Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 1 Corinthians 1:16

"And I baptized also the household of Stephanas: besides, I know not whether I baptized any other." — 1 Corinthians 1:16 (ASV)

The mention of baptism leads Paul to comment that the Corinthian believers had no reason to depend on the efficacy of baptism by him as a sanctifying grace, because he had baptized so few—Crispus, Gaius, and the household of Stephanus, these being the only ones he could remember as having been baptized by him. Crispus probably was at one time the head of the Corinthian synagogue (Acts 18:8), and Gaius was probably the Gaius mentioned as Paul’s host in Ro 16:23. Stephanus was one of those whom Paul calls the “first converts in Achaia”; he, with Fortunatus and Achaicus, was with Paul at Ephesus (1 Corinthians 16:15, 17). The whole household (i.e., the family members and the servants) of this prominent man had been baptized by Paul.