Apollos

APOLLOS, a Jew of Alexandria, who In the year of J. C. 54.came to Ephesus during the absence of St. Paul, who was gone to Jerusalem. He was an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures. Acts xviii. 24.He was instructed in the way of the Lord; and as he spoke with zeal and fervour, he taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. So that he was only a Catechumen, and did not as yet distinctly know the mysteries of our Religion: But he knew that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, and declared himself openly to be his Disciple. When therefore he was come to Ephesus, he began to speak boldly in the Synagogue, and to shew that Jesus was the Christ. Aquila and Priscilla having heard him, took him home with them, instructed him more fully in the ways of God, and baptized him, probably, in the name of Jesus Christ.

Some time after he had a mind to go into Achaia, and the brethren having exhorted him to undertake this journey, they wrote to the Disciples, desiring them to receive him. He arrived at Corinth, and was there very useful in convincing the Jews out of the Scriptures, and demonstrating to them that Jesus was the Christ. Thus he watered what St. Paul had planted in this City. But 1 Cor. iii. 7.the great fondness which his Disciples had for his person had like to have produced a Rev.ix.11.Schism; some saying, I am of Paul; others, I am of Apollos; I am of Cephas. But this division, which St. Paul speaks of in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, did not prevent St. Paul and Apollos from being closely united by the bands of charity. Apollos hearing that the Apostle was at Ephesus, went to meet him, and was there when St. Paul wrote the first Epistle to the Corinthians, wherein he testifies that he had earnestly entreated Apollos to return to Corinth, but hitherto had not been able to prevail with him; that nevertheless he gave him room to hope that he would go when he had an opportunity.

St. Jerom says¹, that Apollos was so dissatisfied with the division which had happened upon his account at Corinth, that he retired into Crete, with Zena a Doctor of the Law; and that this disturbance having been appeased by the Letter which St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, Apollos returned to this City, and was Bishop there. The Greeks, in their Calendars, make him Bishop of Duras; and in their Menæa they set him down as second Bishop of Colophon in Asia. Ferrarius says, he was Bishop of Iconium in Phrygia; others that he was Bishop of Cæsarea.

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