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27. βουλομένου δὲ αὐτοῦ διελθεῖν, ε. τ. Ἀ., and when he was minded to pass over into Achaia. We find from Act 19:1 that the centre of his labours there was Corinth. Being acquainted with the philosophy and learning of Greece he was well fitted to be a preacher to the Greeks as well as to the Jews, and he may have felt that Corinth was the place where he could do most good. We are not told of any Apostolic commission to Apollos, but we know from 1Co 1:12, &c. that he came to be regarded by some Corinthians as the equal of St Paul, and that there arose some strong party feeling in that Church, which is rebuked in St Paul’s letter to them. We cannot suppose that this was brought about by Apollos, for St Paul speaks of him as watering what he himself had planted, and it may be that the knowledge of the existence of such a spirit accounts for the unwillingness of Apollos to come back to Corinth (1Co 16:12) which we read of somewhat later.
προτρεψάμενοι … ἀποδέξασθαι αὐτόν, the brethren encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to receive him. For προτρέπομαι cf. Wis 14:18, καὶ τοὺς ἀγνοοῦντας ἡ τοῦ τεχνίτου προετρέψατο φιλοτιμία. Also 2Ma 11:7, αὐτὸς δὲ πρῶτος ὁ Μακκαβαῖος ἀναλαβὼν τὰ ὅπλα προετρέψατο τοὺς ἄλλους. Here we find the first instance of letters of commendation sent from one Church to another. ‘The brethren’ at Ephesus were probably only a small number, but Aquila and Priscilla would be well known to the Christians in Corinth.
ὃς παραγενόμενος … διὰ τῆς χάριτος, who when he was come helped them much which had believed through grace, διὰ τῆς χάριτος may be joined either to συνεβάλετο or to τοῖς πεπιστευκόσιν. But as the history is occupied with the work of Apollos, it seems more natural to explain the ‘grace’ spoken of, as the gift which was already in Apollos, and which the more full instruction that he had just received had tended to increase. He had formerly been but partially enlightened. Now that he knows the truth in Christ, his former ability becomes more helpful still. He helps others through his grace. His work seems rightly estimated by St Paul, ‘he watered’ what the Apostle had ‘planted’ (1Co 3:6).
For συμβάλλομαι in the sense of ‘helping,’ cf. Wis 5:8, τί πλοῦτος μετὰ ἀλαζονείας συμβέβληται ἡμῖν; ‘What good hath riches with our vaunting brought us?’ (A.V.).