Word Pictures in the New Testament - David Cox

Word Pictures in the NT [Acts: Chapter 18]
had given this promise to all believers (Mt 28:20) and here he
renews it to Paul. This promise changes Paul's whole outlook.
Jesus had spoken to Paul before, on the way to Damascus (9:4),
in Jerusalem (22:17f.), in Troas (16:9), in great crises of
his life. He will hear him again (23:11; 27:23). Paul knows the
voice of Jesus. {No man shall set on thee to harm thee} (\oudeis
epith•setai soi tou kak•sai se\). Future direct middle indicative
of \epitith•mi\, old and common verb, here in direct middle to
lay or throw oneself upon, to attack. Jesus kept that promise in
Corinth for Paul. \Tou kak•sai\ is genitive articular infinitive
of purpose of \kako•\, to do harm to. Paul would now face all the
rabbis without fear. {I have much people} (\laos estin moi
polus\). Dative of personal interest. "There is to me much
people," not yet saved, but who will be if Paul holds on. There
is the problem for every preacher and pastor, how to win the
elect to Christ.
18:11 {A year and six months} (\eniauton kai m•nas hex\).
Accusative of extent of time. How much time before this incident
he had been there we do not know. He was in Corinth probably a
couple of years in all. His work extended beyond the city (2Co
11:10) and there was a church in Cenchreae (Ro 16:1).
18:12 {When Gallio was proconsul of Achaia} (\Galli•nos de
anthupatou ontos t•s Achaias\). Genitive absolute of present
participle \ontos\. Brother of Seneca the Stoic (Nero's tutor)
and uncle of Lucan the author of the \Pharsalia\. His original
name was M. Annaeus Novatus till he was adopted by Gallio the
rhetorician. The family was Spanish. Gallio was a man of culture
and refinement and may have been chosen proconsul of Achaia for
this reason. Statius calls him "_dulcis Gallio_." Seneca says of
him: _Nemo enim mortalium uni tam dulcis quam hic omnibus_ (No
one of mortals is so pleasant to one person as he is to all).
Luke alone among writers says that he was proconsul, but Seneca
speaks of his being in Achaia where he caught fever, a
corroboration of Luke. But now a whitish grey limestone
inscription from the Hagios Elias quarries near Delphi (a letter
of Claudius to Delphi) has been found which definitely names
Gallio as proconsul of Achaia (\authupatos t•s Achaias\). The
province of Achaia after various shifts (first senatorial, then
imperial) back and forth with Macedonia, in A.D. 44 Claudius gave
back to the Senate with proconsul as the title of the governor.
It is amazing how Luke is confirmed whenever a new discovery is
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