Sosthenes

Biblical Record

The name Sosthenes appears twice in the New Testament.

• Acts 18:17: During his second missionary journey, Paul stayed in Corinth. While he was there, the Jews of Corinth brought charges against him before Gallio, the proconsul of the province of Achaia. Gallio regarded the matter as a question of Jewish law and refused to hear the case. The text then records that "all" took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, "and beat him before the judgment seat. And Gallio cared for none of those things." A ruler of the synagogue was responsible for overseeing the gatherings and worship of the synagogue. Verse 8 of the same chapter also records that another ruler of the synagogue, Crispus, "believed on the Lord with all his house."
• 1 Corinthians 1:1: At the opening of First Corinthians, Paul names himself together with "Sosthenes our brother" as the senders of the letter. The letter is generally understood to have been written while Paul was staying in Ephesus. It therefore appears that Sosthenes was with Paul at that time and was known to the Corinthian believers.

Many scholars date Gallio's term as proconsul of Achaia to the early 50s, though they differ on the precise dating.

Significance Within Scripture

The scene in Acts shows a Roman official treating the charges against Paul and his companions as an internal religious matter and declining to intervene. As a result, Paul was able to continue his ministry in Corinth. In First Corinthians, Sosthenes appears as a co-worker named alongside Paul, much like Silas and Timothy. The text does not indicate, however, what role he actually played in composing the letter.

Interpretation and Debated Questions

• Who did the beating: In Acts 18:17, some manuscripts read "the Greeks" where others have simply "all." Read this way, the passage depicts a Gentile crowd venting hostility toward a Jewish leader after the charges were dismissed. Another interpretation holds that the Jews beat their own synagogue ruler, either blaming him for the failed prosecution or suspecting him of having shown favor to Paul.
• Whether they are the same person: The view that the two men named Sosthenes are one and the same has a long history. According to this reading, he was a leader among those who accused Paul and later came to faith. Other scholars, however, noting that Sosthenes was a common name at the time and that Scripture does not directly connect the two, regard them as different individuals or withhold judgment.
• Later tradition: Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History, citing Clement of Alexandria, reports that the Sosthenes of First Corinthians was one of the seventy sent out by Jesus. Other accounts describe him as the bishop of a particular region. All of these are later traditions not found in the biblical text.

In the Korean Church

In the Korean church, Sosthenes is mentioned mainly at the beginning of expository sermon series on First Corinthians or in treatments of Acts 18. Some sermons identify the two references as the same individual and present him as "a man who went from the side of the persecutors to become a co-worker in the gospel." This explanation, however, rests on only one of the interpretations described above. He is rarely treated on his own in Sunday school curricula or in hymns and worship songs.