The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 2 — Section 86

EXPOSITION. Aquila.. A Roman name, Grmcized into CHAPTER XVIII, 'A1e~A<n. Knights o.nd tribunes and others Ver. 1.-He for Paul, A.V. and T.R. of the no.me occur in Roman history. After these things, etc. No hint is given Whether the Jewish family residing in by St. Luke a.a to the length of Paul's Pontus took the na.rne of Aquil& from any sojourn at Athens. But as the dou?le of these Romane is not known. Aquila., journey of the Bermane, who accompamed the translator of the Old Testament into him to Athens, back to Berma, and of Greek a.bout A.D. 130, was also a. Jew of Timothy from Berma to Athens, amounted PontllB, the old kingdom of Mithridates. to above five hundred miles (Lewin, p. 268), That there was a considerable colony of we cannot suppose it to have been less than Jews in Pontus appears also from 1 Pet. i. 1 a month; a.ud it may have been a good deal and eh, ii. 9. Priocilla.. Also called Pruca more. Hie reasonings in the synagogue (2 Tim. :iv. 19). So in classical authors, with the Jews and devout Greeks, apparently Livia and Livilla, Drusa and Dru..silla, are on successive sa.bbaths, his daily disputations Used of the same persons (Howson, p. 415). in the Agoro., apparently not begun till Prisca. is a not uncommon name for Roman after he had "waited" some time for Silas women. The masculine Prisons occurs and Timothy, the knowledge he had very frequently. Aquila. and Priscilla were acquired of the numerous temples and among the most active Christians, and the altars e.t Athens, and the phrase with which most devoted friends of St. Paul (vers. 18, this chapter begins, a.II indicate e. stay of 26; Rom. xvi. 3, 4, 5; 1 Cor. xvi. 19; 2 Tim. some length. Came to Corinth. If by land, iv. 19); and were evidently persons of a fOl"ty miles' or two days' journey, through culture as well as piety. Lately; ,rpoacpa.Tws Eleusis and Mega.re.; if by sea, a day's sail. (i.q. ,rp&cr,Pa.TOv, Pindar, etc.), only found here Lewin thinks he co.me by see., and that it in the New Testament. But it occurs in was in winter, and that possibly one of the the LXX. of Dent. xxi.v. 5 and Ezek. xi. 3, shipwrecks mentioned in 2 Cor. xi. 25 mo.y and in the apocryphal books repeatedly, have occurred e.t this time. Corinth, at this and in Polybius. The adjective ,rpt!crcpa.To<, time e. Roman colony, the capital of the which is also used by the LXX. and the province of Ache.io., and the residence of Apocrypha and in clossical Greek for" new," the proconsul. It was a great commercial is used only once in the New Testament, city, the centro of the trade of the Levo.nt, in Heb. x. 20. It means properly "newly e.nd consequently e. great resort of the Jews. killed," hence anything "recent," "fresh, It ho.d a very large Greek popnlution. or "new." Both the adjective and the Anciont Corinth hacl been dost1·oyecl by adverb are very common in mc<lical writings. Mummius, surnamed Ache.icus, u.o. 146, Claudius had commanded all the J'ews to and remained waste Up1,µ.11) many years. depart from Rome. Suetonius mentions the Julius Croso.r founded e. Roman colony on fa.et, but unfortunately does not say in what the old sito (Howson), "consisting princi- year of Claudius's reign it took pl11ce. Hi~ pally of freedmen, among whom were great account is that, in conseq ucnce of frequent numbers of the Jewish race." Corinth, as disturbances ancl riots o.mon:; the Jews at a Romlln colony, ho.d its duumviri, ns Rppears tho instigation of Chrcstus, Claudius drove by coins of the reign of Claudius (Lewin, p. them from Rome. It seems almost certain, 2'i I). o.s Renan saye,especially combining Tt1citus's Ver. 2.-He found for found, A.V.; aeconnt (' Annal.,' xv. 44) of the sprca,\ of " mnn of Pontus by race for born in Ponfos, Chrislinnity in tho city of Rome bcf,ire the A.V.; /Jecause for because that, A.V.; the tin10 of Nero, that Chrestus (Greek Xp~crTo,) J.-wa for Jews, A.V.; he came for came, A.V is only a corruption of the name Christ,  TB.E AC'l'S OP 'l'IIE Al'OSTLlnS. (cu. u·m. 1-29.