Paul in Ephesus and the Collection for Jerusalem

After some time at Antioch, Paul set out again through Galatia and Phrygia (Acts 18:22–23). Before he reached Ephesus, a Jew from Alexandria named Apollos had come there, an eloquent man who knew the Scriptures well and taught about Jesus but knew only the baptism of John. Priscilla and Aquila took him aside and explained the way more accurately, and he went on to Achaia (Acts 18:24–19:1).

Paul taught at Ephesus for three months in the synagogue and then for two years in the hall of Tyrannus, so that, Acts says, all who lived in the province of Asia heard the message (Acts 19:8–10). Acts tells of healings, of Jewish exorcists who tried to use the name of Jesus, and of magicians who burned their books (Acts 19:11–20). From Ephesus Paul wrote to Corinth, where the church had split into parties that used the names of Paul, Apollos and Cephas (1 Corinthians 1:11–12) (1 Corinthians 16:8). He speaks of “many adversaries” in Ephesus and of a danger in Asia so grave that he despaired of life (1 Corinthians 16:9) (2 Corinthians 1:8–10). Acts tells of a riot: the silversmith Demetrius, whose trade was in shrines of Artemis, roused the craftsmen, and a crowd filled the theatre and shouted for two hours, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”, until the town clerk dismissed them (Acts 19:23–41).

Through these years Paul was organising a collection. He told the churches of Galatia and Corinth to set money aside on the first day of each week (1 Corinthians 16:1–4). He went on to Macedonia, where the churches gave beyond their means, and pressed Corinth to finish what it had begun a year before (Acts 20:1) (2 Corinthians 8:1–11). He then spent three months in Greece (Acts 20:2–3). His letter to the Christians of Rome, written as he was about to leave for Jerusalem, says that he is carrying the gift of Macedonia and Achaia to the poor among the believers there, and that he hopes afterwards to visit Rome on his way to Spain (Romans 15:23–28). The Gentiles, he wrote, had shared in the spiritual goods of the Jerusalem believers and owed them a share of their material ones. He asked for prayer that he would be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea and that the gift would be accepted (Romans 15:27, 30–31).

A plot made him return through Macedonia. He sailed from Philippi after the feast of Unleavened Bread and at Miletus sent for the elders of Ephesus, telling them that they would not see him again (Acts 20:3–6, 17–38). At Caesarea the prophet Agabus bound his own hands and feet with Paul’s belt as a sign of what awaited him, and Paul went up to Jerusalem (Acts 21:8–17).

The letters to Corinth and to Rome come from these years. In the chapters of Acts cited here the collection is not described. In Paul’s later defence before Felix he says that he came to bring alms and offerings to his nation (Acts 24:17).