Zenas the Lawyer

When was Zenas active?

Zenas the Lawyer is dated fl. c. 63 (death unrecorded) in the archive, which places Zenas 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 Zenas?

Zenas the Lawyer is named in 2 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Paul and John Chrysostom. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Where was Zenas from?

The archive associates Zenas the Lawyer with Crete (in transit).

Who were Zenas’ contemporaries?

The archive links Zenas the Lawyer to 2 other figures, including Apollos of Alexandria and Titus of Crete. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.

Bring Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their journey diligently, that nothing be wanting unto them.

Ver. 14. “Bring Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their journey diligently, that nothing be wanting unto them.” — These were **not of the number to whom Churches had been intrusted, but of the number of his companions**. But Apollos was the more vehement, being “an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures.” … **But if Zenas was a lawyer, you say, he ought not to have been supported by others. But by a lawyer here is meant one versed in the laws of the Jews.** And he seems to say, supply their wants abundantly, that nothing may be lacking to them. [Chrysostom does two things with the name. He assigns Zenas a status — not a bishop or a man given charge of a church, but one of Paul’s travelling companions; and he narrows the title the archive gives him. Raising the objection that a lawyer earns his own living and so should not be on the church’s support, he answers that νομικός here means an expert in the law of Moses, not a Roman advocate. The archive holds him as “Zenas the Lawyer”, the traditional English rendering; his earliest commentator reads the word as “scribe”. A printing note: the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers text labels this verse “Ver. 14” and then labels the next “Ver. 14, 15” — the passage quoted is Titus 3:13.]