Chloe

Chlo´e, a Christian woman at Corinth, some members of whose family afforded Paul intelligence concerning the divisions which reigned in the church at that place (1Co 1:11).

Chlo’e. (green herb). A woman mentioned in 1Co 1:11.

1Co 1:11. A matron at Corinth, some of whose household informed Paul of the divisions in the Corinthian church. The Corinthians had "written" to Paul consulting him about marriage, things offered to idols, decorum in church assemblies, but not a syllable about the disorders that had crept in. That information reached him from other quarters: compare 1Co 5:1-2. "It hath been declared unto me," "it is reported." All this he says before he notices their letter, which shows it gave him no intimation of these evils. An undesigned proof of genuineness (Paley). He names the family, to show he has authority for his allegation, but not individuals, to avoid exciting odium against them. He tacitly implies that the information ought to have come from their presbyters, who consulted him about matters of less importance.

(Χλόη, verdure, a classical name), a female Christian mentioned in 1Co 1:11, some of whose household (ὑπὸ τῶν Χλόης, where there is doubtless an ellipsis of οἰκείων, comp. Rom 16:10-11) had informed the apostle Paul of the fact that there were divisions in the Corinthian Church. A.D. 54. She is supposed by Theophylact and others to have been an inhabitant of Corinth; by Estius, some Christian woman known to the Corinthians elsewhere; by Michaelis and Meyer, an Ephesian, having friends at Corinth. SEE CORINTHIANS, EPISTLES TO.

[Chlo’e]

A convert mentioned only in 1Co 1:11.

CHLOE (mentioned only in 1Co 1:11).—St. Paul had been informed of the dissensions at Corinth prob. by some of her Christian slaves. Chloe herself may have been either a Christian or a beathen, and may have lived either at Corinth or at Ephesus. In favour of the latter is St. Paul’s usual tact, which would not suggest the invidious mention of his informants’ names, if they were members of the Corinthian Church.

klō´ē̇ (Χλόη, Chlóē, “a tender shoot”): A woman, presumably a Christian, mentioned only in 1Co 1:11. She was a resident either of Corinth or of Ephesus. Paul had been informed by some of her household, probably Christian slaves, of the dissensions in the church at Corinth. Nothing more is known of her.

St. Paul was told of the factions in Corinth ὑðὸ ôῶí ×ëüçò, ‘by them of Chloe’ (1Co_1:11). It is not said that she was a Christian, nor is it clear whether she lived in Corinth or in Ephesus. Probably she was an Ephesian Christian lady, whose ‘people’ (i.e. her Christian slaves, or companions, or even children) had brought back disquieting news after visiting Corinth. Her name is an epithet of a goddess and was often given to slaves; hence it has been conjectured that she was a freedwoman of property.

Literature.-articles in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) on ‘Chloe’ and on ‘I. Corinthians,’ p. 487a; Comm. on 1 Cor. by Findlay (Expositor’s Greek Testament , 1904), pp. 735, 763, and by Godet (1889), i. 21, 64. C. v. Weizsäcker discusses the situation in Corinth, and takes a different view about Chloe: see his Apostolic Age, i.2, London, 1897, pp. 305, 318, 325, 335.

J. E. Roberts.