Acts 18:6

6 and on their resisting and speaking evil, having shaken [his] garments, he said unto them, `Your blood [is] upon your head -- I am clean; henceforth to the nations I will go on.'

Acts 18:6 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 18:6

And when they opposed themselves
To the truth, and contradicted themselves in many instances, and their own prophecies; or those books which they themselves allowed to be the oracles of God, and blasphemed both Christ, and the apostle, and the doctrine which he taught; and railed at him, and spoke evil of him, and used him in a very contumelious and reproachful manner, as they were used from contradicting to go to blaspheming; see ( Acts 13:45 )

he shook his raiment;
his outer garment, and the dust off from it, as a testimony against them; see ( Matthew 10:14 ) ( Acts 13:51 )

and said unto them, your blood be upon your heads;
meaning, that they were the authors of their own ruin and destruction; that they could not impute it to any other, when it came upon them; and that they were left inexcusable, and must bear their own iniquities, and the punishment of them: this clause is wanting in the Syriac version.

I am clean;
meaning from their blood; see ( Acts 20:26 ) . The apostle seems to allude to ( Ezekiel 33:4-9 ) signifying, that he had discharged his duty as a preacher, and so had delivered his own soul from their blood being required at his hands; and that it rested entirely on themselves, and they were answerable for all their impenitence, unbelief, and blasphemy:

from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles;
in that city, and preach the Gospel to them, and no more enter into their synagogue, as it is very likely he afterwards never did; for though Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, was afterwards converted, yet his conversion seems to have been not in the synagogue, but in the house of Justus, which was hard by it. Compare with this ( Acts 13:46 ) .

Acts 18:6 In-Context

4 and he was reasoning in the synagogue every sabbath, persuading both Jews and Greeks.

5 And when both Silas and Timotheus came down from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the Spirit, testifying fully to the Jews Jesus the Christ;

6 and on their resisting and speaking evil, having shaken [his] garments, he said unto them, `Your blood [is] upon your head -- I am clean; henceforth to the nations I will go on.'

7 And having departed thence, he went to the house of a certain one, by name Justus, a worshipper of God, whose house was adjoining the synagogue,

8 and Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue did believe in the Lord with all his house, and many of the Corinthians hearing were believing, and they were being baptized.