Acts 16:1

κατήντησε : only in Luke and Paul, nine times in Acts, four times in Paul, Acts 18:19; Acts 18:24; Acts 20:15; Acts 21:7; Acts 25:13; Acts 26:7; Acts 27:12; Acts 28:13; 1 Corinthians 10:11; 1 Corinthians 14:36; Ephesians 4:13; Philippians 3:11. But whilst in St. Paul it is used in a figurative sense, it is used eight times by St. Luke of arriving at a place and making some stay there, cf. 2Ma 4:21; 2Ma 4:44. The fact that the verb is thus used frequently in the second part of Acts and not in 1 12 is surely easily accounted for by the subjects of the narrative (Hawkins, Horæ Synopticæ, p. 147). εἰς Δέρβην καὶ Λ.: if we read εἰς before Λ., also (see critical note): “he came also to Derbe and to Lystra”. The purpose was implied in Acts 15:36, but here places mentioned in the inverse order of Acts 14:6 since coming from Cilicia through the “Cilician Gates” St. Paul would visit Derbe first, see Hastings' B.D., “Derbe” (Ramsay). The two places are grouped together as a region according to the Roman classification (Ramsay, St. Paul, pp. 110, 179). The second εἰς before Λ. marks that while Derbe is mentioned as a place visited, Lystra is the scene of the events in the sequel. καὶ ἰδού : indicating the surprising fact that a successor to Mark was found at once (so Weiss); whilst Hort still more significantly marks the form of the phrase by pointing out that St. Luke reserves it for sudden and as it were providential interpretations, Ecclesia, p. 179, cf. Acts 1:10; Acts 8:17; Acts 10:17; Acts 11:7 : however disheartening had been the rupture with Barnabas, in Timothy Paul was to find another “son of consolation,” cf. Hort's comment on 1 Timothy 1:18 in this connection, u. s., pp. 179 185. It must not however be forgotten that there are good reasons for seeing in Timothy not the successor of Barnabas (this was Silas), but of Mark. It could hardly be said of one in the position of Silas that he was like Mark a ὑπηρέτης, on a mere subordinate footing, whereas on the other hand the difference of age between Barnabas and Timothy, and their relative positions to St. Paul would have naturally placed Timothy in a subordinate position from the first. ἐκεῖ, i.e., at Lystra, most probably. The view that reference is made not to Lystra but to Derbe arises from supposing that in Acts 20:4 the word Δερβαῖος refers to Timothy and not to Gaius, the truth being that Timothy is not described because already well known. Certainly the fact that his character was testified of by those of Lystra, as well as St. Paul's reference to Lystra in 2 Timothy 3:11, seems to favour Lystra as being at all events the home of Timothy, if not his birthplace. There is no reason why the Gaius mentioned as of Macedonia, Acts 19:29, should be identified with the Gaius of Acts 20:4. Gaius was a very common name, and in the N.T. we have apparently references to four persons bearing the name. Blass however refers Δερβαῖος in Acts 20:4 to Timothy. υἱὸς γυναικός τ. Ἰουδ. πιστῆς π. δὲ Ε.: such marriages although forbidden by the law, Ezra 10:2, were sanctioned under certain conditions, cf. Acts 24:24 in the case of Drusilla, wife of Aziz, king of Emesa (see also C. and H., p. 203), who became a proselyte and actually accepted circumcision. In the Diaspora such marriages would probably be more or less frequent, especially if the husband became a proselyte. In this case even if he were ranked as one, it could only have been as a “proselyte of the gate,” otherwise Timothy would surely have been circumcised. We cannot argue from the fact that the boy had been trained in the Jewish Scriptures that his father was a proselyte, for the early training of the child was evidently, the work of the mother, 2 Timothy 3:15. But such a duty according to Jewish law rested primarily upon the father, and the fact that the father here is described as a Greek, without any qualifying adjective as in the case of the wife, indicates that he was a heathen, see Weiss, in loco; Edersheim, Jewish Social Life, p. 115. The mother, Eunice (on spelling see Hastings' B.D.), may conceivably have been a proselyte, as the name is Greek, as also that of Lois, but Ἰουδ. seems to indicate that she was a Jewess by birth. Whether she was a widow or not we cannot say, although there is some evidence, see critical note, which points to the influence of some such tradition. On the picture of a Jewish home, and the influence of a Jewish mother, see Edersheim, u. s. πιστῆς : Lydia uses the same term of herself in Acts 16:15. Both mother and son were probably converted in St. Paul's former visit, and there is no reason to suppose with Nösgen that the conversion of the latter was a proof of the growth of the Church in the Apostle's absence.