A Haircut

Fourth Tuesday of Easter

Lectionary Texts:

Acts 7:1-8:1

John 14:1-14

 

It's back to Bible Study today. Please read Acts 18:18-23.

 

Luke here provides us with a very brief travel narrative summary statement about what was a very long journey. Luke was not with Paul on this journey. Luke's sources apparently provide him little information about it. Paul takes Priscilla and Aquila with him on the first part of the journey. They will set sail from Cenchrea, just across the isthmus of Corinth on the Aegean side. Cenchrea was the major port for Corinth. There were no passenger ships as such. Ships hauling freight would take on passengers they had room for. 

The text tells us that Paul had his hair cut at Cenchrea, because he was under a vow. One Old Latin manuscript of the NT (ms. l) adds that Aquila also had his haircut. The Vulgate Latin version says that both Aquila and Priscilla had their hair cut. 

It's a curious vow. Luke does not explain it to us. The only vow involving hair  that we know about from elsewhere in the Bible is the Nazirite vow. The Nazirite vow seems opposite to Paul's vow. It is a vow never to have your haircut and never to drink wine or strong drink. John the Baptist and Samson are two Biblical characters who had this vow. Luke seems to think we know what Paul's vow means. We don't.

 

Priscilla and Aquila go with Paul only as far as Ephesus. They set up a home in Ephesus, where they entertained other Christian house guests and had a house church. Although they are minor characters in the NT, they are exemplary. They always had a church in their house (no church buildings at this time). Priscilla appears to be the more prominent of the two. Of the seven times they are mentioned in the NT, she is mentioned first four of those times. It was rare for a wife to be mentioned before her husband.

Paul continues his sea voyage to Caesarea, on the coast of Judea (modern day Israel). He then travels 35 miles inland to Jerusalem, where he meets with leaders of the Jerusalem Church. Luke tells us nothing about this meeting. Perhaps Paul also attended one of the Jewish festivals in Jerusalem. 

Paul then returned to his home base, Antioch. From there he went through the areas of Galatia and Phrygia in central Turkey to visit churches he had founded on his first visit there. 

Paul never sought to be an absentee controller of his churches. He wanted local leaders in all of them. But he was also fearful of other leaders coming in who opposed some of the basic Christian ideas. Paul particularly feared what scholars used to call "Judaizers," Jewish-Christians who insisted that any gentile male who wanted to be a Christian must undergo circumcision. His letter to the Galatians indicates that such "false brethren" did make their way into many of the churches in Galatia and persuaded many of their beliefs. 

Although this summary statement tells us little about what Paul did over this time period, which was likely at least a year, we do find Paul following his basic strategy, going to the synagoague (or Temple) and then to the gentile public. What is different in this trip is that Paul already has local Christians organized into churches. I'm sure he was as glad to see them as they were to see him.

God of the traveler,

We are thankful for those Christian travelers of the ancient past who fearless took the gospel message from one town to the next, even at the risk of their lives. We thank you especially for your apostle Paul, whose every mile spread the gospel more and more widely. In Christ's name. Amen.

Faithfully,

Christian