Apostle Eubulus of the Seventy

Scriptural Attestation

Eubulus appears only in the closing greetings of the Second Epistle to Timothy: 'Eubulus sends you greetings, as do Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brothers' (2 Timothy 4:21, Berean Standard Bible). Paul, imprisoned at Rome and writing to Timothy at Ephesus, conveys the greetings of the Roman believers gathered around him as he faced execution.

His companions in this greeting include Pudens and Claudia, otherwise obscure figures, and Linus, whom patristic tradition (as reported by Irenaeus and Eusebius) identifies as the first Bishop of Rome after the Apostle Peter. The presence of Linus places Eubulus within the foundational leadership circle of the Roman church during the Apostolic Age. Commentators consistently observe that nothing further is known of Eubulus, whose entire scriptural witness is this one verse.

Identity and Distinctions

Eubulus of the Seventy should not be confused with the martyr Eubulus of Caesarea, who was put to death by the sword during the persecution of Diocletian around 310 AD. That later Eubulus, whose death is recounted by Eusebius of Caesarea in his History of the Martyrs in Palestine and who is commemorated on February 3 with the martyr Adrian, is a distinct person separated from the apostle by centuries.

A proposed connection between Eubulus and Aristobulus, sometimes linked to early evangelism in Britain, is unsupported conjecture rather than established tradition. There is no dedicated biographical account of the Apostle Eubulus, reflecting his extreme obscurity as a historical figure.

Commemoration

Eubulus is commemorated on February 28 jointly with the Apostle Nymphas, both listed among the Seventy Apostles and remembered as disciples of the Apostle Paul. A synaxarion verse for the feast associates the two together in Christ: 'Eubulus and Nymphas together being associated with Christ.'