Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
When they opposed - , Systematically opposing, putting themselves in warlike order against him: so the word implies.
And blasphemed - This is precisely the way in which they still act. They have no arguments against Jesus being the Messiah; but, having made a covenant with unbelief, as soon as they are pressed on this point, they rail and blaspheme. - See the Tela ignea Satanae, by Wagenseil.
He shook his raiment - This was an action similar to that of shaking the dust of the feet; see on Matthew 10:14 (note). See a parallel act, and its signification, in Nehemiah 5:13 : Also I Shook My Lap, and said, So shall God Shake every man From His House and From his Labor; even thus shall he be Shaken Out and Emptied. St. Paul' s act on this occasion seems to have been the same with this of Nehemiah, and with the same signification; and it is likely that he was led by a Divine impulse to do it - thus signifying the shaking and emptying out of this disobedient people, which took place about sixteen years afterwards.
Your blood be upon your own heads - That is, ye alone are the cause of the destruction that is coming upon yourselves and upon your country.
I am clean - , I am pure or innocent of your death and ruin. I have proposed to you the Gospel of Jesus Christ - the only means by which ye can be saved, and ye have utterly rejected it. I shall labor no more with you; and, from henceforth, shall confine my labors to the Gentiles. St. Paul must refer to the Jews and Gentiles of Corinth particularly; for he preached to the Jews occasionally in other places; see Acts 19:8, Acts 19:9; and several were brought to the knowledge of the truth. But it seems as if the Jews from this time systematically opposed the Gospel of Christ; and yet, general tenders of this salvation were made to them wherever the apostles came; and when they rejected them, the word was sent to the Gentiles; see Acts 19:8, Acts 19:9.
Pure from blood, or pure from guilt, is commonly expressed by ; thus Heliodorus, lib. i. p. 49: ̔ , Until now I have lived, preserving myself pure: and Alciphron, lib. i. epist. 7, ad. fin.: ͅ , ̔ ̔ , Nor to stain with pollution the hands which a seafaring life has kept from a child until now pure from iniquity.
Other Adam Clarke entries containing Acts 18:6:
Acts 19:8
Acts 28:28
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