other · 52 · Ephesus
Acts describes him carefully and with evident admiration: a Jew of Alexandria, an eloquent man, mighty in the scriptures, instructed in the way of the Lord and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. What happens next is one of the quietest and most striking scenes in the book. Priscilla and Aquila — tentmakers, not scholars, and Priscilla named first as she usually is — heard him in the synagogue, took him aside, and explained the way of God to him more accurately. He accepted it, and the brothers wrote ahead to Achaia to receive him. Within a few years there were people at Corinth saying I follow Paul and I follow Apollos, and Paul answered that he planted, Apollos watered, and God gave the growth. Nothing in the record suggests the two men ever quarrelled; the faction was the Corinthians' doing.
To correct a gifted preacher who had the story right and the baptism wrong.
A teacher sent on to Achaia with letters, and — a few years later — a faction at Corinth named after him.