Eloquent Speaker

 by Paul D. Fisher 2/20/05

In the Greek language of the New Testament we find the word "eloquent" used only once and that in
Acts 18:24, "And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus.' This word "eloquent" in the Greek is "logios which is an adjective form of the word ")logos" which means word and is sometimes used to refer to Jesus Christ as in John 1:1-2. The meaning of the Greek word translated "eloquent" primarily meant "learned, a man skilled in literature and the arts." It was used among the Greeks to describe a man who told stories of "learning" and could do so convincingly.

No doubt when applying this word to Apollos, the learned stories he told were from the Old Testament, because the verse also stated that he was mighty in the scriptures. Although Apollos was a learned man, he did not think of himself as being better than others or that he could not learn from others. In Acts 18, when Apollos came to Ephesus he preached Jesus but only knew the teaching of John concerning the Lord. Aquila and Priscilla heard him preach and took him aside and taught Apollos more about Jesus. Once Apollos accepted their teaching, he mightily convinced the Jews of Ephesus that Jesus was the Christ and did so by using the Old Testament. Thus, we see that Apollos became an even more eloquent worker for God throughout that whole region of the world.
 

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