Acts 18:3

Abode with them. According to the Talmud (Sukkah 51b; Soncino ed., p. 245), in Alexandria, at least, each craft sat together in the synagogue services. A stranger coming in could readily find his fellow artisans in the synagogue, and could secure lodging with them. If this was also the practice in Corinth, as is probable, Paul readily found accommodation and employment with Aquila and Priscilla. Tentmakers. The trade of tentmaking was one that Paul might easily have learned and practiced in his native city of Tarsus. That city was noted then and later for the rough goats’ hair fabrics, in great demand for ship sails and tents, and known to the Romans from the name of the province as cilicium. The province of Pontus, from which Aquila came, was famous for the same kind of goods, the material for which was furnished by the goats that grazed on the slopes of the Taurus Mountains and the neighboring ranges. The hint of wealth in Paul’s background and his receiving a high degree of education have no bearing upon the fact that he was required to learn a trade, for the rabbinical proverb, “He who does not teach his son a trade teaches him to be a thief,” made such instruction almost universal in Hebrew families. For example, the great Hillel was a carpenter. Hence Paul was equipped to work for his livelihood in Corinth as he had done in Thessalonica, thus guarding himself against any charge of self-interest in preaching the gospel among the Greeks (1 Cor. 9:15-19; 2 Cor. 11:7-13; 1 Thess. 2:9). He began at Corinth as a new artisan working for wages, or perhaps as a partner, in the workshop of a Jew, not yet being known to the city of Corinth as anything else than a Jew.