Apollos

"Behold I send my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts." (Malachi 3:1 RSV) The reader closed the roll reverently and laid it down. He turned to face the congregation. The eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed upon him and the Christian, Aquila, seated at the back, leaned forward to listen.

"My brethren, sons of Israel, children of the covenant, heirs of the Divine promise to Abraham, to you is the word sent. Woe betide you if you fail to perceive the day of this visitation. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. If you will comprehend it and accept it, you will inherit the promises made to our fathers and enter in. If you reject it, then the Kingdom will be taken from you and given to another people who will bring forth fruit."

Silence reigned. This Egyptian Jew from Alexandria was speaking to them in a manner not normally experienced by these Greek Jews of Ephesus. Their religion meant a great deal to them, surrounded as they were by all kinds of pagan faiths and deities, but in the comfortable exercise of their legalistic rites and rituals they had in measure forgotten the ancient promises which were Israel’s mandate for existence as a people. Now this stranger was awakening half‑forgotten memories in their minds, and some among them began to remember that they were, after all, a people for a purpose. Thoughts were broken as the speaker resumed...

So might Priscilla and Aquila have first seen and heard Apollos. Luke records it this way, "There arrived at Ephesus a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, powerful in his use of the scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord and was full of spiritual fervour; and in his discourses he taught accurately the facts about Jesus, though the only baptism he knew was John’s. He now began to speak boldly in the synagogue where Priscilla and Aquila heard him; they took him in hand and expounded the way in great detail. Finding that he wanted to go across to Achaia, the congregation gave him their support and wrote to the disciples there to make him welcome." (Acts 18:24‑27 [Author’s own])

So he entered the Christian community. Paul had gone to Corinth where he had founded a church, during the course of his first missionary journey, taking with him Aquila and Priscilla who then settled in Ephesus whilst Paul continued his journey. There was as yet no Christian community in Ephesus and the three worshipped and ministered at the Jewish synagogue where their ministry seems to have been accepted and appreciated. After Paul’s departure Apollos made his appearance and seems to have been equally acceptable. He appears not to have been a Christian as Aquilla and Priscilla but he had accepted the message of John the Baptist and counted himself one of John’s disciples. This fact, together with the presence of a ‘group’ of John’s disciples in Ephesus twenty‑five years after his death (Acts 19:3) is an interesting indication of the persistence of his ministry into a second generation. It is similar to a group that gathers round some noted minister today and persists for many years after his passing.

Apollos hailed from Alexandria in Egypt, a city where a numerous and powerful Jewish community had existed from much older times. There was no Christian church there as yet but the Church at Alexandria is reputed to have been founded by Mark, writer of the second Gospel, but that must have been rather later. The reason for his coming to Ephesus is not stated. From the scanty references to him in the New Testament he seems to have been free to move about as he wished and perhaps he was an itinerant missionary like Paul but in the interest of John’s message more than that of Jesus. If so, Aquila and Priscilla changed all that.

At Ephesus Apollos was convinced of the truth of Christianity and he became a Christian. He seems to have been a vigorous, resolute and eloquent speaker, studious and learned. He might well, as a young man, have sat at the feet of the famous Jewish philosopher and theologian Philo of Alexandria. Apollos survived till AD 68 so he could well have seen John the Baptist in his earlier days and probably did do so and was baptised by him. He most likely never came in contact with Jesus. Now he was perhaps in his forties and vigorously propagating John’s message, which means of course that he was one who sincerely looked for the coming of Christ and His kingdom. Like most Jews, he expected a victorious conqueror at the head of a mighty army bent on destroying the Roman occupying power and establishing a Jewish kingdom in its stead. The "Way of the Lord" in which he was "instructed" or perhaps educated must have been the current interpretation of the prophecies concerning the Messianic Kingdom. The way of the Lord of Isaiah 40:3 and similar passages was the triumphal procession of the coming Messiah as He assumes kingship to reign over the earth. He had probably worked up the message of John the Baptist into a kind of systematic theology.

By the time Paul returned to Ephesus during his second missionary journey, some two years later (Acts 19:1) Apollos had left. He had gone to Corinth and was already influential in the Christian community there; so much so that a party spirit had developed, some proclaiming themselves adherents of Paul and others of Apollos. (1 Cor.1:12). It is very probable that the two men were very much alike in their characteristics and abilities, the most noticeable difference lying in a closer adherence to the letter of the Mosaic Law and a lesser interest in the conversion of Gentiles on the part of Apollos than that of Paul. Thus the Jewish members of the church at Corinth might well lean towards Apollos whilst the Greeks and Romans to their champion, Paul, and so the schisms of which Paul writes in 1 Cor.1:11 quite naturally developed. It might well be that Apollos was no less dismayed at this development than was Paul, for after a very short stay in Corinth he was back again at Ephesus before Paul had completed his two‑year sojourn there which was terminated by the riot in the city stadium. (Acts 19:23‑41). It would appear from 1 Cor.16:12 that Paul wanted him to go back to Corinth but he refused, probably because he did not wish to encourage the spirit of partisanship that his ministry there had unwittingly created.

This is all that is known of Apollos’ ministry. Paul went to Jerusalem and from there to Rome and his first trial. It was to be some eleven years before he was in the vicinity of Roman Asia again and he was then a prisoner en‑route to his final trial and execution; he never visited Ephesus again. Nothing is known of Apollos during that period. He may have stayed in Ephesus at least for the time and ministered with Timothy, Aquila and Priscilla. He may have journeyed among the communities Paul had established when he was free. His name only appears once more.

Paul was acquitted at Rome in the year 62 AD. It is not known where he travelled for the next five years or so. Following his visit to Nicopolis on the west coast of Greece, he was on his last pilgrimage among the churches when it was interrupted by his arrest at Troas and his dispatch to Rome and his death. Writing to Titus, one of his old companions and fellow ministers, now in Crete, he requested Titus to come to him at Nicopolis and to help Apollos and Zenas (the lawyer) on their travels. (Titus 3:13). Paul may have been planning further fields of service for these friends for Apollos was still in active service and ready for more. It is assumed that they reached Paul and set out on whatever new commission they were given. At that point Apollos passes out of sight. Nothing more is known of him. He served zealously and loyally in concert with Paul at Ephesus, Corinth and Crete at least for some thirteen years to A.D.68. Then, doubtless, for a further period until in his turn he was laid aside to await his "crown of life." (James 1:12) Jerome in the third century, the early church historian, says that after Paul’s death Apollos went back to Crete and finally returned to Corinth where he eventually became the leader and bishop or presiding elder of that Church.

Many scholars now agree that Apollos may have been the author of the Letter to the Hebrews. The ascription of that letter to Paul is known to have no valid authority. Whilst several others have been suggested as the writer, the nature of the Epistle, the manifest familiarity of the writer with the Mosaic ceremonies, and various other considerations, point to Apollos as the most likely choice. It is thought that it was addressed to the Jewish believers at Ephesus and written at some time after Paul’s death. Some scholars believe that the Apocryphal work known as the "Wisdom of Solomon" was also written by Apollos.

Zealous, active, studious, learned; an eloquent speaker and a fluent writer, this man may well have exercised a much greater influence among the early Christians than the brief allusions to him in the New Testament would suggest. He was more like Paul in many ways than any of the others whose names are familiar. He may well have been a veritable pillar of the Church. If indeed he is the unknown writer of "Hebrews", then Christians of all generations owe him, by God’s grace, a debt immeasurable beyond words.

AOH