A leading member of the arch at Jerusalem who also had aphetic gifts (acts15:22;32).
May be a Semitic name ,posy, the Aram .form of Saul. There is little doubt that he is to be identified with“silvanus”(cor.1:19;1 thes.1:1;2 thes.1:1;1 pet.5:12),which is probably the Latinized form of“silas”,though it may be a separate cognomen chosen for its similarity.
In Acts silas was sent by the church at Jerusalem to welcome into fellowship the gentiles converted through the church of Antioch (Acts 15:22-35). When paul and barnabas quarreled about john mark, barnabas went off with Mith Mark and paul took silas as his companion on his second missionary journey (15:36-41). the fact of his roman citizenship (16:37-39) may have been one of the reasons for the choice, and his membership of the Jerusalem
Church would have been helpful to paul. His role seems to have been to replace Mark rather than Barnabas. Nowhere is he referred to in a general way as an “apostle”(contrast Barnabas in Acts 14:14)and his position seems to be subordinate. mark was the “minister”(hyperetes) of the apostles before (13:5),and that may indicate that he had some function similar to the synagogue attendants (Lk.4:20) in looking after the Scriptures and possibly catechetical scrolls later developed into his Gospel. If the function of Silas was similar we can more readily see how he could have the literary role assigned to Silvanus in the Epistles. He accompanied Paul through Syria, Asia lonica. When Paul left for Athens Silas stayed at Beroea and then joined Paul at Corinth (Acts16-18). Paul mentions his work there in 2 Cor.1:19. He as associated with Paul in the letters written from Corinth (1 Thes.1:1;2 Thes.1:1) and is not named again until the reference to him in 1 Peter.
Peter says that he is writing dia Silouanou(1 Pet.5:12). This implies a literary function with probably a good amount of freedom. This could account for some of the resemblances in wording between 1 Peter,1 and 2 Thessalonians, and the apostolic decree of Acts 15.See E.G.Selwyn, the First Epistle of St.Peter,1946,pp.9-17.