Acts 18:23

Spent some time. The visit must have been of some months’ duration. It is to this occasion that some refer the dissension that Paul relates in Gal. 2:11-14. The reasoning is that Paul had been long absent from Antioch, and that the Judaizing party had had time to organize a fresh attack on the freedom of the Gentiles. They brought renewed pressure to bear upon Peter, and a lingering element of instability in his character caused him to yield to them. However, others hold that the incident occurred before Paul and Silas had left Antioch after the Council of Jerusalem (see on ch. 15:39, 40). He departed. Antioch is the starting point of the Third Missionary Journey, as with the two preceding ones (chs. 13:1-3; 15:36-40). Galatia and Phrygia. Doubtless Paul took the same direction as before, visiting Lystra and Derbe, before he came to the more northern portion of Asia Minor (see Additional Note on Chapter 16). Strengthening. Paul was not only an evangelist who raised up new churches; he was also a pastor in the sense that he maintained an active concern for the continuing welfare of his churches. For some of these churches, raised up on the First Missionary Journey, this was Paul’s fourth visit (see chs. 13:51; 14:6, 21; 16:1, 6).