Acts 20:4

Πύρρου after Σώπατρος with אABDE. Vulg. ‘Sopater Pyrrhi.’

4. συνείπετο δὲ αὐτῷ ἄχρι τῆς Ἀσίας, and there accompanied him as far as Asia. We find (Acts 21:29) that Trophimus went on to Jerusalem, and (Acts 27:2) that Aristarchus was with St Paul in the voyage to Rome.

συνείπετο standing first in the sentence is in the singular to agree with the one word to which it comes closest.

Σώπατρος Πύρρου, Sopater the son of Pyrrhus. A various reading here has Sosipater, a name found also in Romans 16:21. But there is no reason why we should connect the two persons. We know nothing of Sopater beyond the mention of him in this verse, though the name occurs, with those of Gaius and Secundus, as that of one of the Politarchs of Thessalonica on an arch still existing in the modern Saloniki. See Acts 17:6.

Θεσσαλονικέων δὲ Ἀρίσταρχος καὶ Σεκοῦνδος, and of the Thessalonians Aristarchus and Secundus. Aristarchus has been before mentioned (Acts 19:29), and in the Epistles written during the Roman imprisonment to Philemon (24) he is one of those who sends greeting, and also to the Colossians (Acts 4:10), in which place the Apostle calls him his fellow-prisoner, shewing that he shared in a great degree the whole hardships of St Paul’s life at Rome. Secundus is only mentioned here. With this name we may compare Tertius and Quartus (Romans 16:22-23). It has been conjectured that all these persons belonged to the freedman, or slave, class and had therefore no family names.

Γάϊος Δερβαῖος καὶ Τιμόθεος, Gaius of Derbe and Timothy. As Timothy was probably of Lystra, these men may have been friends from an early period, and the former may have been a convert at the same time as the latter. We only know of him from this verse, and he has no connexion with any other Gaius named in the New Testament.

Ἀσιανοὶ δὲ Τυχικὸς καὶ Τρόφιμος, and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus. Of the former of these we have mention several times. In Ephesians 6:21, he is called a beloved brother and faithful minister, and St Paul states that he is about to send him to Ephesus. To the Colossians (Acts 4:7) he writes, ‘All my state shall Tychicus declare unto you.’ From both which notices we see that Tychicus was with St Paul in his first Roman imprisonment. He was also at hand when the Apostle wrote to Titus (Titus 3:12), and also had been with St Paul in the later imprisonment, when the Second Epistle to Timothy was written (Acts 4:12), and had again been sent to Ephesus. Perhaps Tychicus like Trophimus was by birth an Ephesian. Trophimus also continued much with St Paul, for we read (2 Timothy 4:20) that the Apostle at that time had left him detained by sickness at Miletus.