32nd Day of Easter, Wednesday May 13: Acts 18:1-17

Paul’s next stop, Corinth, was for 18 months. Acts tells us he lived and worked at his trade of tent-making with Aquila and his wife Priscilla, Jewish exiles from Italy, originally from Pontus in Asia. Silas and Timothy visit, and Titius Justus and Crispus are patrons of influence (and Roman names). Corinth is known to us as a fractious crowd, from Paul’s letters to them in later years, ‘I&II Corinthians’.

There’s a narrative theme here of Paul’s uncertainty about who’s with him and who’s against him. God encourages him to believe that many of the crowd are with him, even though they don’t show it much – I know what that feels like! He is obliged to speak his truth, and trust others to align as conscience demands.

The lynching attempt led by Sosthenes is declined by Gallio this time, who refuses as an agent of the state to rule on religious matters – a fair model for all time. The crowd in turn mugs Sosthenes in rough justice – and Gallio turns a blind eye to that, as he did to the harassment of Paul. ‘De minimis non curat lex’.