And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord. — The article does not necessarily show that there was only one ruler — commonly, as at the Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:15), there were more — but that this Crispus was thus distinguished from others of the same name. The office was one which gave its holder an honourable position, and, as in inscriptions from the Jewish catacombs now in the Lateran Museum, was recorded on tombstones (Alfius Archisynagos) as a personal distinction of which the family of the deceased were proud. In favour of so conspicuous a convert, St. Paul deviated from his usual practice, and baptised Crispus with his own hands (1 Corinthians 1:14).
Many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized. — The tense of the two verbs implies a process going on daily for an undefined period. Among the converts we may note Gaius, or Caius, probably a man of higher social position than others, who made his house the meeting-place of the Church, and at St. Paul’s second visit received him as a guest (Romans 16:23), and the household of Stephanas, who, as “the first-fruits of Achaia,” must have been among the earliest converts (1 Corinthians 16:15). These also St. Paul baptised himself (1 Corinthians 1:14-15). Fortunatus and Achaicus, and Chloe, a prominent female convert (1 Corinthians 1:11), with Quartus, and Erastus the chamberlain of the city (Romans 16:23), and Epænetus, also among the “first-fruits of Achaia” (Romans 16:5), may also be counted among the disciples made now or soon afterwards.