Acts 18:18-23--Paul Returns to Antioch

Acts 18:18-23
English Standard Version

Paul Returns to Antioch
18 After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow. 19 And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. 20 When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. 21 But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus.

​22 When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch. 23 After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

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This marks the the end of Paul's Second Missionary Journey.  What originally start with Paul and Silas carrying the letter from The Jerusalem Council to all the Churches in Syria and Cilicia turned into them revisiting most of the areas Paul and Barnabas had visited in the past (though they did not revisit Lycia or Crete (probably Barnabas and John Mark visited these places).

We are told that at Cenchreae Paul took a vow of some sort.  We'll see something similar to this in chapter 21 when Paul is next in Jerusalem, but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself.  Cenchreae is a port city in Greece just east of Corinth and was the place that Paul and his companions would set out from to head to Ephesus, and Aquilla and Priscilla would accompany them to Ephesus to see them off (and likely to return with letters that they had written to their friends and to the churches--some of which we read in the New Testament Epistles).

If I had to guess, Paul's vow that he makes is probably that he is going to return to them again.  In Ephesus Paul does take a little time to teach them and they want Paul to stay with them for longer, but Paul explains that he can't stay any longer right now but he intends to come back (and he will).  We aren't told exactly what was compelling Paul to get back to Syrian Antioch, but I have a suspicion from things we read later regarding Paul's Third Missionary Journey that he probably wanted to get back to Jerusalem in time to celebrate Passover and Pentecost in Jerusalem with all his Jewish brothers in the faith.  He had spent a very long time away from home, things had gotten very difficult recently and it was at least time for him to go home and have a little respite as his missions report would encourage the churches in Antioch and Jerusalem, but it would also be a time of refreshing and encouragement for him and his companions.

Paul will set sail from Ephesus and the next place Luke records that they put into port will be at Caesarea--a port city with a Roman garrison on the Mediterranean Sea in Israel.  This strengthens my suspicions that Paul is trying to get back to Jerusalem, for if he was simply trying to get back to Syrian Antioch, then he probably would have put in somewhere much farther north (though boats are subject to the winds and the currents too, so as I said this is just suspicion on my part).

The beginning of the Third Missionary Journey starts in verse 23 as Paul will retrace his steps from his Second Missionary Journey and make his way back to Ephesus to make good on his promise to return to the Ephesian church.  We'll pick back up there in verse 24 next time.