Apollos: Paul's Partner or Rival?

by Patrick J. Hartin

Human beings are embedded in a set of social relations. A social network is one way of conceiving that set of relations in terms of a number of persons connected to one another by varying degrees of relatedness. In the early Jesus-group documents featuring Paul and coworkers, it takes little effort to envision the apostle's collection of friends and friends of friends that is the Pauline network. The persons who constituted that network are the focus of this set of brief books. For Christians of the Western tradition, these persons are significant ancestors in faith. While each of them is worth knowing by themselves, it is largely because of their standing within that web of social relations woven about and around Paul that they are of lasting interest. Through this series we hope to come to know those persons in ways befitting their first-century Mediterranean culture. Apollos is an enigmatic character whose name appears in only three New Testament writings. Through a social-scientific approach, this study pays attention to four main aspects relative to his collectivistic nature as a person of the first-century Mediterranean; his relationship to Corinth and its emerging conflicts; his roots in the city of Alexandria and its contributions to his personality and identity; and, finally, his relationship to Paul and his social network. By gaining insights into a world and culture different from their own, readers will gain a deepened understanding of an important and highly educated member of Paul's social network. The person of Apollos and the entire New Testament will be seen through new lenses and will open readers to new cultural experiences from which they will emerge fuller people.

144 pages, Paperback

First published May 30, 2009

Reviews

[David Szatkowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is parter of the wider series done on Paul's social network (the various people mentioned int the Pauline letters and Acts of the Apostles). The reader is given insight into the world Apollos would have lived in, particularly the honor/shame culture and how Israelites outside of Israel would have viewed themselves (particularly in Alexandria). A good, informative work to help one appreciate better the letters and world of Paul.