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1 Corinthians 3 · a question people ask

"Who then is Apollos" (3:5). Is this the Apollos of Acts 18?

In the text

The letter names Apollos in 1:12, 3:4, 3:5, 3:6, 3:22, 4:6 and 16:12. To its own question it gives its own answer: "servants through whom you believed, and each as the Lord gave to him" (3:5). It says nothing more here about who Apollos is. Acts 18 also names an Apollos. Favor's Acts 18 sets 3:6 beside its own chapter in its go-deeper Named again in the letters, and doesn't say whether 3:6 names the same Apollos as Acts 18; these notes don't say either.

The verses

“Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed, and each as the Lord gave to him?”
1 Corinthians 3:5 · World English Bible
“I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase.”
1 Corinthians 3:6 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 1 Corinthians 3

1 Corinthians 3: God gave the increase

The sayings "I follow Paul" and "I follow Apollos" (3:4) come back turned around: "whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours, and you are Christ’s" (3:22-23). And in the Greek, fed in "I fed you with milk" (3:2) is the verb of "Apollos watered" (3:6).

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Last reviewed October 8, 2026. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions