Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Acts 18:5

Acts 18:5. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. The older MSS., instead of the words τω ͂ͅ πνευ ́ ματι, in the spirit, read τω ͂ͅ λόγψ in the word , the translation would then run, ‘Paul was constrained by the word,' that is, when his two friends Silas and Timotheus came, their presence gave him a new impulse: he was able to work with better heart than when all alone he had to toil for his daily bread, and then, all weary and solitary, to meet the various checks and discouragements which so often perplex God's true servants in their work. It is not improbable that the assistance Timotheus brought him from his dear converts at Thessalonica in part, at least, freed him from the necessity of hard, unremitting labour (see 2 Corinthians 11:9). The word translated ‘was pressed' is a singular one; it was used once very solemnly by the Lord Himself (see Luke 12:50: ‘I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened (or pressed) till it be accomplished'). The word tells of an intense Divine impulse, urging to a work which brooks no delay or hesitation.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Acts 18:5

Old Testament

New Testament