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And said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles; rather, your blood," i. e. your guilt, 66 is upon

your own heads."

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The apostle does not mean to express an imprecation, but his being clean from whatever guilt or whatever evil belonged to the rejection of the gospel.

7. And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man's house, named Justus, one that worshipped God, a proselyte to the Jewish religion, whose house joined hard, "was near, to the synagogue.

He left the house of Aquila, who was a Jew, and went to reside with Justus, either because his house was more convenient for teaching, or because he wished to please the Gentiles by residing with one of them. The apostle's labours, even among the Jews, were not wholly unsuccessful.

8. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord, with all his house: and many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized.

In his first epistle to the Corinthians Paul tells the church that he baptized none other among them than Crispus and Gaius; but how Crispus came to obtain so honourable a distinction as to be baptized by the apostle's own hand, while the rest did not enjoy that honour, the epistle does not inform us; but this matter is explained by the history; for we here learn that he

was ruler of the synagogue, and therefore entitled to some distinction for his rank, as well as probably for his property and character. This is one of those undesigned coincidences between the history and the epistle which serve to confirm the authenticity of both*.

Nothwithstanding the number of converts at Corinth, and the respectable character of some of them, the apostle's prospects here were not so encouraging as to induce him of themselves to spend much longer time in that city. The violent temper which the Jews had just discovered naturally led to a suspicion that they would soon have recourse to the same measures which they had successfully employed against him in other places. The supernatural communication mentioned in the next verses became necessary, therefore, to inspire him with confidence, and to induce him to persevere in his labours.

9. Then spake the Lord, i. e. probably the Lord Jesus, to Paul, in the night, by a vision, probably in a dream, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace:

10. For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee; for I have much people in this city.

11.

And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

Luke calls the gospel of Christ, as preached by the apostle Paul, the word of God, because it was a revelation made to him by God; but the same denomina. tion cannot with propriety be applied to a history

* Paley's Horæ Paul. p. 89.

like the present, which contains, indeed, an authen. tic, but not inspired, account of the reception which it met with in different places.

It was during the apostle's residence at Corinth that he wrote his first and second epistle to the Thessalonians; a church which he had lately established, and which required all his attention and care.

12. And when Gallio was deputy, in the original " Proconsul," of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul, and brought him to the judgment-seat;

It has been observed that this province, of which Corinth was the chief town, had undergone various revolutions and been called by different names, but that the name given to it by Luke is what belonged to it at this period, which is one proof among many of the care and accuracy with which he writes.

13. Saying, This fellow persuadeth men, meaning Jews, to worship God contrary to the law.

14. And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Gallio said unto the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong, or wicked lewdness, "wicked mischief," O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you, i. e. it would be reasonable that I should hear you patiently.

15. But if it be a question of words," doctrines," and names, i. e. whether Jesus ought to be called Messiah

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or not, and of your law, look ye to it,

for I will be no judge of such mat

ters.

And he drove them from the

16. And

judgment-seat.

This Gallio was brother to Seneca the Stoic philosopher, and a man of a remarkably mild and amiable disposition; but his conduct on the present occasion, in protecting Paul from the violence of the Jews, seems to have been directed by a regard to the Roman law, which forbade their magistrates to interfere in religious disputes.

17. Then all, i. e. the Jews, took Sosthenes the chief ruler of the synagogue, who succeeded Crispus, and seems to have favoured Paul, and beat him before the judgment-seat, and Gallio cared for none of these things.

The word Greeks is omitted in some manuscripts and versions, and therefore I have left it out of this verse, as it appears to embarrass the sense. That the Jews should beat one of their own countrymen, who was supposed to favour the Christians, and that they should be permitted to do it is not unlikely; but that the Greeks or unbelieving Gentiles should do this, and be suffered to proceed without opposition, is highly improbable.

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REFLECTIONS.

1. From the condition of the apostle, in being obliged to work with his own hands for a maintenance, we may derive an argument to prove the sincerity of his attachment to the gospel. He has not been induced to support it by interested or ambitious prospects, by the hope of gain or of power; for, although he had now been a preacher of this doctrine many years, we find him neither rich nor at ease, but, on the contrary, so poor as to be obliged to labour for his own support. Of the danger and trouble to which he was exposed we have had repeated proofs in the course of this history; yet his zeal is unabated and his exertions unrelaxed. If unsuccessful in one place, he renews his efforts in another. Whence could this undaunted -zeal and persevering fortitude proceed, but from an overpowering conviction of the truth and divine origin of Christianity, and from a persuasion that in preaching it he was promoting the best interests of mankind? The motives and arguments which satisfied him ought to satisfy us also.

2. The success of the apostle in the circumstances above described ought to afford us the like satisfaction. In the great city of Corinth, a city distinguished by the opulence and dissipation of its inhabitants, abounding also in philosophers and orators, Paul was honoured with great success in preaching the gospel, and had numerous converts; notwithstanding that he spent the greater part of his time in providing by the labour of his hands for his necessities, and that labour not of the most honourable kind; not in casting statues of Corinthian brass, or carving idols of wood or stone, not in pourtraying the persons or the actions of Grecian Gods and heroes, but in the humble occupation

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