The Apostolic Age · AD 4–70
Chloe of Corinth
fl. c. 55 (death unrecorded) · Householder · Paul’s informant at Corinth · Corinth
The Apostolic Age
Who Chloe of Corinth was
Named once in Scripture, and named as an authority. It was “them which are of the house of Chloe” who brought Paul word at Ephesus that the church at Corinth had split into factions — the report that opens 1 Corinthians and sets its agenda. Paul cites her household by name rather than reporting an anonymous rumour, which tells us the name carried weight with the Corinthians who would hear the letter read.
Of Chloe herself the sources say nothing further: no husband, no death, no burial. The Greek Χλόη means the first green shoot, verdure; Horace and Martial both use it of women, and Pausanias records it as a cult title of Demeter, goddess of husbandry — which has led a few commentators to wonder whether it names a place rather than a person (a town of the name is claimed in Cappadocia), though the weight of opinion has always been that Paul means a woman. That she is described by her *household* implies means: a woman at the head of a establishment large enough to send people between Corinth and Ephesus.
**Three conjectures connect her to the three Corinthians who carried the letters**, and the archive records all three without adopting any. That Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus were **her slaves or freedmen**, travelling on her business — which fits Achaicus’s name, “the Achaean,” the sort borne in the households of the Roman colony. That they were **her sons**, the reading Grotius preferred. Or that Chloe was **the wife of Stephanas and the mother of Fortunatus and Achaicus**, which is how Wesley’s note has it. Nothing in the text decides between them, and the connection itself is inference rather than statement: Paul names Chloe’s people in chapter 1 and the three men in chapter 16, and never says they are the same people.
Also listed in women.
Common questions
When was Chloe active?
Chloe of Corinth is dated fl. c. 55 (death unrecorded) in the archive, which places Chloe in the Apostolic Age (AD 4–70). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.
Which early sources mention Chloe?
Chloe of Corinth is named in 2 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Paul of Tarsus and John Chrysostom. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Where was Chloe from?
The archive associates Chloe of Corinth with Corinth.
Who were Chloe’s contemporaries?
The archive links Chloe of Corinth to 4 other figures, including Paul of Tarsus, Stephanas of Corinth, Fortunatus of Corinth and Achaicus of Corinth. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.
Scripture record
Primary-source mentions (2)
Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
1 Corinthians 1:11
c. AD 55For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.Paul of Tarsus · read ↗
Homilies on the Scriptures
c. AD 395… their being divided and addicting themselves, some to this party, and others to that, and saying, I am of such a one, and I of such a one; **which thing also to correct he said in the beginning of the Epistle, “For it hath been signified unto me concerning you, my brethren, by them which are of the household of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.”** … and so he reminded them again of that which was said in the beginning of the Epistle, and was signified by them of the house of Chloe. … “And I partly believe it.” Thus, lest they should say, But what if the accusers speak falsely? he neither says, I believe it, lest he should rather make them reckless; nor again, on the other hand, I disbelieve it, lest he should seem to reprove without cause, but, “I partly believe it,” says he, i.e., I believe it in a small part; making them anxious and inviting them to return to correction. [Chrysostom returns to Chloe’s people twice in this homily on the abuse of the common meal, treating their report as the thread that runs from the letter’s opening rebuke to its middle. His note on “I partly believe it” is a defence of the informants: Paul will neither endorse nor dismiss what they told him, and the careful half-measure is a pastoral tactic rather than a doubt about their honesty.]John Chrysostom · Homilies on 1 Corinthians XXVII · source text
Chrysostom's homilies on 1 Corinthians, preached at Antioch. Critical Greek: Frederick Field, *Ioannis Chrysostomi interpretatio omnium epistularum Paulinarum*, vol. 2 (Oxford: J. H. Parker, 1854–62), CPG 4428. English translation by T. W. Chambers, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 1st series, vol. 12 (1889), public domain.
Names proposed by later tradition
Chloe, mistress of Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus
A conjecture that the three letter-carriers of 1 Corinthians 16:17 were her slaves or freedmen, travelling between Corinth and Ephesus on her business. Fits the freedman character of Achaicus’s name; not stated in the text.
Chloe, mother of the three carriers
Grotius took Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus to be Chloe’s sons and the bearers of the Corinthians’ letter.
Chloe, wife of Stephanas
A further reading, in Wesley’s note, making her the wife of Stephanas and mother of Fortunatus and Achaicus.
Connected in the archive
People
Events in this lifetime
- AD 30 · Crucifixion, Resurrection and Pentecost, AD 30–33
- AD 44 · Persecution under Herod Agrippa I, AD 44
- AD 49 · The Council of Jerusalem, AD 49
- AD 57 · Paul writes Romans, AD 57
- AD 62 · James the Just stoned, AD 62
- AD 64 · The Great Fire and Nero’s persecution, AD 64
Place
Places served
The one place the sources put Chloe.