¹After these things he left Athens and went to Corinth. ²And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them, ³and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and they were working, for by trade they were tent-makers. ⁴And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. ⁵But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. ⁶But when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

Continuing on his mission tour, Paul traveled west to Corinth, the moral cesspool of the ancient world. Its seedy reputation was so widely known that a most derisive, demeaning comment about a young woman was to call her a “Corinthian girl.” The city was situated at a major shipping route; travel from the eastern Mediterranean area to Rome normally passed through the Corinthian canal connecting the Aegean Sea (which separated Asia Minor from Greece) with the southern Adriatic Sea (which separated Greece from Italy). Military, shipping, trade, and business travel flowed through this port and city, with the resulting immorality typical in shipping ports. The church planted in Corinth struggled greatly with immorality of all sorts, having difficulty shaking off the worldly influence surrounding them.

We are introduced now to an influential couple, Aquila and Priscilla, who had fled the persecution of the Jews in Rome and landed in Corinth. They shared a common occupation with the apostle Paul, tent manufacturing, so a natural affinity existed. The apostle spent time making tents, supporting himself while preaching in the Sabbath services in the local synagogue (see Acts 20:34), that is, until Silas and Timothy rejoined him from Thessalonica, after which he devoted himself exclusively to his evangelism. It may be that the Philippians’ financial support made this possible as well (see Phil. 4:15–20).

As was his custom to preach Christ to the Jews first, so also the “custom” was for the Jews to resist this message. Luke calls their opposition blasphemy. In his gospel account, Luke describes the opposition to Christ using the same word (Luke 22:65). Paul’s response: shake it off and move on with a parting judgment (see Luke 10:10–11). If they resisted Jesus, they would resist Paul, and unbelievers will reject us as well.

Lord, though opposition may come, I commit to sharing my testimony of Christ.