Acts 16:1

Acts 16:1. Paul revisits derbe and lystra, chooses Timothy for a companion in his mission, and circumcises him. They pass through Phrygia and Galatia, and come into Mysia and to Troas. By a vision Paul is called into Macedonia. He crosses the sea and remains some days at Philippi

1. to Derbe and Lystra Thus beginning the revisiting spoken of in Acts 15:36. See notes on Acts 14:6.

was there The verb does not make it certain that Lystra, to which ἐκεῖ is most naturally referred, was the birthplace of Timothy, but only his home at the date of Paul's visit. He must however have resided there a good while to have earned the favourable report of the people both of that place and Iconium.

named Timotheus The Timothy to whom St Paul addresses two Epistles and who was the companion of his labours in this journey until his return into Proconsular Asia (Acts 20:4). He was the son of a Jewish-Christian mother, and his father was a Greek, whether a proselyte of the gate or not, we are not told. The mother's name was Eunice (2 Timothy 1:4) and the grandmother's Lois. Timothy is spoken of as a fellow-worker with St Paul (Romans 16:21). From 1 Corinthians 4:17 we find that he was St Paul's messenger to that church, and he is joined with that Apostle in the greeting of 2nd Corinthians. He also went to and fro between St Paul and the church in Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 3:2; 1 Thessalonians 3:6) and must have been at Rome with St Paul, soon after the Apostle's arrival there, for he is mentioned in the Epistles to the Philippians (Acts 1:1; Acts 2:19), to the Colossians (Acts 1:1) and to Philemon (Acts 16:1). An imprisonment which he underwent is alluded to (Hebrews 13:23), but we cannot be certain when or where it was. According to tradition (Eus. H. E. iii. 14) he was the first bishop of Ephesus, and is said to have suffered martyrdom at the hands of the populace (Niceph. H. E. iii. 11).

the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed More strictly and according to the oldest texts, "the son of a Jewess which believed." (So R. V.) Her earnest education of her son in the holy Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:15) from his early youth marks the character of the woman, and makes it probable that the husband of such a woman was at least a proselyte of the gate. Timothy's father is so little mentioned that it seems likely he had died early.

a Greek i.e. a Gentile by birth. The word was used widely of all who were not Jews.