Acts 18:23

18:18-23 While Paul found he laboured not in vain, he continued labouring. Our times are in God's hand; we purpose, but he disposes; therefore we must make all promises with submission to the will of God; not only if providence permits, but if God does not otherwise direct our motions. A very good refreshment it is to a faithful minister, to have for awhile the society of his brethren. Disciples are compassed about with infirmity; ministers must do what they can to strengthen them, by directing them to Christ, who is their Strength. Let us earnestly seek, in our several places, to promote the cause of Christ, forming plans that appear to us most proper, but relying on the Lord to bring them to pass if he sees good.

And after he had spent some time there,.... At Antioch: he departed; from thence: and went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples; that were in those parts, confirming them in the faith of Christ, and fortifying their minds against the temptations of Satan, and encouraging them to bear the reproaches and persecutions of men; which shows the affection, diligence, and industry of the apostle: it seems there were disciples in these countries of Galatia and Phrygia, which very likely were made by the apostle, when he passed trough those places, Acts 16:6 and who were the beginning of Gospel churches in these places, which continued for ages after: certain it is, there were churches in Galatia in the apostle's time, of whom he makes mention, and to whom he wrote, 1 Corinthians 16:1.

Had spent some time there; this work might take up the constant care and indefatigable pains of the apostle. Galatia; where he had converted many. Phrygia: see Acts 16:6 . Strengthening all the disciples; though the seed be duly sown, yet it must be seasonably watered; and redit labor actus in orbem.

Ac 18:23-21:16. Paul's Third and Last Missionary Journey—He Visits the Churches of Galatia and Phrygia. 23. And after he had spent some time there—but probably not long. he departed—little thinking, probably, he was never more to return to Antioch. went over all … Galatia and Phrygia in order—visiting the several churches in succession. See on [2050]Ac 16:6. Galatia is mentioned first here, as he would come to it first from Antioch. It was on this visitation that he ordained the weekly collection (1Co 16:1, 2), which has been since adopted generally, and converted into a public usage throughout Christendom. Timotheus and Erastus, Gaius and Aristarchus, appear to have accompanied him on this journey (Ac 19:22, 29; 2Co 1:1), and from Second Corinthians we may presume, Titus also. The details of this visit, as of the former (Ac 16:6), are not given.

Verse 23. - Having for after he had , A.V.; through the region for over all the country , A.V.; stablishing for strengthening , A.V. Having spent some time there ( Acts 15:33 , note). How long we have no means of knowing; probably under six months; "quelques mois" (Renan, pp. 329,330 ); "four months" (Lewin, 1:370, note; camp. 1 Car. 16:6, 7; Acts 19:22 ). According to Renan, Lewin, 'Speaker's Commentary,' and many others, it was at this time that the meeting with St. Peter occurred to which St. Paul refers in Galatians 2:11 , etc. And Renan ingeniously connects that perversion of the faith of the Galatians which led to St. Paul's Epistle being addressed to them, with the visit to Antioch of James's emissaries, Lewin also identifies the journey of St Paul to Jerusalem mentioned in Galatians 2:1 with that recorded in our ver. 22. But neither of these theories is borne out by any known facts, nor is in itself probable. There is no appearance of Barnabas or Titus being with St. Paul at this time, and it is very unlikely that any should have come from James to Antioch so immediately after St. Paul's salutation of the Church at Jerusalem and the fulfillment of his vow there. The time preceding the visit of Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem, as related in Acts 15 , is far the most likely for the encounter of the two apostles (see Acts 14:28 ; Acts 15:1 , and note). Went through ; διερχόμενος , as in Acts 8:4, 40 ; Acts 10:38 ; Acts 13:6 ; Acts 16:6 ; Acts 17:23 , etc.

The region of Galatia and Phrygia . In Acts 16:6 the order is inverted, "the region of Phrygia and Galatia," R.V., or "Phrygia and the region of Galatia," A.V. The natural inference from this is, as Lewin says, with whom Farrar agrees, that on this occasion St. Paul went straight from Antioch to Galatia, passing through the Cilician Gates and by Mazaca, or Caesarea, as it was called by Tiberius Caesar, in Cappadocia, and not visiting the Churches of Lycaonia. He proceeded from Galatia through Phrygia to Ephesus. The distance from Antioch to Tarsus was one hundred and forty-one miles, from whence to Tavium in Galatia was two hundred and seventy-one miles, making the whole distance from Antioch to Tavium in Galatia four hundred and twelve miles, or about a three weeks' journey including rest on the sabbath days. From Galatia to Ephesus would be between six hundred and seven hundred miles. The entire journey would thus be considerably more than a thousand miles, a journey of forty days exclusive of all stoppages. Six months probably must have elapsed between his departure from Antioch and his arrival at Ephesus; Lewin says "several months" (p. 330, note). In order ; in the same order, though inverted, in which he had first visited them, leaving out none. Stablishing , etc. ( ἐπιστηρίζων ); see above, Acts 14:22 ; Acts 15:32, 41 . Acts 18:23

23 . And after he had spent some time there ] Having felt for themselves the troubles of the Judaizers, the people at Antioch would sympathize with the Apostle, if he were experiencing like opposition now to his own work. he departed ] Starting from Antioch as on both his former missions. and went over all the country ( region ) of Galatia and Phrygia in order ] Taking no doubt the same direction as before, and so visiting Lystra and Derbe, before he came to the more northern portions of Asia Minor. strengthening all the disciples ] The verb is elsewhere always rendered “confirming” both in the A. V. and in the Revised Version (cp. Acts 14:22 ; Acts 15:32 ; Acts 15:41 ). Here in the Rev. Ver. it is changed to “stablishing” which does perhaps contain the idea of “making firm” a little more fully than “strengthen” does. “Confirming” was to be avoided here because of the use of that word now as signifying the Church’s rite of “Confirmation.”

(23) Went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order. —It is clear from the Epistle to the Galatians that on this visit he found few traces, or none at all, of the work of the Judaisers. The change came afterwards. Some falling away from their first love, some relapse into old national vices, he may have noticed already which called for earnest warning ( Galatians 5:21 ). As he passed through the churches he had founded on his previous journey, he gave the directions for the weekly appropriation of what men could spare from their earnings (the term, a weekly “offertory,” though often employed of it, does not represent the facts of the case), to which he refers in 1Corinthians 16:2 . What churches in Phrygia were visited we are unable to say. A possible construction of Colossians 2:1 might lead us to think of those of the valley of the Lycus, Colossæ, Hierapolis, Laodicea, as having been founded by him, but the more probable interpretation of that passage is, that he included them in the list of those who had not seen his face in the flesh.

Acts 18:23 . ποιήσας χρόνον τινὰ : St. Paul would naturally have spent some time in a place so associated with the origin of Gentile Christianity, and with his own labours, the starting place of each of his missionary journeys; on the phrase in St. Luke see Friedrich, cf. Acts 15:33 , Acts 20:3 , Jam 4:13 , Revelation 13:5 , St. Matthew 20:12 , 2 Corinthians 11:25 .—The stay was probably not lengthy, especially if advantage was to be taken of the travelling season for the highlands of Asia Minor, Turner, Chronology of N. T. , p. 422, Hastings’ B.D. On the connection of the Galatian Epistle with this stay in Antioch see Ramsay, especially St. Paul , pp. 190, 265.— ἐξῆλθε , on his third missionary journey.— καθεξῆς , see above on p. 118.— διερχόμενος , see above on Acts 13:6 .