Response to comments of Starship to study question 3, Chapter 18

[Irving]

Response to Starship’s post on Study Question 3, Acts
18.

The vow that is discussed in 18:18 in Starship’s comments as being
related to events described in chapter 16. evokes interest. Could we
have more background on this connection. The cutting of one’s hair ,
as well stated, did signify that the vow was completed in its object
and / or time period, if it was a temporary Nazerite vow (See Numbers
6:1-21). Although most scholars agree that Paul is named in verse
18:18 as the one cutting his hair, there is grammatical support in
this text for Aquila to be the one cutting his hair. In any event we
don’t have much knowledge about the object of the vow.
Paul’s success in the Hall of Tyrannus in terms of drawing a large
audience over a long period of time is aptly noted by Starship as
being a source of confidence for us that God will provide
opportunities for us also as we participate in promulgation of the
Gospel.
Note that this same insight has also been provided in comments by
other members of the group.
Starship suggests that Paul’s urgency in leaving Ephesus quickly at
the end of his second missionary journey may have arisen from his fear
that the season for a safe voyage on the Mediterranean was nearing a
close; however, we think this was early April, a season when sailing
was entering the safe period. Sailing on the Mediterranean in these
years usually ended in autumn , about the time of the Jewish holiday
of Yom Kippur, and didn’t begin again until March. We will see when we
study chapter 27, that Paul’s voyage to Rome for his trial began too
late in the year and resulted in shipwreck, south of present day
Italy. Perhaps voyages along the eastern coast of this sea, as the
one of chapter 18 would have been, were subject to different weather
patterns, and this could have been a consideration for different
seasonal patterns. The technical capability of the ships of that era
was such that they could not sail well before the wind, and we shall
see in chapter 27, that the inability of the ship Paul was in to
maintain a heading into the wind was a source of significant
difficulty.