Apollos
An eloquent Jew from Alexandria who taught at Ephesus and Corinth in the 50s. Paul names him as a fellow worker, and one of the parties at Corinth used his name.
Acts introduces Apollos as a Jew born in Alexandria, eloquent and strong in the Scriptures, who came to Ephesus teaching about Jesus although he knew only the baptism of John. Priscilla and Aquila heard him in the synagogue and explained the way to him more accurately. He then crossed to Achaia with a letter of introduction and argued in public that Jesus was the Christ (Acts 18:24–28). He was at Corinth when Paul arrived in Ephesus (Acts 19:1).
At Corinth some believers began to say “I follow Apollos” against others who claimed Paul or Cephas (1 Corinthians 1:12). Paul answered that the two of them were servants and fellow workers in one task: “I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:5–9). When he wrote, Apollos was with him or near him and had declined, for the present, to return to Corinth (1 Corinthians 16:12). The letter to Titus asks that he be helped on a journey (Titus 3:13). The New Testament does not mention him again.
In the timeline
- about AD 53 to AD 57, estimated datePaul in Ephesus and the Collection for Jerusalem
Paul works for some three years at Ephesus, then travels through Macedonia and Greece gathering money from his Gentile churches for the poor of Jerusalem, and sets out to deliver it in spite of warnings.