Who is Theopholis? What do you know about him?

[Born2worshipHim]

Is it true that Theopholis was really John when he was exiled on the isle of Patmos? Has anyone did a study of Theopholis and what did he do?

[Hootmon]

I dont know about this issue specifically, but a 'Theophile' would be one who loves God. Not a bad nickname...

[Wildcat81]

Theophilus was probably Luke's patron. Writing a book in the first century was not cheap. For one thing, papyrus was expensive: the process for making it was fairly labor-intensive, and it had to be exported from Egypt. For another, when writing a work of Greek-style historiography (which Luke and Acts are), one was expected to do quite a bit of traveling and research. This, also, was not cheap. Then, depending on the author, a scribe may need to be hired to actually write down the book itself. Thus the production of a book in the first century required a significant outlay of funds, which meant that books were often commissioned by wealthy patrons.

[Born2worshipHim]

Thank you!

Do you know if there are any additional writings about him? I've surfed and couldn't find a whole lot.

[Wildcat81]

Anything you're going to find is going to be mostly speculative. All that we can really know about him from the text is that he was wealthy and male, probably a Gentile, but quite familiar with the Jewish Scriptures, considering how Luke cites them without offering any sort of extensive explanations. And really, even the "wealthy and male" part depends on the patron theory being correct (which I believe it to be: it makes the best sense).

Really, all we have about Theophilus as a historical figure is what we read in the first verses of Luke and Acts. It was a common enough name that it would be extremely difficult to nail down a single Theopilus and say "this is the one." Anything beyond "Theophilus was the man to whom Luke dedicated his gospel and Acts" is speculation. Like I said, the patron theory is the best fit, given the expense of producing a book and the general practice of dedicating a book to its patron when it had one, but even that involves a little speculation.

[Born2worshipHim]

Great, this was very helpful. Thank you. :)