast of the Aegean, at Alexandria Troas.
He sailed from Cenchreae to Ephesus, a great city of Ionic Asia,
which had never been the scene of his apostolic labors, though he had
traversed much of the country around it; for it will be remembered,
that on his last journey through Asia Minor, when he had passed
over Galatia and Phrygia, he was about to enter Asia Proper, but
was hindered by a special impulse of the Spirit, which sent him in
a different direction. But having thus achieved his great western
enterprise, there was now no longer any more important commission
to prevent him from gratifying his eyes with a sight of this very
interesting region, and making here an experimental effort to diffuse
the knowledge of the gospel through the numerous, wealthy, refined and
populous cities of this, the most flourishing and civilized country in
the world. He did not intend, however, to make anything more than a
mere call at Ephesus; for the great object of his voyage from Europe
was to return to Jerusalem and Syria, and give to his brethren, a full
statement of all the interesting particulars of his long and remarkable
mission in Macedonia and Greece. But he took occasion to vary this
eastern route, so as to effect as much good as possible by the way;
and therefore embarked first for Ephesus, where he landed with Aquilas
and Priscilla, whom he left there, while he continued on his journey,
southeastwards. He stopped with them however, a few days, with a view
to open this new field of labor with them; and going into the synagogue,
discoursed with the Jews. He was so well received by his hearers,
that he was earnestly besought to prolong his stay among them; but he
excused himself for his refusal of their kind invitation, by stating
the great object which he had in view in leaving Europe at that
particular time:――“I must by all means keep this coming feast at
Jerusalem; but I will return to you,――God willing.” And bidding them
farewell, he sailed away from Ephesus to Caesarea, on the coast of
Palestine, where he landed. Thence he went up to Jerusalem, to salute
the church. In this part of the history of Paul, Luke seems to be
exceedingly brief; perhaps because he was not then with him, and had
never received from him any account of this journey. There is therefore
no way of ascertaining what was the particular motive or design of
this visit. It would appear, however, from the very hurried manner in
which the visit was noticed, that it was exceedingly brief, and his
departure thence may, as Calvin conjectures, have been hastened by the
circumstance, that possibly the business on which he went thither did
not succeed according to his wishes. At any rate, there seems to have
been something very mysterious about the whole matter, else there would
not have been this very studied concealment of the motives and details
of a journey, which he announced to the brethren of the church at
Ephesus, as _absolutely necessary_ for him to perform. This also may
have been concealed for the same reason, which has been conjectured to
have caused the visit to be so short, as would seem from the manner in
which it is noticed. From Jerusalem he went down to Antioch, by what
route is not specified,――but probably by way of Caesarea and the sea.
“xviii. 22. _Caesarea._ A town on the sea-coast. [See the
note on p. 173.] Ἀναβὰς, ‘and having gone up.’ Whither? Some
commentators, as Camerarius, De Dieu, Wolf, Calov., Heumann,
Doddridge, Thaleman, Beck, and Kuinoel, refer it to _Caesarea_.
But this requires the confirmation of examples. And we must
_take for granted_ that the city was built high above the port,
(which is not likely,) or that the _church_ was so situated;
which would be extremely frigid. Neither is it certain
that there _was_ a church. Besides, how can the expression
καταβαίνω be proper, as used of traveling from a seaport-town,
like Caesarea, to Antioch? I therefore prefer the mode
of interpretation adopted by some ancient and many modern
commentators, as Beza, Grotius, Mor., Rosenmueller, Reichard,
Schott, Heinrichs, and others, who supply εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα. This
may indeed seem somewhat harsh; yet it must be remembered that
not a few things are so in the New Testament; and ἀναβαίνω
is there often used absolutely of going up to Jerusalem, and
καταβαίνω of going from thence. Nor is this unexampled in the
classical writers. Xenophon uses the word in the very same
sense, of those going from Greece to the capital of Persia. See
Anabasis 1, 1, 2. Hist. 2, 1. 9, 10. Anabasis 1, 4, 12. Hist. 4,
1, 2. 1, 5, 1. 1, 4, 2. and many other passages referred to by
Sturz in his Lexicon Xenophon in voce. Besides, as the words εἰς
Ἱεροσόλυμα have just preceded, it is not very harsh to repeat
them. Kuinoel, indeed, and some others, treat those words as not
genuine; but their opinion rests on mere suspicion, unsupported
by any proof.” (Bloomfield Annotations. Vol. IV. p. 607.)
From the very brief and general manner in which the incidents of this
visit of Paul to the eastern continent are commemorated, the apostolic
historian is left to gather nothing but the most naked circumstances,
of the route pursued, and from the results, it is but fair to conclude
that nothing of consequence happened to the apostle, as his duties
consisted merely in a review and completion of the work he had gone
over before. Luke evidently did not accompany Paul in this Asian
journey, and he therefore only states the general direction of the
apostle’s course, without a single particular. He says that Paul, after
making ♦some stay in Antioch,――where, no doubt he greatly comforted the
hearts of the brethren, by the glad tidings of the triumphs of Christ
in Europe,――went in regular order over the regions of Galatia, and
Phrygia, everywhere confirming the disciples. Beyond this, no incident
whatever is preserved; yet here great amplification of the sacred
record might be made, from the amusing narrative of that venerable
monkish story-teller, who assumes the name of Abdias Babylonius. But
from the specimens of his narrative already given, in the lives of
Andrew and John, the reader will easily apprehend that they contain
nothing which deserves to be intruded into the midst of the honest,
authentic statements, of the original and genuine apostolic history;
and all these with many other similar inventions are wholly dismissed
from the life of Paul, of whose actions such ample records have
been left in the writings of himself and his companions, that it
is altogether more necessary for the biographer to condense into a
modernized form, with proper illustrations, the materials presented
on the authority of inspiration, than to prolong the narrative with
tedious inventions. In this part of the apostolic history, all that
Luke records is, that Paul, after the before-mentioned survey of the
inland countries of Asia Minor, came down to the western shore, and
visited Ephesus, according to the promise which ♠he had made them
at his farewell, a few months before. Since that hasty visit made
in passing, some events important to the gospel cause had happened
among them. An Alexandrine Jew named Apollos, a man of great Biblical
learning, (as many of the Jews of his native city were,) and indued
also with eloquence,――came to Ephesus, and there soon distinguished
himself as a religious teacher. Of the doctrines of Jesus Christ and
his apostles, indeed, he had never heard; but he had somewhere been
made acquainted with the peculiar reforming principles of his great
forerunner, John the Baptist, and had been baptized, probably by
some one of his disciples. With great fervor and power, he discoursed
learnedly of the things of the Lord, in the synagogue at Ephesus,
and of course, was brought under the notice of Aquilas and Priscilla,
whom Paul had left to occupy that important field, while he was making
his southeastern tour. They took pains to draw Apollos into their
acquaintance, and found him, like every truly learned man, very ready
to learn, even from those who were his inferiors in most departments
of sacred knowledge. From them he heard with great interest and
satisfaction, the peculiar and striking truths revealed in Jesus,
and at once professing his faith in this new revelation, went forth
again among the Jews, replenished with a higher learning and a diviner
spirit. After teaching for some time in Ephesus, he was disposed to
try his new powers in some other field; and proposing to journey into
Achaia, his two Christian friends gave him letters of introduction
and recommendation to the brethren of the church in Corinth. While
he was there laboring with great efficiency in the gospel cause, Paul
returning from his great apostolic survey of the inland and upper
regions of Asia Minor, came to Ephesus. Entering on this work of
perfecting and uniting the results of the various irregular efforts
made by the different persons, who had before labored there, he found,
among those who professed to hold the doctrines of a new revelation,
about a dozen men, who knew very little of the great doctrines which
Paul had been in the habit of preaching. One of his first questions
to them, of course, was whether they had yet received that usual
convincing sign of the Christian faith,――the Holy Spirit. To which they
answered in some surprise, that they had not yet heard that there was
any Holy Spirit;――thus evidently showing that they knew nothing about
any such sign or its effects. Paul, in his turn considerably surprised,
at this remarkable ignorance of a matter of such high importance, was
naturally led to ask what kind of initiation they had received into
the new dispensation; and learning from them, that they had only been
baptized according to the baptism of John,――instantly assured them
of the incompleteness of that revelation of the truth. “John truly
baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people that they
must believe on him that should come after him,――that is on Christ
Jesus.” Hearing this, they consented to receive from the apostle of
Jesus, the renewal of the sign of faith, which they had formerly known
as the token of that partial revelation made by John; and they were
therefore baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus,――a form of words
which of course had never been pronounced over them before. Paul, then
laying his hands on them, invoked the influence of the Holy Spirit,
which was then immediately manifested, by the usual miraculous gifts
which accompanied its effusion.
♦ removed duplicate word “some”
♠ removed duplicate word “he”
“xviii. 24. _Apollos._ A name contracted from _Apollonius_,
(which is read in the Cod. Cant.) as Epaphras from Epaphroditus,
and Artemas from Artemonius. Of this Apollonius, mention is also
made in 1 Corinthians i. 12. iii. 5 seq. where Paul speaks of
the labor he underwent in the instruction of the Corinthians.
(1 Corinthians iv. 6. xvi. 12.) Γένει, _by birth_, i. e. country;
as in 18, 2. The Jews of Alexandria were eminent for Biblical
knowledge. That most celebrated city of Egypt abounded with men
of learning, both Jews and Gentiles.” Kuinoel. (Bloomfield’s
Annotations, Vol. IV. p. 608.)
“The _Baptism of John_ is put, by synecdoche, for the _whole of
John’s ordinances_. See the note on Matthew xxi. 25. (Kuinoel.)
It is generally supposed that he had been baptized by John
himself: but this must have been twenty years before; and it is
not probable that during that time he should have acquired no
knowledge of Christianity. It should rather seem that he had
been baptized by one of John’s disciples; and perhaps not very
long before the time here spoken of.” (Bloomfield’s Annotations,
Vol. IV. p. 610.)
“With respect to the _letters_ here mentioned, they were written
for the purpose of encouraging Apollos, and recommending him
to the brethren. This ancient ecclesiastical custom of writing
letters of recommendation, (which seems to have originated in
the necessary caution to be observed in times of persecution,
and arose out of the interrupted and tardy intercourse which,
owing to their great distance from each other, subsisted
between the Christians,) has been well illustrated by a tract
of Ferrarius de Epistolis Ecclesiasticis, referred to by Wolf.”
(Bloomfield. Vol. IV. p. 611.)
“Ephesus was the metropolis of proconsular Asia. It was situated
at the mouth of the river Cayster, on the shore of the Aegean
sea, in that part anciently called Ionia, (but now Natolir,)
and was particularly celebrated for the temple of Diana, which
had been erected at the common expense of the inhabitants of
Asia Proper, and was reputed one of the seven wonders of the
world. In the time of Paul, this city abounded with orators and
philosophers; and its inhabitants, in their gentile state, were
celebrated for their idolatry and skill in magic, as well as
for their luxury and lasciviousness. Ephesus is now under the
dominion of the Turks, and is in a state of almost total ruin,
being reduced to fifteen poor cottages, (not erected exactly
on its original site,) and its once flourishing church is now
diminished to _three_ illiterate Greeks. (Revelation ii. 6.)
In the time of the Romans, Ephesus was the metropolis of Asia.
The temple of Diana is said to have been four hundred and
twenty-five feet long, two hundred and twenty broad, and to have
been supported by one hundred and twenty-seven pillars of marble,
seventy feet high, whereof twenty-seven were most beautifully
wrought, and all the rest polished. One Ctesiphon, a famous
architect, planned it, and with so much art and curiosity, that
it took two hundred years to finish it. It was set on fire seven
times; once on the very same day that Socrates was poisoned,
four hundred years before Christ.” (Horne’s Introduction.
Whitby’s Table. Wells’s Geography. Williams on Pearson.)
After this successful effort to confirm and complete the conversions
already effected, Paul went about his apostolic labors in the usual
way,――going into the synagogue, and speaking boldly, disputing the
antiquated sophistry of the Jews, and urging upon all, the doctrines of
the new revelation. In this department of labor, he continued for the
space of three months; but at the end of that time, he found that many
obstacles were thrown in the way of the truth by the stubborn adherents
of the established forms of old Judaism, who would not allow that the
lowly Jesus was the Messiah for whom their nation had so long looked
as the restorer of Israel. Leaving the hardened and obstinate Jews, he
therefore, according to his old custom in such cases of the rejection
of the gospel by them, withdrew from their society, and thenceforth
went with those who had believed among the more candid Greeks, who,
with a truly enlightened and philosophical spirit, held their minds
open to the reception of new truths, even though they might not happen
to accord with those which were sanctioned to them by the prejudices of
education. After leaving the synagogue, his new place of preaching and
religious instruction was the school of one Tyrannus,――doubtless one of
those philosophical institutions with which every Grecian city abounded.
This continued his field of exertion for two years, during which his
fame became very widely established,――all the inhabitants of Ionic
and Aeolic Asia, having heard of the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews
and Greeks. Among the causes and effects of this general notoriety,
was the circumstance, that many miraculous cures were wrought by
the hands of Paul; and many began even to attach a divine regard to
his person;――handkerchiefs being brought to the sick from his body,
which, on application to those afflicted, either with bodily or mental
diseases, produced a perfect cure. This matter becoming generally known
and talked of, throughout Ephesus, became the occasion of a ludicrous
accident, which occurred to some persons who entertained the mistaken
notion, that this faculty of curing diseases was transferable, and
might be exercised by anybody that had enterprise enough to take the
business in hand, and say over the form of words that seemed to be so
efficacious in the mouth of Paul. A set of conjurers of Jewish origin,
the seven sons of Sceva, who went about professedly following the trade
of casting out devils, straightway caught up this new improvement on
their old tricks, (for so they esteemed the divinely miraculous power
of the apostle,) and soon found an opportunity to experiment with
this, which they considered a valuable addition to their old stock
of impositions. So, calling over the miserable possessed subject of
their foolish experiment, they said――“We exorcise you by Jesus, whom
Paul preaches.” But the devil was not slow to perceive the difference
between this second-hand, plagiaristic mode of operation, and
the commanding tone of divine authority with which the demoniacal
possessions were treated by the apostle of Jesus. He therefore quite
turned their borrowed mummery into a jest, and cried out through the
mouth of the possessed man,――“Jesus I know, and Paul I know:――but who
are ye?” Under the impulse of the frolicsome, mischievous spirit, the
man upon whom they were playing their conjuring tricks, jumped up at
once, and fell upon these rash doctors with all his might, and with all
the energy of a truly crazy demoniac, beat the whole seven, tore their
clothes off from them, and threshed them to such effect, that they were
glad to stop their mummery, and make off as fast as possible, but did
not escape till they were naked and wounded. The affair of course, was
soon very generally talked of, and the story made an impression, on
the whole, decidedly favorable to the true source of that miraculous
agency, which, when foolishly tampered with, had produced such
appalling results. Many, among both Jews and Greeks, were thereby led
to repentance and faith, and more particularly those who had been in
the way of practising these arts of imposition. A very general alarm
prevailed among all the conjurers, and many came and confessed the
mean tricks by which they had hitherto maintained their reputation as
controllers of the powers of the invisible world. Many who had also,
at great expense of time and money, acquired the arts of imposition,
brought the costly books in which were contained all the mysterious
details of their magical mummery, and burned them publicly, without
regard to their immense estimated pecuniary value, which was not less
than nine thousand dollars. In short, the results of this apparently
trifling occurrence, followed up by the zealous preaching of Paul,
effected a vast amount of good, so that the word of God mightily grew
and prevailed.
Illustration: EPHESUS.――RUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF DIANA.
Ephesians i. 1. Revelation ii. 1, 7.
“In Acts xx. 31, the apostle says, that for the space of three
years he preached at Ephesus. Grotius and Whitby hold that these
three years are to be reckoned from his first coming to Ephesus,
xviii. 19; that he does not specify his being in any other
city; and that when it is said here, ‘So that all Asia heard the
word,’ xix. 40, it arose from the concourse that, on a religious
account, continually assembled in that city. The Jews also, from
different parts of Asia, were induced by commerce, or obliged
by the courts of judicature, to frequent it. Other commentators
contend that, as only two years, with three months in the
synagogue, are here mentioned, the remaining three-quarters of
a year were partly engaged in a progress through the neighboring
provinces. (Elsley, from Lightfoot and Doddridge.)
“While he was at Ephesus, ‘God wrought special miracles by the
hands of Paul; so that from his body were brought unto the sick,
handkerchiefs or aprons,’ &c. &c. Acts ♦xix. 11, 12. Σιμικίνθιον,
_aprons_, is slightly changed from the Latin _semicinctum_,
which workmen put before them when employed at their occupations,
to keep their clothes from soiling. The difference which
Theophylact and Oecumenius make between these and σουδάρια, is,
that the latter are applied to the head, as a cap or veil, and
the former to the hands as a handkerchief. ‘They carry them,’
says Oecumenius, ‘in their hands, to wipe off moisture from
their face, as tears,’” &c. &c. (Calmet’s Commentary.)
♦ removed spurious “v.”
“‘And they counted the price of them, [the books,] and found
it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver,’ verse 19――αργυριον
is used generally in the Old Testament, LXX. for the shekel,
in value about 2s. 6d., or the total 6250l. as Numbers vii. 85.
Deuteronomy xxii. 19. 2 Kings xv. 20. _Grotius._ If it means the
drachma, as more frequently used by the Greeks at 9d. each, the
sum will be 1875l.” [$9000.] Doddridge. Elsley’s Annotations.
(Williams on Pearson, pp. 53‒55.)