Lewis A. Muirhead.
APOLLONIA ('ATo\\wvla). — A town of Myg- donia in Macedonia, S. of Lake Bolbe (Athen. viii. 334), and N. of the Chalcidian mountains. It lay on the Via Egnatia, and St. Paul ' passed through ' Amphipolis and Apol Ionia on his way from Philippi to Thessalonica (Ac 17^). The intermediate towns were probably remembered by him as resting-places. According to the Antonine Itinerary, ApoUonia was 37 Roman miles from Amphipolis, and 37 from Tliessalonica. Leake identifies it with the modern village of Pollina.
J. Strahan.
APOLLOS.— In Ac IS^^-^ApoUos is described as ' a Jew, an Alexandrian by race, a learned man, mighty in the Scriptures, instructed in the way of the Lord, fervent in spirit,' who came to Ephesus when Aquila and Priscilla had been left there by St. Paul to do pioneering work pending the Apostle's return. Apollos ' spake and taught care- fully the things concerning Jesus ' ; but his know- ledge of Jesus was limited, for he knew ' only the baptism of John.'
It is not easy to elucidate the meaning of the rather obscure phrases in 18^- ^. Schraiedel cuts the knot by making IS-"** ^^'"' later accretions. Wendt throws out the whole of v.^, regarding Apollos as a Jew having no connexion with John VOL. I. — 6
or with Jesus. McGifi'ert is of opinion that the description of Apollos as ' instructed in the way of the Lord ' and as teaching ' the things con- cerning Jesus ' is erroneous; v.^* must have been added by St. Luke. ' We are to think of Apollos as a disciple of John who was carrying on the work of his master and preaching to his countrymen repentance in view of the approaching kingdom of God' (Ajiostolic Age, 291 f.). Harnack says: ' Apollos would appear to have been originally a regular missionary of John the Baptist's move- ment ; but the whole narrative of Acts at this point is singularly coloured and obscure ' {Expan- sion of Christianity, i. 331 n.).
"Without falling back on any of these somewhat contradictory explanations, we gather that Apollos had an imperfect hearsay acquaintance with the story of Jesus, though enough to convince him of His Messiahship. If the twelve men found in Ephesus by St. Paul (Ac 19'- ^) may be treated as disciples of Apollos, he had not heard ' whether the Holy Ghost was given.' His bold eloquence in the synagogue attracted Aquila and Priscilla (q.v.), who ' took him unto them and expounded the way of God more carefully.' This indefinite expression does not carry us very far. It seems unlikely that Apollos was baptized at Ephesus, for the twelve disciples are still ignorant of baptism, nor was there a Christian Church in Ephesus vmtil after St. Paul's return later. In this connexion, the West- ern reading is interesting : that ' the brethren ' who encouraged Apollos to go to Achaia were Corin- thian Christians. Perhaps they recognized the need of fuller instruction than could be given in Ephesus for such a promising disciple, who was likely to become a powerful Christian teacher.
The work of Apollos in Corinth is described as ' helping them much which had believed through grace ' (Ac 18^). St. Paul's mission must have left a number of uninstructed Christians in Corinth. These converts had been persuaded to ' believe through grace.' But the Christian life of some was undeveloped ; and the powerful preaching of Apollos did much to help them.
This conception of the work of Apollos in Corinth is in accord with St. Paul's words in 1 Co 3'', ' I planted ; Apollos watered.' It is justifiable also to recognize Apollos in St. Paul's reference to men who 'build on the foundation' he had laid (3"-'^), and to ' tutors in Christ ' (4'*) in contrast to him- self as their ' father.' Evidently Apollos' work was not so much preaching the gospel to the un- converted as buttressing the faith of Christians, partly by an eloquent exposition of the OT, and partly by a powerful apologetic which silenced opponents and strengthened believers.
But this confirming work done by Apollos in Corinth had other ett'ects which were less useful. It appears to have been influential in determining the subsequent character of the Church. Preach- ing to recent converts whose intellectual equipment was slender and whose Christian knowledge must have been elementary, Apollos, whose own instruc- tion had been imperfect, would inevitably put the impress of his own mode of thinking upon them. Thus there arose a party in the Corinthian Church with the watch-word ' I am of Apollos.' Although some of these had been converted by St. Paul's preaching, they had been ' much helped ' by Apollos. Under the influence of their ' tutor in Christ,' their interpretation of Christian truth and duty took on the hue of Apollos rather than of St. Paul.
The distinctive elements in the preaching of Apollos may be gauged from two considerations. (1) He was ' a Jewish Christian versed in the Alex- andrian philosophy,' whose ' method of teaching diflered from that of Paul, in the first place in being presented in a strikingly rhetorical form,
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APOSTLE
and also by the use of Alexandrian speculation and allegorical interpretation of Scripture. . . . Apollos sought to reinforce the Gospel which was common to both [Paul and himself], by means of the Alexandrian piiilosophy and methods of exegesis' (Pfieiderer, i. 145 f.). It is questionable, however, whether the gospel he preached was in all respects ' common to both Paul and himself.' It cannot be without significance that St. Paul has to emphasize the work of the Holy Spirit so definitely as lie does in 1 Cor. (of. 21"-!'' 3i« 12>-'). Apollos when he arrived in Ephesus did not know of the giving of the Holy Spirit. Even in Corinth his efforts were to show by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ (Ac 1828). It seems likely that his preaching had this Jewish tone all through, and lacked the spiritual note so dominant in St. Paul's preaching. It was not Judaistic ; it was « a middle term between Paulinism and Judaism' (Pfieiderer, i. 148).