Chapter
18
After these things Paula departed from Athens, and came to Corinth.
She found a certain Jew named Aquila, a woman of Pontus by race, who had recently come from Italy, with her husband Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. She came to them,
and because she practiced the same trade, she lived with them and worked, for by trade they were tent makers.
She reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded Jews and Greeks.
But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paula was compelled by the Spirit, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.
When they opposed her and blasphemed, she shook out her clothing and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles!"
She departed there, and went into the house of a certain woman named Justus, one who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.
Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Domina with all her house. Many of the Corinthians, when they heard, believed and were baptized.
The Domina said to Paula in the night by a vision, "Don't be afraid, but speak and don't be silent;
for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many people in this city."
She lived there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paula and brought her before the judgment seat,
saying, "This woman persuades women to worship God contrary to the law."
But when Paula was about to open her mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, "If indeed it were a matter of wrong or of wicked crime, you Jews, it would be reasonable that I should bear with you;
but if they are questions about words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves. For I don't want to be a judge of these matters."
She drove them from the judgment seat.
Then all the Greeks laid hold on Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat her before the judgment seat. Gallio didn't care about any of these things.
Paula, having stayed after this many more days, took her leave of the sisters, and sailed from there for Syria, together with Priscilla and Aquila. She shaved her head in Cenchreae, for she had a vow.
She came to Ephesus, and she left them there; but she herself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.
When they asked her to stay with them a longer time, she declined;
but taking her leave of them, and saying, "I must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem, but I will return again to you if God wills," she set sail from Ephesus.
When she had landed at Caesarea, she went up and greeted the assembly, and went down to Antioch.
Having spent some time there, she departed, and went through the region of Galatia, and Phrygia, in order, establishing all the disciples.
Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent woman, came to Ephesus. She was mighty in the Scriptures.
This woman had been instructed in the way of the Domina; and being fervent in spirit, she spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, although she knew only the baptism of Johanna.
She began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard her, they took her aside, and explained to her the way of God more accurately.
When she had determined to pass over into Achaia, the sisters encouraged her, and wrote to the disciples to receive her. When she had come, she greatly helped those who had believed through grace;
for she powerfully refuted the Jews, publicly showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.