Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMcClintock Biblical Encyclopedia: Zenas
Subjects in this Topic:
( Æçíᾶò , a contraction from Æçíüäùñïò , as Á᾿ñôåìᾶò from Áñôåìßäùñïò , Íõìöᾶò Íõìöüäùñïò and probably ῾Åñìᾶò from ῾Åñìüäùñïò ), a believer, and, as may be inferred from the context, a preacher of the Gospel, who is mentioned in Tit_3:13 in connection with Apollos, and, together with him, is there commended by Paul to the care and hospitality of Titus and the Cretan brethren. A.D. cir. 59. He is further described as the lawyer” ( ôὸí íïìéêüí ). It is impossible to determine with certainty whether we are to infer from this designation that Zenas was a Roman juris-consult or a Jewish doctor. Grotius accepts the former alternative, and thinks that he was a Greek who had studied Roman law. The New Test. usage of ᾷïíë÷ñï leads rather to the other inference. Tradition has been somewhat busy with the name of Zenas. The Synopsis de Vita et Morte Prophetarum, Apostolorumn, et Diiscipulorumn Domini, ascribed to Dorotheus of Tyre, makes him to have been one of the “seventy-two” disciples, and subsequently bishop of Diospolis, in Palestine (Bibl. Patr. 3, 150). The “seventy-two” disciples of Dorotheus are, however, a mere string of names picked out of salutations and other incidental notices in the New Test. The Greek menologies on the festival of SS. Bartholomew and Titus (Aug. 25) refer to a certain Life of Titus, ascribed to Zenas, which is also quoted for the supposed conversion of the younger Pliny (comp. Fabricius, Codex Apocr. N.T. 2, 831, 2). The association of Zenas with Titus, in Paul's epistle to the latter, sufficiently accounts for the forgery.