Jesus

In the first part of the chapter (vv. 1-16) the journey to Rome reported in the previous chapter resumes and ends. The shipwreck survivors barely made it to the shores of Malta and the island’s inhabitants, evidently pagans, welcomed the survivors with «unusual kindness» (v. 2). Paul was bitten by a viper as he was gathering wood for the fire, but he remained unscathed; then God gave him the opportunity to work many healings. All this amazed the Maltese, who let the shipwrecked depart, providing them with «whatever [they] needed» (v. 10). After a few months they arrived by ship in Syracuse, then [...]

From the very beginning of his journey to Jerusalem, Paul knew that he would find great difficulty (20:22-25; 21:4-13). He also found there, however, a great intimacy with Jesus and just as he prayed in a place that, according to many Christians, a follower of Jesus should no longer attend: the Temple. Right there he was raptured in a trance, as we have already mentioned, and Jesus told him to hurry away from Jerusalem, because they would not receive his testimony (22:17-21). But Paul’s love for his people of Israel was extreme (Rom 9:3) and we saw that he did not want to [...]

At that time, Asia was a coastal region of present-day western Turkey, with Ephesus as its capital. At the beginning of the second missionary journey, the Holy Spirit had forbidden to go to Asia at that time (16:6), while at the end of the same journey the apostle had happened to land there in passing and had found a good reception by the Jews, but he did not stay long, intending to return with more tranquillity (18:19-21), a purpose which he then accomplished with his third journey. At the beginning of the chapter (vv. 1-7), Paul describes his meeting with twelve disciples [...]

[18:1-22]. Paul at Corinth. By now we have outlined Luke’s "filigree drawing", so we will focus on some new details. At Corinth the usual pattern repeats itself, with the variation that the head of the synagogue Crispus gets converted (v. 8), but is not followed by the majority of the Jews who indeed, after a year and a half (v. 11) tried in vain to have Paul arrested, and went to beat the new ruler of the synagogue Sosthenes (v. 17); evidently he too had become a believer and had kept the charge in the synagogue. The Lord told Paul in a [...]

[17:1-15]. Paul at Thessalonica and Berea. Thessalonica was more than a thousand kilometres away from Iconium and in the middle there was the sea, and yet the same pattern is repeated: preaching in the synagogue, adherence of a significant minority of Jews, adherence also of numerous Greeks, violent reaction of unbelieving Jews, who promote an alliance with the unbelieving Greeks. In Thessalonica and Berea, the Gospel reached even the highest social classes (vv. 4 and 12), showing that the whole of society was in a way ready to receive the message. Verse 6 contains an accusation to which every Christian aspires, [...]