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  • From: rfellows AT intergate.ca
  • To: <corpus-paul AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Paul on John the Baptist.


Rick wrote:

<<I am familiar with the passage you cited. Tell me, do you think the book of
Acts accurately recounts the actions and words of Paul?

I seems to me that the material in Acts stands in direct conflict with what
Paul has to say about himself in Galatians.>>

The data in Galatians has only marginal relevance to the question of the
reliability of Acts 18:24-19:4. Galatians refers to events that are distant
in both time and space from those of the Acts passage. It is quite possible
for Acts to be considerably more accurate in the Aegean passages than in the
earlier chapters. Not only is Acts 18:24-19:4 more recent, but it concerns
communities through which the author the "We" passages is rather likely to
have passed, and it concerns a period when he was certainly active. In any
case, much of the data in Galatians is, in my view, hopelessly ambiguous, and
we should be very cautious about using it to test the accuracy of Acts.

The data in 1 Cor, 2 Cor, and Rom is more relevant to Acts 18:24-19:4. What
do these tell us?

From 1 Cor 3:6 etc. we know that Apollos taught in Corinth after Paul. From 2
Cor 1:19 we deduce that he had not been a member of Paul's original
missionary group to Corinth. All this fits well with Acts 18:27 where we read
that Apollos taught in Corinth and became acquainted with the believers
there. From 1 Cor 16:12 we see that Apollos may well have been based in
Ephesus, and this also fits the Acts data. 1 Cor and Acts also agree that
Apollos and Paul had independent ministries.

It should also be noted that Acts has good information about Paul's
associates throughout the Aegean periods. Luke knows about Prisca and Aquila,
and that they had been in Corinth before 1 Corinthians was written (see 1 Cor
16:19), and that they moved to Ephesus. Also, the information that they were
from Rome fits well with their later return there (Rom 16:3).

He also knows that Silas-Silvanus and Timothy were with Paul during his first
visit to Achaia (2 Cor 1:19).

He knows that Timothy went from Ephesus to Macedonia (Acts 19:22), which
corresponds well with our deduction from 1 Cor that Timothy had taken the
land route to Corinth. He also knows that Timothy was accompanied by one
other brother (Acts 19:22), and this is confirmed by 2 Cor 12:18.

He knows that Crispus-Sosthenes was from Corinth and was baptized during
Paul's first visit to Achaia (1 Cor 1:14).

He knows about Aristarchus (Philemon 24), and Sopater-Sosipater (Rom 16:21).
He probably also knows about Erastus (Acts 19:22, Rom 16:2), Jason (Acts
17:6-7, Rom 16:21), and Gaius (Rom 16:23; Acts 18:7 and/or Acts 20:4).

All this suggests that Acts probably gives us good information on Apollos.
Paul therefore probably knew of John the Baptist through Apollos. I imagine
that he knew of John also through his contacts with Palestine in the 30s,
because from Josephus we know that people had strong memories of John at that
time (Ant 18:5).

Richard Fellows.




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