Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 18:6

"And when they opposed themselves and blasphemed, he shook out his raiment and said unto them, Your blood [be] upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles." — Acts 18:6 (ASV)

The ministry at Corinth followed the pattern set at Pisidian Antioch (cf. 13:46–52): initial proclamation in the synagogue, rejection by the majority of Jews, and then a direct outreach to Gentiles. In solemn biblical style (cf. Nehemiah 5:13), Paul “shook out his clothes”—an act symbolizing repudiation of the Jews’ opposition, exempting himself from further responsibility for them (cf. 13:51), and protesting against what he considered the Jews’ “blasphemy” (NIV, “became abusive”; GK 1059; cf. 13:45; 26:11). So leaving the synagogue, he went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a “God-fearing” Gentile who was receiving instruction at the synagogue. He invited Paul to make his home the headquarters for his work in Corinth, presumably because he believed Paul’s message. The house of Titius Justus therefore became the first meeting place of the Corinthian church. The first name of this person may have been Gaius, for in Ro 16:23 Paul says that he and the whole church at Corinth enjoyed Gaius’s hospitality. In 1 Corinthians 1:14 Paul also speaks of a Gaius whom he personally baptized as he began his Christian ministry in Corinth.