This man was instructed in the way of the Lord. — Better, had been instructed. The verb is the same as that used in Luke 1:1 (where see Note), and was afterwards used technically in the form of Catechumen to describe the status of a convert preparing for baptism. The “way of the Lord” is used in a half-technical sense, as in the phrase “those of the way” (see Note on Acts 9:2), as equivalent to what, in modern speech, we should describe as the “religion” of Christ.
And being fervent in the spirit. — The noun is obviously used, as in the identical phrase in Romans 12:11, for the spirit of the man, not for the Holy Spirit of God.
He spake and taught diligently. — Better, he was speaking and teaching accurately. Both verbs are in the tense which implies continuous action.
The things of the Lord. — The better MSS. give, “the things concerning Jesus.” We ask in what the teaching, which is thus described as accurate, was yet defective. The position of Apollos at this stage was, it would seem, that of one who knew the facts of our Lord’s life, and death, and resurrection, and had learnt, comparing these with Messianic prophecies, to accept Him as the Christ. But his teacher had been one who had not gone beyond the standpoint of the followers of the Baptist, who accepted Jesus as the Christ during His ministry on earth. The Christ was for him the head of a glorified Judaism, retaining all its distinctive features. He had not as yet learnt that “circumcision was nothing” (1 Corinthians 7:19; Galatians 5:6), and that the Temple and all its ordinances were “decaying and waxing old, and ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:13).
Knowing only the baptism of John. — The words are full of interest, as showing a wider extent in the work of the Baptist, as the forerunner of the Christ, than is indicated in the Gospels. Even at Alexandria, probably among the ascetic communities of the Therapeutæ, whose life was fashioned upon the same model, there were those who had come under his influence.