Acts 16:3

Acts 16:3

Timothy Joins Paul and Silas

1 Then he came to ^aDerbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there, ^bnamed Timothy, ^cthe son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek.

2 He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium.

3 Paul wanted to have him go on with him. And he ^atook him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region, for they all knew that his father was Greek.

4 And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the ^adecrees to keep, ^bwhich were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem.

5 ^aSo the churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily.

The Macedonian Call

6 Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of ^aGalatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in¹ Asia.

7 After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them.

8 So passing by Mysia, they ^acame down to Troas.

9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A ^aman of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”

10 Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go ^ato Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Lydia Baptized at Philippi

11 Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day came to Neapolis,

12 and from there to ^aPhilippi, which is the foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we were staying in that city for some days.

13 And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there.

14 Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of ^aThyatira, who worshiped God. ^bThe Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.

Commentaries:

Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)

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Him would Paul have to go forth with him (touton hqelhsen o Paulov sun autw ecelqein). This one (note emphatic position) Paul wanted (first aorist active indicative of qelw with temporal augment as if from eqelw the old form). Here was a gifted young man who was both Jew and Greek.

He took and circumcised him (labwn perietemen auton). Any one could perform this rite. Paul had stoutly resisted circumcision in the case of Titus, a pure Greek (Galatians 2:3, Galatians 2:5), because the whole principle of Gentile liberty was at stake. But Timothy was both Jew and Greek and would continually give offence to the Jews with no advantage to the cause of Gentile freedom. So here for the sake of expediency, "because of the Jews" (dia touv Ioudaiouv), Paul voluntarily removed this stumbling-block to the ministry of Timothy. Otherwise Timothy could not have been allowed to preach ln the synagogues. Idem non est semper idem. But Timothy's case was not the case of Titus. Here it was a question of efficient service, not an essential of salvation. Hovey notes that Timothy was circumcised because of Jewish unbelievers, not because of Jewish believers.

Was a Greek (ellhn uphrxen). Imperfect active in indirect assertion where ordinarily the present uparxei would be retained, possibly indicating that his father was no longer living.

**Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing Acts 16:3:**

Acts 14:10
Acts 16:6
Acts 21:21
1 Corinthians 9:22
1 Thessalonians 1:5

<< Acts 16:2

Acts 16:4 >>

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