Acts 18:18

18. Yet a good while He was, in consequence of this decisive check imposed by the Roman power upon Jewish hostility, enabled to fill out the eighteen months of Acts 18:11 in building probably the most powerful Church in Europe. The experiment was now settled that Europe was a true predisposed field for the Gospel. Japheth was at length to enter and dwell in the tents of Shem. Hereby Paul’s initiatory mission seemed to him fulfilled, and he turns his heart and feet back toward his native East.

Shorn his head Unquestionably it was Paul who had the vow; and not, as some commentators maintain, Aquila. By the Nazarite vow, a Jew for a period consecrated himself to God, avoiding strong drink, and allowing his hair to grow unsheared. At the end of the period he was to go to the temple, make a somewhat liberal offering, shave his head and burn the hair in the sacrificial fire, and so absolve himself from his vow, (Numbers 6:1-21.)

A vow of a less sacred nature could be made for various purposes. A Jew, as an act of devotion, would vow not to trim his hair until he had safely accomplished his journey. So the Jews (Acts 23:14) vowed neither to eat or drink until they had slain Paul. By a similar custom the Greeks and Romans were accustomed, after deliverance from some great danger, to trim the head and consecrate their hair to the god who had preserved them. In modern times, the temperance pledge and the baptismal engagements are of the nature of a vow. The jurors in our modern law vow with a formal oath not to eat or drink until they have agreed upon a verdict. As the apostle’s vow ended with his embarkation for Syria, it was probably an act of self-consecration dependent upon being successfully brought to the end of his present mission in Corinth.

Dr. Wordsworth notes the difference between κειραμενος , used here, which signifies to cut with shears, and ξυρησωνται , signifying to shave bare with a razor. It was the last of these which was done by the Nazarite at the temple to close his vow. Wordsworth suggests that Paul wore his hair long at Corinth, (where short hair was the sign of a slave,) trimmed his hair at Cenchrea for convenience, preparatory to shaving it at Jerusalem, for which purpose was his haste at Acts 18:21.

Had a vow Rather, had had a vow.

Cenchrea More accurately Cenchreae. Leaving Corinth, Paul would pass by a road about nine miles in length, lined by tokens of zealous paganism, to this the seaport of Corinth, in her vast trade with the East, particularly with Asia Minor, through the great city of Ephesus. The name is still retained in its modern form, Kikries, though the more educated Greek still affects to retain its ancient classical name, which is plausibly derived from the millet, κενκρι , (cencri,) natively growing there. A Church was established there probably by Paul, and from thence his messenger, Phebe, bore his letter to the Romans, (Romans 16:1.) The ancient site is visible at Kalamaki, the eastern station of the modern steamboats.