A certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent man…mighty in the Scriptures, Acts 18:24. Alexandria was a city in Egypt on the shore of the southern Mediterranean, known for its schools and its libraries. It was the intellectual and cultural center of ancient times. If you were Alexandrian, you were probably very well educated; it was like saying someone has a degree from Harvard. More Jews lived in Alexandria than anywhere else in the world. The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, was translated there. Besides being well-educated, Apollos was an orator and a good one at that. Oratory was one of the things wealthy young Greeks studied and was considered a fine art. People went to hear speakers the same way we go to concerts or plays. It was entertainment and the good orators had a following. That means that Apollos might even have been a celebrity of sorts in the Greek world.
So now we have a well-educated man, knowledgeable in the Scriptures, and something of a celebrity, who is approached by a couple of blue collar tradesmen, and one of them a woman, and told he does not know "the way of God" as accurately as he thinks he does. What does he do? He listens to them. With an open mind. And when he sees the truth of the matter, he changes. Can you imagine that happening today? Any celebrity nowadays would have a battery of bodyguards to keep ordinary people away, and anyone with that much education would simply sneer at someone with only the equivalent of a high school diploma.
Unfortunately, listening carefully to another viewpoint doesn't even happen in the church as often as it should. Too many times a man can't even be shouted down because he won't stop long enough to really hear and carefully and honestly consider what he is being shown. He is too certain he is right, and that he knows so much more than the one trying to help him, especially someone younger, or less educated, or even less well off financially, as if somehow that could possibly matter. And if a woman says something? Forget it. He cannot possibly learn anything from a woman. In fact, it might be unscriptural, regardless the example of Priscilla. I have seen those attitudes again and again.
Apollos is one marvelous lesson on humility. Any time we cannot be troubled to listen to someone else we need to remember this. After his instruction by Priscilla (who had an important role in the discussion because her name is mentioned first) and Aquila, Apollos went on to powerfully confute the Jews…showing by the scripture that Jesus was the Christ (18:28). He could not have done that without those two humble servants' help and instruction. When our pride gets in the way, what will we not be able to do for the Lord?
Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the LORD (Zeph 2:3).
Dene Ward