BOOK 44 OF 66 · HISTORY · KING JAMES BIBLE

Acts 18

Acts book home•Chapter 18 of 28•28 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Acts 18 Overview

Paul arrives in Corinth and works with Aquila and Priscilla as tentmakers while reasoning in the synagogue. After Jewish opposition he turns to a nearby house, and Crispus the synagogue ruler believes with his household; many Corinthians hearing believe and are baptized. The Lord encourages Paul in a night vision to keep speaking. Gallio refuses to adjudicate a religious dispute. Later, Priscilla and Aquila privately instruct eloquent Apollos more perfectly before he powerfully demonstrates from Scripture that Jesus is Christ.

ActsBook

18Chapter

28Verses

HistoryDivision

Before you read Acts 18

Coming from

Paul reasons from Scripture in Thessalonica that Christ had to suffer and rise and that Jesus is the Christ. Opposition forces the team to Berea, where hearers are called noble because they receive the word readily and search the Scriptures daily. In Athens Paul is stirred by idolatry, reasons in synagogue and marketplace, and addresses the Areopagus by proclaiming the Creator, human dependence, the call to turn from idolatry, coming judgment, and the resurrected Man appointed by God.

In this chapter

Acts 17 ended in Athens with a mixed response to the resurrection message. Acts 18 moves to Corinth, where a substantial church develops amid resistance.

Leads into

Acts 19 moves to Ephesus, where disciples familiar only with John’s baptism receive fuller apostolic teaching, extraordinary miracles occur, occult books are burned, and the Artemis trade erupts in protest.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Verse 8 gives a clear order: many Corinthians heard, believed, and were baptized. Baptism is the public response of believers, not the cause of their belief.

Apollos is sincere, knowledgeable, and fervent yet has incomplete information. Priscilla and Aquila correct him privately rather than treating teachability as weakness.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Ordinary work and gospel ministry can coexist

Paul supports himself through a trade while continuing intensive witness.

Belief precedes baptism in the Corinthian mission

Luke states hearing, believing, and baptism in that order.

God’s encouragement sustains ministry under fear

The Lord tells Paul not to be silent because He is with him and has people in the city.

Gifted teachers still need instruction

Apollos becomes more useful through humble correction.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

1 Corinthians 1:14–17

Paul later remembers baptisms in Corinth while explicitly distinguishing baptism from the gospel commission.

1 Corinthians 9:3–18

Paul discusses his right to support and his willingness to forego it, illuminating his tentmaking pattern.

Romans 16:3–5

Aquila and Priscilla later appear as valued coworkers who host a church.

Acts 19:1–7

The next chapter clarifies the difference between John’s preparatory baptism and Christian understanding centered on Jesus.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not romanticize bivocational ministry as spiritually superior to supported ministry

Paul later teaches both the right to support and his contextual choice to work.

Do not put baptism before belief

Luke’s sequence is explicit.

Do not assume eloquence equals complete doctrine

Apollos needs further instruction.

Do not use private correction to suppress necessary public correction in every case

Here Priscilla and Aquila wisely address a teachable man whose understanding is incomplete.

Read Acts 18 watching for…

Paul’s work with Aquila and Priscilla.

The move from synagogue to the house next door.

The hearing-believing-baptism sequence.

The Lord’s encouragement to Paul.

Gallio’s legal response.

Apollos’s strengths and teachability.

Chapter outline4 sections

1-11Paul works with Aquila and Priscilla in Corinth and teaches for a year and six months 12-17Gallio refuses to judge the Jews’ accusation against Paul 18-23Paul travels through Ephesus, Caesarea, Antioch, Galatia, and Phrygia 24-28Apollos is instructed more perfectly and powerfully proves from Scripture that Jesus is Christ

After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth;

And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came unto them.

And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their occupation they were tentmakers.

And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.

And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ.

And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.

And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man's house, named Justus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.

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.

Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace:

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

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

And when Gallio was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul, and brought him to the judgment seat,

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

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, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you:

But if it be a question of words and names, and of your law, look ye to it; for I will be no judge of such matters.

And he drave them from the judgment seat.

Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. And Gallio cared for none of those things.

And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow.

And he came to Ephesus, and left them there: but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.

When they desired him to tarry longer time with them, he consented not;

But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus.

And when he had landed at Caesarea, and gone up, and saluted the church, he went down to Antioch.

And after he had spent some time there, he departed, and went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples.

And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus.

This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John.

And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.

And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace:

For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publickly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ.