Acts 18:24

Ἀλεξ., cf. Acts 6:9, Schürer, Jewish People, div. ii., vol. ii., p. 226, E.T. At Alexandria the LXX was written and Philo lived; here too was the magnificent mosque of which it was said that he who had not worshipped in it had not witnessed the glory of Israel, Edersheim, History of the Jewish People, pp. 67, 186, 405, 409; on the contact of Jewish and Greek thought in Alexandria, “Alexandria,” B.D. 2 (Westcott). What was the exact influence of his Alexandrian training upon Apollos we are not told, but as a cultured Jew of such a centre of Hellenistic influence, it is quite possible that Aquila and Priscilla chose him for the work at Corinth because they thought that his training and learning would attract the attention of a Corinthian audience. Possibly his preaching may have included some Philonian speculations, but the difference between him and St. Paul in their teaching at Corinth may have consisted in outward form and delivery rather than in substance; see Canon Evans, Speaker's Commentary, iii., p. 240. No doubt the subtle Corinthian would admire the eloquence of Apollos and pervert his words, but there is no reason to suppose that Apollos encouraged any such party spirit. On his work at Corinth and the last notice of him, Titus 3:13, see “Apollos,” B. D. 2, and Hastings' B.D., cf. 1 Corinthians 16:12, for his unambitious and peaceful character, and Plumptre, in loco. The Book of Wisdom was attributed to Apollos by Dean Plumptre, but see on the other hand “Wisdom of Solomon,” B.D. 2 (Westcott), and Speaker's Commentary, “Apocrypha,” vol. i., p. 413. λόγιος; “learned,” R.V., “eloquent,” margin; A.V., “eloquent”; the word may include both learning and eloquence. In classical Greek of a man learned, as, e.g., in history (Herod.), but in Plutarch λογιότης, eloquence, and so λόγιος, eloquent. Meyer rendered the word “eloquent,” so Weiss, Zöckler, Page, Alford, Hackett, Felten, Blass (doctus ap. antiquos), δυνατός referring rather to his learning and acquaintance with the Scriptures: “a good speaker and well read in the Scriptures” (Ramsay). Rendall however takes δυνατός as conveying the idea of eloquence, but in Acts 7:22 the word cannot mean eloquent as applied to Moses, but rather denotes the wise and weighty nature of his utterances, see Lobeck, Phryn., p. 198.