Just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to them, “If you Jews were making a complaint about some misdemeanor or serious crime, it would be reasonable for me to listen to you. But since it involves questions about words and names and your own law—settle the matter yourselves. I will not be a judge of such things.” So he drove them off. Then the crowd there turned on Sosthenes the synagogue leader and beat him in front of the proconsul; and Gallio showed no concern whatever. (Acts 18:12-16)
Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,
To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 1:1-3)
Sosthenes is mentioned in the Bible twice in the passages of scripture displayed above. He is the leader of a synagogue in Corinth, beaten by a mob of his peers when the Jews of Corinth made a coordinated attack on Paul the Apostle.
By the time Paul writes to the Corinthians he has moved his ministry to another location, possibly Ephesus. In addressing them he states that the letter is sent by himself and by "our brother Sosthenes." Is this the same synagogue leader? I assume so. If so, then he has traveled with Paul when Paul left Corinth and moved his ministry to at least one other location.
It takes a special kind of grace to ally one's self with an outsider. It takes a special kind of strength to receive the abuse of one's own community. It takes a special kind of courage to leave one's community and to travel together with a zealous wanderer such as Paul the Apostle.
Sosthenes seems special to me.
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