Sopater

Sop´ater, a Christian at Berea, and one of the party of brethren who accompanied Paul into Asia Minor from Greece (Act 20:4). He is supposed to be the same with the Sosipater named in Rom 16:21; and, if so, was a kinsman of St. Paul.

A Berean Christian, and one of those who attended Paul from Greece into Asia Minor, Mal 20:4 . He is supposed to have been the kinsman of Paul called Sosipater in 1Ch 16:21 .\par

Sop’ater. (saviour of his father). Son of Pyrrhus or Berea, was one of the companions of St. Paul, on his return from Greece into Asia. Act 20:4. (A.D. 55).

"Son of Pyrrhus" (in the Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandrinus manuscripts), of Berea, was one of Paul’s companions on his return from Greece to Asia, after his third missionary journey (Act 20:4).

[So’pater]

A believer of Berea who accompanied Paul from Greece into Asia. Act 20:4. The Editors of the Greek Testament add ’[son] of Pyrrhus.’

sō´pa-tẽr, sop´a-tẽr (Σώπατος, Sṓpatros): the Revised Version (British and American) the son of Pyrrhus; the King James Version omits. A man of Berea who is mentioned with some Thessalonians and others as accompanying Paul as far as Asia on his return to Jerusalem after his 3rd missionary journey (Act 20:4). He is probably the same as the “Sosipater” of Rom 16:21.

(Óþðáôñïò, a common Greek name)

Sopater is mentioned in Act_20:4 as a companion of St. Paul, who accompanied him from Greece to Asia Minor on his return journey to Palestine, whither he was bearing the offering of the churches ‘for the poor among the saints that are at Jerusalem’ (Rom_15:26). It has been conjectured that all the persons referred to in Act_20:4 were delegates of their respective communities appointed ‘in the matter of this grace’ (2Co_8:19). If this was so, we shall suppose that they went all the way to Jerusalem. We know that one of them, Trophimus, did so (Act_21:29), and evidently also Aristarchus (Act_27:2). Sopater was perhaps the delegate of the church at BerCEa. He is described as a native of that place (Âåñïéáῖïò), and was perhaps a Hellenistic Jew, one of those who contrasted so favourably with the Jews of Thessalonica, one of the ‘many’ who believed during the Apostle’s visit (Act_17:10-14). If he was not a Jew he cannot be identified, as is sometimes suggested, with Sosipater (q.v. [Note: .v. quod vide, which see.] ), whose salutation is sent by St. Paul in Rom_16:21, and who is described as one of the Apostle’s ‘kinsmen,’ i.e. fellow-Jews. Nothing further is known of Sopater than that he was ‘the son of Pyrrhus’ (Óþðáôñïò Ðýññïõ), of whom, however, we are entirely ignorant. The patronymic is omitted by Textus Receptus and Authorized Version but is found in à ABDE, several ancient versions, and Revised Version . See article Pyrrhus.

T. B. Allworthy.

(Acts 20)

- Sopater may be the Jewish Christian Sosipater, included in Paul’s greetings in his Letter to the Romans (16:21), especially as this Letter was probably sent from Corinth