Acts Chapter 20 verse 4 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 4. - As far as for into, A.V.; Beraea for Berea, A.V.; the son of Pyrrhus is added in the R.T. and R.V.; Timothy for Timotheus, A.V. Accompanied; συνείπετο, peculiar to Luke in the New Testament, but common in medical writers. As far as Asia. If it were merely said, "there accompanied him," it might have been thought, with regard to the Macedonians Sopater, Aristarchus, and Secundus, that they had merely gone as far as their respective cities, Beraea and Thessalonica; it is therefore added (in most manuscripts, though not in B or the Codex Sinaiticus), "as far as Asia." It does not necessarily follow that they all went as fax as Jerusalem, though we know Trophimus and Aristarchus did. Sopater may probably be the same as Sosipater (Romans 16:21), whom St. Paul calls "his kinsman," though some think "the son of Pyrrhus" was added to distinguish him from him. The Thessalonian Aristarchus is doubtless the same as the person named in Acts 19:29; Acts 27:2; and so one would have thought Gaius must be the same as is named with Aristarchus in Acts 19:29, were it not that this Gaius is described as of Derbe, whereas the Gaius of Acts 19:29 was a man of Macedonia. Gaius of Derbe is here coupled with Timothy, who was of the neighboring city of Lystra (Acts 16:1), but was too well known to make it needful to specify his nationality. Secundus is not mentioned elsewhere. Compare Tertius and Quartus (Romans 16:22, 23), and the common Roman names, Quinctus, Sextus, Septimus, Octavius, Decimus. Tychicus, of Asia, is mentioned in Ephesians 6:21; Colossians 4:7; 2 Timothy 4:12; Titus 3:12; by which we learn that he continued to be in constant attendance on St. Paul, and have abundant confirmation of his being "of Asia." Trophimus is called "an Ephesian" (Acts 21:29), and is named again as a companion of St. Paul, and presumably "of Asia" (2 Timothy 4:20). It is not improbable that some at least of there followers were chosen by the Churches to carry their alms to Jerusalem (see 2 Corinthians 8:19-23; 2 Corinthians 9:12, 13; 1 Corinthians 16:3, 4; Romans 15:25-28).

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(4) And there accompanied him into Asia . . .--The occurrence of the two names, Timotheus and Sosipater (another form of Sopater) in Romans 16:21 makes it probable that all of those here named were with St. Paul at Corinth. As they were to go with him to Jerusalem, it was indeed natural they should have gone to the city from which he intended to embark. It is not difficult to discover the reason of their accompanying him. He was carrying up a large sum in trust for the churches of Judaea, and he sought to avoid even the suspicion of the malversations which the tongue of slanderers was so ready to impute to him (2Corinthians 8:20-21). Representatives were accordingly chosen from the leading churches, who acting, as it were, as auditors of his accounts, would be witnesses that all was right. As regards the individual names, we note as follows: (1) The name of Sopater, or Sosipater, occurs in the inscription on the arch named in the Note on Acts 17:8 as belonging to one of the politarchs of Thessalonica. (2) Aristarchus had been a fellow-worker with St. Paul at Ephesus, and had been a sufferer in the tumult raised by Demetrius (Acts 19:29). (3) Of Secundus nothing is known, but the name may be compared with Tertius in Romans 16:22, and Quartus in Romans 16:23, as suggesting the probability that all three were sons of a disciple who had adopted this plan of naming his children. The corresponding name of Primus occurs in an inscription from the Catacombs now in the Lateran Museum, as belonging to an exorcist, and might seem, at first, to supply the missing link; but the inscription is probably of later date. In any case, it is a probable inference that the three belonged to the freed-man or slave class, who had no family names; and the Latin form of their names suggests that they had been originally Roman Jews, an inference confirmed by the fact that both Tertius and Quartus send salutations to their brethren in the imperial city (Romans 16:22-23). The names Primitivus and Primitiva, which occur both in Christian and Jewish inscriptions in the same Museum, are more or less analogous. (4) Gains of Derbe. The Greek sentence admits of the description being attached to the name of Timotheus which follows; and the fact that a Caius has already appeared in close connection with Aristarchus makes this construction preferable. On this assumption he, too, came from Thessalonica. (See Note on Acts 19:29.) (5) Timotheus. (See Note on Acts 16:1.) (6) Tychicus. The name, which means "fortunate," the Greek equivalent for Felix, was very common among slaves and freed-men. It is found in an inscription in the Lateran Museum from the Cemetery of Priscilla; and in a non-Christian inscription, giving the names of the household of the Emperor Claudius, in the Vatican Museum, as belonging to an architect. The Tychicus of the Acts would seem to have been a disciple from Ephesus, where men of that calling would naturally find an opening. Such vocations tended naturally, as has been said in the Note on Acts 19:9, to become hereditary. (7) Trophimus (= "nursling," or "foster-child" was, again, a name of the same class, almost as common as Onesimus ( = "profitable"). In a very cursory survey of inscriptions from the Columbaria and Catacombs of Rome, I have noted the recurrence of the former four, and of the latter five times Trophimus appears again in Acts 21:29, and is described more definitely as an Ephesian. We find him again in contact with St. Paul towards the close of the Apostle's life, in 2Timothy 4:20. That they were seven in number suggests the idea of a reproduction either of the idea of the Seven, who are commonly called Deacons in Acts 6, or of the Roman institution upon which that was probably based. It may be noted here, in addition to what has there been said on the subject, that the well-known pyramidal monument of Caius Cestius, of the time of Augustus, near the Porta Latina at Rome, records that he was one of the Septemviri Epulonum there referred to. . . .