Acts 19:21

Now after these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome. And having sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.

Purposed in the spirit ... I must see Rome ... Paul's plans were made prayerfully and with his considered best judgment; and here is the first historical mention of his avowed purpose of going to Rome, a purpose often thwarted, until at last, in circumstances he could never have dreamed of, he came down the Appian way, between two soldiers, wearing a chain.

Wesley has a moving comment on the breadth of vision and daring courage of this mighty apostle. He said:

Paul sought not to rest, but pressed on as if he had yet done nothing. He is already possessed of Ephesus and Asia; but he purposes for Macedonia and Achaia. He has his eye upon Jerusalem, then upon Rome, afterward on Spain (Romans 15:24). No Caesar, no Alexander the Great, no other hero comes up to the magnanimity of this little Benjamite. Faith and love to God and man had enlarged his heart, even as the sand of the sea.[27]

Timothy and Erastus ... Timothy frequently traveled with Paul; and, again and again, made excursions in Paul's name to visit the young churches (Acts 17:16,17). Erastus is mentioned again in 2 Timothy 4:20; and in Romans 16:23 a man of this name is mentioned as "the treasurer of the city (Corinth)." "Several authorities suggest that these two men are the same person";[28] and strong agreement is felt with Plumptre who declared that "Erastus may fairly be identified with the chamberlain or steward of Corinth (Romans 16:23)."[29] Jack Lewis, however, observed that "An inscription in the theater at Corinth informs us that Erastus ... (held the office of) AEDILE,"[30] not the same as that of "treasurer." This, to be sure, does not prove that Erastus was not "treasurer" when Paul wrote; because city offices then, as now, often were served by men who had experience in more than one office.

Timothy ... was sent into Macedonia; and the purpose of his mission is clear from 1 Corinthians 4:17. "He was sent on in advance to warn and exhort, saving the apostle from the necessity of using severity when he himself arrived."[31]

First and Second Corinthians, Galatians and Romans "all belong to the period of Paul's third missionary journey," according to ISBE, although, as noted earlier (introduction to Acts 15), there appear to be good reasons to suppose that Galatians might properly belong to the period near the time of the Jerusalem council. The dates of all these "four great, or principal epistles of Paul" belong to studies of the epistles themselves. Nevertheless, it seems quite certain that in the period covered by the above verses, Paul wrote the Corinthians both epistles.

[27] Ibid.

[28] Herbert Lockyer, All the Men of the Bible (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1958), p. 113.

[29] E. H. Plumptre, op. cit., p. 132.

[30] Jack P. Lewis, Historical Backgrounds of Bible History (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1971), p. 173.

[31] E. H. Plumptre, op. cit., p. 132.