Acts 18:18

Paul stayed in Corinth and ministered quite a while after Gallio’s decision. Eventually he decided to return to Jerusalem for a brief visit. He departed by ship from the Corinthian port town of Cenchrea, seven miles southeast of Corinth, for Syria. Priscilla and Aquila accompanied him as far as Ephesus, where they remained (Acts 18:19). Luke did not record what Silas and Timothy did.

". . . Paul set sail for Caesarea, giving as his reason for haste, according to the Western text, ’I must at all costs keep the coming feast at Jerusalem’. If, as is likely, the feast was Passover, he was planning to reach Jerusalem by April, A.D. 52. This was a bad time of the year for a sea voyage, and it has been suggested that one of the three shipwrecks which Paul refers to in 2 C. Acts 11:25 may have occurred between Ephesus and Caesarea." [Note: Neil, p. 199.]

This questionable textual reading may explain part of Paul’s reason for going to Jerusalem, but Luke definitely recorded that Paul had taken a vow. This vow, which was optional for Jews, involved, among other things, leaving one’s hair uncut. Jews took vows either to get something from God or because God had done something for them (cf. Leviticus 27). They were, therefore, expressions of dedication or thanksgiving. Perhaps Paul took this vow out of gratitude to God for the safety He had granted him in Corinth. At the end of the vow, the person who made it would cut his hair and offer it as a burnt offering, along with a sacrifice, on the altar in Jerusalem (cf. Numbers 6:1-21). [Note: See Mishnah Nazir 1:1-9:5; and Josephus, The Wars . . ., 2:15:1]

"There are a great many folk who find fault with Paul because he made a vow. They say that this is the man who preached that we are not under Law but we are under grace, and so he should not have made a vow. Anyone who says this about Paul is actually making a little law for Paul. Such folk are saying that Paul is to do things their way. Under grace, friend, if you want to make a vow, you can make it. And if you do not want to make a vow, you don’t have to. Paul didn’t force anyone else to make a vow. In fact, he said emphatically that no one has to do that. But if Paul wants to make a vow, that is his business. That is the marvelous freedom that we have in the grace of God today." [Note: McGee, 4:594. Cf. Marshall, The Acts . . ., p. 300.]

Even under the Old Covenant vows were optional. Evidently Paul had his hair cut just before he made his vow, when he left Cenchrea for Syria. He would have cut it when he arrived in Jerusalem. It seems less likely that he would have cut his hair at the end of his vow in Cenchrea and then carried it all the way to Jerusalem. Ironside believed Paul took this vow before his conversion. [Note: Ironside, Lectures on . . ., p. 421.] This seems unlikely. This explanation may be an attempt to separate Paul as a Christian from Jewish customs, but Paul clearly practiced other Jewish customs after he became a Christian (cf. Acts 21:17-36). This was probably a private vow rather than a Nazirite vow. [Note: Bock, Acts, p. 586.]

Cenchrea was the eastern seaport of Corinth on the Aegean Sea. There was a church there later and perhaps already at this time (Romans 16:1).