Titus 3:13

Bring Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their journey diligently, that nothing be wanting unto them.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(13) Bring Zenas the lawyer.—A name contracted, as it seems, from Zenodorus. The term “lawyer” might possibly indicate that this friend of Paul’s was a Roman jurist, but it is more likely that the law in which he was an expert was that of Moses. Hippolytus numbers him among the seventy disciples, and relates how in after years he was Bishop of Diospolis. He is never mentioned by name in the New Testament, except in this place.

And Apollos.—This famous teacher appears often in the New Testament records, in the Acts and several of the Epistles. A distinguished Alexandrian scholar and a disciple of John the Baptist, he was converted to Christianity by the agency of the devoted Priscilla and Aquila, the tent-makers. He became the friend and intimate associate of St. Paul, and might, had he chosen, have rivalled or even superseded St. Paul in his supreme authority over the churches planted along the Mediterranean sea-board. But Apollos seems resolutely to have declined any such rivalry, and to have lived ever as the loyal and devoted friend of the great Apostle; who, however, always seems to have treated the learned and eloquent Alexandrian as an equal power in the Church of Christ, classing Apollos with St. Peter and himself. Luther’s well-known suggestion that Apollos was the unknown writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews—“auctor Epistolæ ad Hebros . . . ut ego arbritror Apollo”—the authorship (though not the canonicity) of which has been a disputed point as far back as the days of Origen, in the first half of the third century—has been adopted, though, of course, with much reserve, by many. Attention has been called to the somewhat remarkable fact that the names of these three friends of St. Paul, who were classed among his most faithful adherents in this almost the last Epistle he wrote, were derived from three of the most famous heathen deities—Zenas from Zeus; Artemas from Artemis, the famous tutelary goddess of Ephesus; Apollos from the well-known sun-god.

Benson Commentary

Titus 3:13-15. Bring — Or send forward; Zenas the lawyer — Zenas is mentioned in this passage only, and called νομικον, the lawyer, because, according to Jerome’s interpretation, which is also that of Dr. Benson, he had formerly been a teacher of the law among the Jews; see Matthew 22:35, where the same appellation is given to one of that profession. He might possibly, however, as others think, be a Roman lawyer; and Apollos — It is probable that Zenas and Apollos were to pass through Crete, either in their way to the apostle, or to some place whither he had sent them. He therefore desired Titus to help them forward on their journey by supplying them with such necessaries as they were in want of, that they might not be retarded. And let ours also — All our brethren in Crete, whether ministers or private members of the church; learn — By thy admonition and example; to maintain good works — Works of charity and bounty; for necessary uses — For the relief of the poor brethren, that they may not want any necessary; that they — The Cretian believers; be not unfruitful — Unserviceable to those among whom they dwell. Perhaps, at some former period, they had not assisted Zenas and Apollos as they ought to have done. Greet them that love us in the faith — That is, for the faith’s sake, and with such a love as Christianity requires.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:12-15 Christianity is not a fruitless profession; and its professors must be filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. They must be doing good, as well as keeping away from evil. Let ours follow some honest labour and employment, to provide for themselves and their families. Christianity obliges all to seek some honest work and calling, and therein to abide with God. The apostle concludes with expressions of kind regard and fervent prayer. Grace be with you all; the love and favour of God, with the fruits and effects thereof, according to need; and the increase and feeling of them more and more in your souls. This is the apostle's wish and prayer, showing his affection to them, and desire for their good, and would be a means of obtaining for them, and bringing down on them, the thing requested. Grace is the chief thing to be wished and prayed for, with respect to ourselves or others; it is all good.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Bring Zenas the lawyer - - This person is not elsewhere mentioned in the New Testament, and nothing more is known of him. He belonged doubtless to that class of persons so often mentioned in the New Testament as lawyers; that is, who were regarded as qualified to expound the Jewish laws; see the notes at Matthew 22:35. It does not mean that he practiced law, in the modern sense of that phrase. He had doubtless been converted to the Christian faith, and it is not improbable that there were Jews at Nicopolis, and that Paul supposed he might be particularly useful among them.

And Apollos - Notes, Acts 18:24. He was also well-skilled in the laws of Moses, being "mighty in the Scriptures" Acts 18:24, and he and Zenas appear to have been traveling together. It would seem that they had been already on a journey, probably in preaching the gospel, and Paul supposed that they would be in Crete, and that Titus could aid them.

Diligently - 2 Timothy 4:9; Greek Speedily; i. e., facilitate their journey as much as possible.

That nothing be wanting unto them - Nothing necessary for their journey. Paul desired that they might meet with hospitable treatment from Christians in Crete, and might not be embarrassed for the want of that which was needful for their journey. It would seem most probable that they had been sent by Paul on a visit to the churches.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

13. Bring … on their journey—Enable them to proceed forward by supplying necessaries for their journey.

Zenas—the contracted form of Zenodorus.

lawyer—a Jewish "scribe," who, when converted, still retained the title from his former occupation. A civil lawyer.

Apollos—with Zenas, probably the bearers of this Epistle. In 1Co 16:12, Apollos is mentioned as purposing to visit Corinth; his now being at Corinth (on the theory of Paul being at Corinth when he wrote) accords with this purpose. Crete would be on his way either to Palestine or his native place, Alexandria. Paul and Apollos thus appear in beautiful harmony in that very city where their names had been formerly the watchword of unchristian party work. It was to avoid this party rivalry that Apollos formerly was unwilling to visit Corinth though Paul desired him. Hippolytus mentions Zenas as one of the Seventy, and afterwards bishop of Diospolis.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Of this Zenas we read no more in holy writ, but of

Apollos we read both in the Acts, and 1 Corinthians 3:4,5,22: it seemeth they were about to go to Paul to Nicopolis.

That nothing be wanting unto them; the apostle would have Titus take care that they might want no necessaries that might accommodate them in their journey.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Bring Zenas the lawyer,.... Whether he was brought up to the civil law, either among the Greeks or Romans, is not certain; it may be he was a Jewish lawyer, or scribe, an interpreter of Moses's law among the Jews; for with them a lawyer and a scribe were one and the same, as appears from Matthew 22:35 compared with Mark 12:28 and the Syriac version here calls him "a scribe", and the Ethiopic version "a scribe of the city"; which looks as if it was a civil office he bore; but however, be he what he will, he seems to have been now a preacher of the Gospel, being joined with Apollos, who certainly was one: he is said to have been one of the seventy disciples of Christ, and afterwards bishop of Diospolis; See Gill on Luke 10:1; his name is the contraction of Zenodorus: him the apostle would have Titus bring,

and Apollos, on their journey diligently; who was a Jew born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures; who had preached at Corinth, but was now at Crete; and whom the apostle, with Zenas, would have provided with everything necessary for their journey:

that nothing be wanting unto them; which might be proper for them in their travels, to make them comfortable, and their journey pleasant and easy.

Geneva Study Bible

Bring Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their journey diligently, that nothing be wanting unto them.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Titus 3:13. Ζηνᾶν τὸν νομικόν] Zenas is otherwise unknown. The epithet τὸν νομ. shows either that he had been formerly a Jew learned in the Scriptures, a γραμματεύς (Matthew 22:35, and other passages), or—as is more probable—that he was one skilled in law, a jurisconsultus (Strabo, 12, p. 539: ἐξηγητὴς τῶν νόμων, καθάπερ οἱ παρὰ Ῥωμαίοις νομικοί).

καὶ Ἀπολλώ] He is known from Acts and 1 Corinthians; but it is not known when he went to Crete.[21]

σπουδαίως πρόπεμψον] “equip carefully for departure;” on προπέμπειν, comp. 3 John 1:6. Wiesinger translates σπουδαίως by “hastily,” unsuitably, as the words ἵνα κ.τ.λ. show. In σπουδαίως the prevailing conception is zeal; σπουδαίως ἔχειν is equivalent to “be zealous for a thing.” Luther: “make ready with diligence.”

ἵνα μηδὲν αὐτοῖς λείπῃ] Hofmann’s opinion, that “this is an imperative sentence in itself,” is all the more arbitrary that ἵνα manifestly refers to σπουδαίως; comp. besides what was said on 1 Timothy 1:3.

[21] Hofmann suggests that Zenas and Apollo set out from the place where Paul was at the time of writing the epistle, in order to proceed by Crete to Alexandria, which was Apollo’s native place, and that Paul gave them this epistle to Titus to serve them also as a letter of recommendation. These are mere conjectures, for which there is no foundation.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Titus 3:13. νομικόν: In the absence of any example of this word being used as the equivalent of legisperitus (Vulg.), jurisconsultus or jurisperitus, it seems best to assume that Zenas was a νομικός in the usual N.T. sense, an expert in the Mosaic Law.

Ἀπολλὼν: For Apollos, see article in Hastings’ D. B.

πρόπεμψον: set forward on their journey, praemitte; but deduco is the rendering where the word occurs elsewhere. See reff.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

13. Bring Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their journey] The verb ‘bring on their journey’ is literally ‘send forward,’ and so Vulg. here ‘praemitte’; but in the other eight places of its use in N.T. ‘deduco’ is used, that is, ‘conduct,’ ‘take them a certain part of the way.’ So in old provincial English ‘I will send you a mile,’ meaning ‘accompany you.’ R.V. in four places has ‘bring on the way,’ in five, ‘set forward on the journey;’ but in only one, Acts 21:5, does the context require that the ‘accompanying’ should be prominent, ‘they all with wives and children brought us on our way till we were out of the city.’ Here set forward with less thought of bringing (A.V.) seems sufficient.

Zenas the lawyer and Apollos] Zenas is the Greek form of Zenodorus, as Apollos of Apollodorus, Artemas of Artemidorus. Nothing is known of him, but the phrase itself suggests that he was one of the class of Jewish scribes or lawyers, i.e. experts in Jewish law who were especially numerous among the Pharisees. On his conversion he may have retained the name, as Simon the Zealot and Matthew the publican did theirs. As his class had for their fuller title ‘teachers of the law,’ ‘doctors,’ Luke 2:46; Luke 5:17, he would be especially fitted to become one of the order of the Christian ‘teachers’; cf. Ephesians 4:11, ‘some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers.’ Apollos, on the other hand, was recognised as an apostle. He was an Alexandrian by race, a learned (or eloquent) man, mighty in the Scriptures, instructed in the way of the Lord, to whom Priscilla and Aquila ‘expounded the way of God more carefully’ (Acts 18:26) at Ephesus. He became a most successful evangelist in Achaia and at Corinth, and was regarded by St Paul as a brother apostle, independent in will and action, 1 Corinthians 16:12, but preaching and serving an undivided Christ, 1 Corinthians 1:12; 1 Corinthians 3:22-23. From this passage we may infer, not that they had been resident in Crete, which introduces an unnecessary complication with the official authority of Titus, but that they had undertaken such a ‘pastoral mission’ there as St Paul had invited Apollos to undertake to Corinth, 1 Corinthians 16:12; perhaps, with Mr Lewin, that they were on the way from Corinth to Alexandria, and were the bearers of this letter to Titus.

This visit of ‘an apostle’ and ‘a teacher,’ and the hospitality to be exercised towards them by Titus, are to stimulate, St Paul adds, the zeal and liberality of the whole body of Christians, the Cretan Church.

diligently] Vulg. ‘sollicite’ Theod. Mops. Lat. ‘velociter’; but the following clause ‘that nothing be wanting unto them,’ favours ‘attention’ rather than ‘speed,’ and implies provision for the journey as part of the sympathetic attendance; so in 3 John 1:6 ‘set forward on their journey worthily of God,’ i.e. with supplies worthy of their service to God, the following verses making this clear, ‘we therefore as fellow Christians ought to give them hospitable support.’

Bengel's Gnomen

Titus 3:13. Ἵνα μηδὲν, that nothing) Titus therefore had the means. They did not go empty.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 13. - Set forward for bring, A.V. Set forward (πρόπεμψον); the technical expression both in the New Testament and the LXX., and also in classical Greek, for helping a person forward on their journey by supplying them with money food, letters of recommendation, escort, or whatever else they might require (see Acts 15:3; Acts 20:38; Acts 21:5; Romans 15:24; 1 Corinthians 16:6; 2 Corinthians 1:16; 3 John 1:6). Zenas the lawyer. He is utterly unknown. His name is short for Zenodorus, but whether he was "a Jewish scribe or Roman legist" can hardly be decided. But his companionship with Apollos, and the frequent application of the term νομικός in the New Testament to the Jewish scribes and lawyers (Matthew 22:35; Luke 7:30; Luke 10:25; Luke 11:45, 48, 52; Luke 14:3), makes it most probable that he was a Jewish lawyer. Apollos; the well-known and eminent Alexandrian Jew, who was instructed in the gospel by Aquila and Priscilla at Ephesus, and became a favorite teacher at Corinth (Acts 18:24; Acts 19:1; 1 Corinthians 1:12, and the following chapters, and Acts 16:12). It is a probable conjecture of Lewin's that Apollos was the bearer of this letter, written at Corinth, and was on his way to Alexandria, his native place, taking Crete on the way. Titus 3:13