Zenas

Biblical Record

Zenas appears only once in the entire New Testament, in Titus 3:13. Near the end of his letter, Paul gives Titus several instructions. When Paul sends Artemas or Tychicus to him, Titus is to come to Nicopolis (Titus 3:12). He is also to send "Zenas the lawyer and Apollos" on ahead promptly and see that they lack nothing: "Bring Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their journey diligently, that nothing be wanting unto them" (Titus 3:13, KJV). The Korean New Korean Revised Version renders his title as "teacher of the law."

The text reveals roughly the following about Zenas:

• He bears the descriptive title "lawyer" (Greek nomikos, "one versed in the law"), which indicates an occupation or status.
• He was traveling with Apollos and appears to have been passing through Crete, where Titus was, on his way elsewhere.
• Paul urges that their needs for the journey be supplied before they are sent on.

Scripture records nothing about his origins, his conversion, or his later activities. A widely known view holds that the name "Zenas" is a shortened form of the Greek name "Zenodorus."

Significance Within Scripture

Zenas is one of the many coworkers who shared in Paul's missionary work. Titus 3:13 is often read as evidence of an early church practice of providing traveling ministers with funds and supplies and then sending them on to their next destination. This practice is sometimes described as "sending forward" or "sending on one's way." Some scholars conjecture that Zenas and Apollos carried the Epistle to Titus to Crete, although the text does not say so.

Interpretation and Debated Questions

The meaning of "lawyer." There are two main lines of interpretation of this term.

• Because the same word in the Gospels refers to Jewish experts thoroughly versed in the Law of Moses, some interpret Zenas as a Jewish Christian trained in the Law. On this reading he belonged to a class similar to the scribes.
• Others, pointing to his Greek name and the Hellenistic setting, regard him as a jurist versed in Roman or local law.

The text alone does not allow a firm conclusion either way.

Later tradition. Later extrabiblical writings reportedly list Zenas among the seventy disciples of Luke 10 and state that he became bishop of Diospolis (Lydda). This is later tradition rather than material drawn from the biblical text, and its historical reliability has not been established. Some traditions, including the Eastern Orthodox Church, commemorate him as a saint.

Scholarly opinion is also divided over the authorship and date of Titus and the other Pastoral Epistles. The traditional view holds that Paul wrote them himself, while another attributes them to a later disciple; the circumstances of Zenas's activity are reconstructed differently depending on which view is taken.

In the Korean Church

Zenas is rarely treated as a subject in his own right in Korean church sermons or Sunday school materials. He is usually mentioned briefly, alongside Apollos, in expositions of Titus 3 or in discussions of supporting missionaries and other ministers.