Acts 18:1 to 4 · Story · Diligence
Paul the Tentmaker
Acts and Paul's letters tell of an apostle who worked with his hands in the cities where he founded churches.
Paul could have claimed his living from the church he founded at Corinth, and he made tents there instead.
and he stayed and worked with them because they were tentmakers by trade, just as he was.
- Where
- Thessalonica, Corinth, Ephesus, Miletus
- Who
- Paul, Aquila, Priscilla, Silas, Timothy
Summary
Paul kept a trade through his years of preaching, and at Corinth it gave him a home with Aquila and Priscilla and a living while he taught. The letters he wrote to the churches of Thessalonica and Corinth return to that work again and again and give it a purpose. In Paul's life diligence is steady work with the hands for the sake of others.
- Luke calls Paul's trade skenopoios, tentmaker, a word found in the New Testament only in Acts 18:3.
- At Corinth Paul worked through the week and reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, until Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia.
- Paul refused support from the churches he was serving so that he could offer the gospel free of charge.
- At Thessalonica he worked night and day to give the church an example to imitate.
- At Miletus he reminded the Ephesian elders that his own hands had met his needs and his companions' needs.
A Trade Beside the Gospel
The story begins at Corinth in Acts 18 and gathers what Paul's letters add.
This is the story of Paul at his trade, told from the week he found Aquila and Priscilla at Corinth and from the letters in which he speaks of his work. It belongs to diligence, the value of steady and careful work that Scripture asks of every believer. His story shows diligence kept up beside a larger work.
The question it answers is why a man with a right to be supported worked for his bread, and what his work taught the churches. The story sets his work on a timeline and tells each scene from its verses. It reads the Greek word for his trade and the senses commentators have given it, and it gives three readings of why he worked. Work as a calling is taught on Work and Vocation, and the lives of Paul and Priscilla on their own pages.
Paul at Work in Eight Events
Five of the eight events come from Acts and three from Paul's letters to the Philippians, the Corinthians and the Thessalonians.
The eight events run from Thessalonica to Miletus, and in four of them Paul is at work with his own hands.
- At Thessalonica Paul and his companions work to support themselvesThessalonica, 1 Thessalonians 2:91 Thessalonians 2:9
- The Philippians send gifts to Paul at ThessalonicaThessalonica, Philippians 4:16Philippians 4:16
- Paul comes from Athens to Corinth and finds Aquila and Priscilla, exiles from RomeCorinth, Acts 18:1 to 2Acts 18:1 to 2
- Paul lodges and works with them in their shared tradeCorinth, Acts 18:3Acts 18:3
- Each Sabbath Paul debates with the synagogue's hearersCorinth, Acts 18:4Acts 18:4
- Silas and Timothy arrive from Macedonia, and Paul gives himself to preachingCorinth, Acts 18:5Acts 18:5
- Writing from Ephesus, Paul tells the Corinthians that he still worksEphesus, 1 Corinthians 4:121 Corinthians 4:12
- At Miletus Paul shows the Ephesian elders his handsMiletus, Acts 20:34Acts 20:34
A timeline of eight events in the order of Paul's travels, each card naming its place and its verse.
Writing from Ephesus, Paul tells the Corinthians that he still works, At Miletus Paul shows the Ephesian elders his hands
The Work Told in Order
Luke tells the Corinth scenes in five verses, and Paul's letters add what Acts leaves out.
Before Corinth, Paul had preached for three Sabbaths in the synagogue at Thessalonica. Writing to that church afterward in his second letter, he reminded them how he had lived among them.
For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not undisciplined among you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. Instead, in labor and toil, we worked night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you. Not that we lack this right, but we wanted to offer ourselves as an example for you to imitate.The passage stands first because it gives the purpose behind all of Paul's labor, a pattern set for a church.
In the same chapter he repeats the rule he had given while he was with them, "If anyone is unwilling to work, he shall not eat". The rule followed the example, and both were aimed at believers who had stopped working.
From Thessalonica Paul went on by way of Berea and Athens to Corinth, a city where he had no friends and no church.
After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to visit them,Luke names the couple's home country and their recent move, so Paul's hosts were newcomers to the city as he was.
Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks alike.The verse sets his weekday trade beside his weekly preaching, which shows that the work never crowded out the gospel.
And when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself fully to the word, testifying to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ.The arrival of his companions frees Paul to preach, which suggests the trade had taken time he would otherwise have given to the word.
Paul's second letter to the Corinthians says where the help came from when Silas and Timothy arrived.
And when I was with you and in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my needs. I have refrained from being a burden to you in any way, and I will continue to do so.The verse shows that Paul's refusal of support was aimed at the church he was serving, while other churches helped him.
Paul stayed at Corinth a year and a half and later spent years at Ephesus. From there he wrote to Corinth that the work went on.
To this very hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are vilified, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it;Hunger, poor clothing and homelessness stand in the same list as the work of his hands, so Paul counts his trade among the hardships of an apostle.
On his way to Jerusalem Paul stopped at Miletus, sent for the elders of the church at Ephesus and spoke to them of his conduct among them.
I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands of mine have ministered to my own needs and those of my companions.Paul sets his own working hands against any desire for another man's silver, gold or clothing.
Acts 18:4, Acts 18:5, 2 Corinthians 11:9, 1 Corinthians 4:11 to 12, Acts 20:33 to 34
The Word for His Trade
Luke's word for the trade is skenopoios, and commentators have given it more than one sense.
In the Greek of Acts 18:3 Paul stayed with Aquila and Priscilla because he was homotechnon, of the same trade, and the verb ergazeto, he was working, is an imperfect. The STEP Bible lexicon from Tyndale House glosses skenopoioi, the word for their trade, as a manufacturer of tents.
Paul's own words for the work are kopos, labor, beside mochthos, hardship, in 1 Thessalonians 2:9, and kopiao, to toil, in 1 Corinthians 4:12. Abbott-Smith's lexicon, as the STEP Bible prints it, gives the second sense of kopiao as to work with effort, to toil.
A maker of tents of hair-cloth or leatherJohn Gill, Exposition of the New Testament, on Acts 18:3
John Gill's first reading is that they made tents for soldiers, "which were made of sack cloth of hair, or of leather, and of the skins of various animals", sewn together. He also allows tents of another kind, "canopies made of linen, and other things", raised in summer for shade.
The objection: Luke names the trade and leaves its material unnamed, so the choice between cloth and leather rests on the customs of the time.
A craft wider than tentsOthers reported by John Gill; the Syriac version; Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, on Acts 18:3
Gill reports that others took the work for "hangings, which they made for theatres, palaces, and stately rooms", and that "according to the Syriac version, they were horses' trappings which they made". Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on the Bible, suggests that a tent-maker was "what perhaps we would call a house-carpenter".
The objection: the Greek word joins the words for a tent and for making, and the lexicon's gloss keeps that sense.
A Trade for a Pupil of Gamaliel
Paul was trained under Gamaliel, a teacher of the law.
“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but raised in this city. I was educated at the feet of Gamaliel in strict conformity to the law of our fathers. I am just as zealous for God as any of you here today.Paul names his schooling at the feet of Gamaliel, so the trade he kept belonged to a man trained in the law.
John Wesley's Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament explain the trade by a Jewish custom. Wesley writes that "it was a rule among the Jews (and why is it not among the Christians?) to bring up all their children to some trade, were they ever so rich or noble". Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add that "Paul made it a point of conscience to work at that which he had probably been bred to". They give two reasons, "that he might not be burdensome to the churches" and "that his motives as a minister of Christ might not be liable to misconstruction".
Both statements are the commentators' accounts of the custom, and neither names the Jewish source it rests on.
The Right He Did Not Use
In 1 Corinthians 9 Paul argues for the preacher's right to support and then explains why he gave it up.
Or are Barnabas and I the only apostles who must work for a living?Paul's question shows that he and Barnabas were known for working for their living while other apostles were supported.
In the same way, the Lord has prescribed that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel. But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this to suggest that something be done for me. Indeed, I would rather die than let anyone nullify my boast.The pairing is why commentators can read Paul's work as a free choice.
What then is my reward? That in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not use up my rights in preaching it.The verse gives Paul's own answer to why he worked, the question the commentators weigh.
Paul's diligence at his trade served the gospel and the church, so that no one he preached to would carry his cost.
A Preacher on the Tentmaker
A preacher of the early church turned Paul's trade into a rebuke of idle Christians.
died 407 · John Chrysostom
Homily on Acts 39
The quotation1 quotation
“Lo, what a justification he found for dwelling in the same house with them! For because here, of all places, it was necessary that he should not receive, as he himself says, ‘That wherein they glory, they may be found, even as we,’ it is providentially ordered that he there abides. Observe how, not in Jerusalem, nor near it the crisis was hasting to come, but at a greater distance. And with him he abides, and is not ashamed to abide, nay, for this very reason he does abide, as having a suitable lodging-place, for to him it was much more suitable than any king's palace. And smile not thou, beloved, to hear of his occupation. For it was good for him even as to the athlete the palaestra is more useful than delicate carpets; so to the warrior the iron sword is useful, not that of gold. ‘And wrought,’ though he preached. Let us be ashamed, who though we have no preaching to occupy us, live in idleness.”
John Chrysostom · Homily on Acts 39 · on Acts 18:3Patristic
Three Readings of Why Paul Worked
Paul gives reasons in his letters, and commentators weigh them in three ways.
For the gospel's sake in particular churchesMatthew Henry; John Gill
Matthew Henry, in his Commentary on the Whole Bible, writes that Paul "maintained himself with his own labour that he might not make the gospel of Christ burdensome". John Gill, in his Exposition of the New Testament, says Paul took nothing at Corinth so "that the false teachers, who rose up among them, might not make any handle of it against him". Gill adds that "he thought it his just due to receive a maintenance from the churches".
The objection: Paul worked at Thessalonica and at Ephesus as well as at Corinth, so his reason was larger than the false teachers of one city.
As a pattern for every believerPaul in 2 Thessalonians 3:9; John Chrysostom, Homily 39 on Acts
Paul names the example as his purpose in 2 Thessalonians 3:9, and John Chrysostom holds the same reading in his Homily 39 on Acts.
The objection: Paul defends the preacher's right in the same letter, so his own refusal was a choice for his own ministry.
Out of needAlbert Barnes, Notes on the New Testament, on Acts 18:3
Albert Barnes writes that "Why he did it the historian does not affirm; but it seems pretty evident that it was because he had no other means of maintenance."
The objection: Paul presents his refusal as a choice he made, so his work was more than a want of other means.
Hands That Served Others
Paul's trade kept him from being a burden and gave him something to give. He ended his charge to the Ephesian elders with that second purpose and with a saying of Jesus that the Berean text records only here.
In everything, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus Himself: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”The verse closes the story because it turns Paul's own practice into a rule for every church.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- The tagged Greek text of the New Testament, with Strong's numbers, morphology and glosses (STEP Bible, Tyndale House, Cambridge, CC BY 4.0)
- STEP Bible TBESG, the brief lexicon based on Abbott-Smith (1922), entries g4635 and g2872 (Tyndale House, Cambridge, CC BY 4.0)
- John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746 to 1748), on Acts 18:3.
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, on Acts 18:3.
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Acts 18:3.
- Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, on Acts 18:3.
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), on Acts 18:3.
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on Acts 18:3.
- John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles, Homily 39, translated by Walker, Sheppard and Browne, revised by Stevens, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, volume 11 (1889)
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