Acts 20:1

Paul's Journey through MacedoniaHe remains at Corinth (probably) three months, and then returns by way of Philippi to Asia, 1-6.

Acts 20:1. And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to go into Macedonia. There is no evidence to show that the apostle's departure was caused, though it might have been hastened by the tumult which had taken place on account of the supposed slight shown by St. Paul and his friends to Artemis (Diana) of the Ephesians. He had already (see Acts 20:21-22 of preceding chapter) determined to leave Ephesus, and the words of the writer of the ‘Acts' here simply tell us that he waited until quiet was restored in the city, and then set out on the journey which he had previously resolved to make. For some reason to us unknown, the compiler of this history is very brief here, and passes over without a word a very important period in St. Paul's life. We are able, however, without difficulty to fill up the gap left in the narrative of the ‘Acts' from scattered notices in the epistles, especially from the second letter to the Corinthians.

From Ephesus, St. Paul seems to have gone by land direct to Alexandria Troas; there he waited anxiously (2 Corinthians 2:12) for the arrival of Titus, whom he had sent to Corinth on a mission, partly connected with the great collection then being made by the Gentile churches for the relief of their suffering Hebrew brethren in the mother Church of Jerusalem, partly on account of the grave disorders which were then existing in the turbulent and powerful Corinthian brotherhood. But Titus' coming was delayed, and the anxious apostle sailed to Europe in the hope of meeting him, and passed over from Troas to Macedonia. At Philippi, the old scene of his labours, then a flourishing and devoted Christian community, it is most probable (see Conybeare and Howson, St. Paul, chap. 17) he met at length his trusted disciple, and received much comfort from the news which Titus brought him from Corinth and its church.

The Second Epistle to the Corinthians was written evidently from Philippi. Charged with this letter, Titus was sent back again to Corinth. Freed from his pressing anxiety about the state of his loved Corinthian Church, St. Paul at once resumed his missionary labours, and besides visiting the cities on the western side of Macedonia on the shores of the Ægean, journeyed far in the East, on the Adriatic coast, and as we read in the Roman epistle, ‘fully preached the gospel of Christ round about unto Illyricum' (Romans 15:19).