"Aristarchus": One of Paul's travel companions, a Macedonian from Thessalonica who is known from some references in the Acts of the Apostles and.
"Timotheus" or "Timothy".
"Tychicus": traveled with Paul on his third missionary journey.
Tychicus and Trophimus are called Asianoi, that is, natives of the Roman province of Asia. Making it still more definite, Trophimus is also termed an "Ephesian" and a "Gentile/Greek" in Acts 21.
Verse 9
Eutychus was a young man of Troas tended to by St. Paul. The name Eutychus means "fortunate". Eutychus fell asleep due to the long nature of the discourse Paul was giving and fell from his seat out of a three story window.
Verse 10
After Eutychus fell down to his death, Paul then picked him up, insisting that he was not dead, and carried him back upstairs; those gathered then had a meal and a long conversation which lasted until dawn. After Paul left, Eutychus was found to be alive. It is unclear whether the story intends to relate that Eutychus was killed by the fall and Paul raised him, or whether he simply seemed to be dead, with Paul ensuring that he is still alive. Regardless of the result of the fall, the implication of the passage is Eutychus' complete recovery, whether by resurrection, by healing or by neither.
Verse 12
Paul's Maritime Journey
Paul's journey through the northern Aegean Sea is detailed in verses 13 to 16. The text states that Paul, having left Philiipi after the Days of Unleavened Bread, had a desire urgently to travel to Jerusalem and needed to be there by the Day of Pentecost, even choosing to avoid returning to Ephesus and being delayed there. As there are fifty days from the Feast of Unleavened Bread to Pentecost, and five days were taken on travel from Philippi to Troas and seven days spent waiting in Troas, Paul and his party had around 38 days available for travel to Jerusalem. Paul appears to have made the arrangements to charter a ship, but Luke and his companions began the journey from Troas and sailed around Cape Baba to Assos. Paul travelled overland from Troas to Assos and embarked there. The ship sailed southwards to Lesbos, calling at Mitylene, then passed Chios and arrived at Samos, staying at Trogyllium. They passed Ephesus and came into port at Miletus, calling for the elders of the church in Ephesus to travel to Miletus for a meeting. The elders of the church were also referred to as overseersin verse 28. Miletus is about 40 miles south of Ephesus. The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary noted that in view of Paul's haste, more time might have been lost in calling for the elders to come from Ephesus than would have been lost if Paul had actually gone to Ephesus himself, but surmised that either his decision was made because of 'unfavorable winds and stormy weather had overtaken them' or 'he was unwilling to run the risk of detention at Ephesus by the state of the church and other causes'.
Verse 24
Verse 28
"Take heed...unto yourselves"
Peculiar to Luke's writings. Compare.
"Overseers"
This word is usually also rendered as "bishops." Both "elders" and "bishops" have been originally and apostolically synonymous, which now it is not . The distinction between these offices cannot be certainly traced till the second century, nor was it established till late in that century.
"To feed"
This is the proper word for "tending" in relation to , "the flock", as , the "pastor", or "shepherd". The pastor is to feed the flock of Christ. St. Peter applies the titles of "Shepherd and Bishop of souls" to the Lord Jesus. St. Paul does not use the metaphor elsewhere, except indirectly, and in a different aspect.
"Church of God"
Textus Receptus has τοῦ Θεοῦ, but most uncials have τοῦ Κυρίου. Meyer thinks that the external evidence for τοῦ Κυρίου is decisive, and that the internal evidence from the fact that ἐκκλησία τοῦ Κυρίου occurs nowhere else in Paul's writings, is decisive also. On the other hand, both the Codex Vaticanus and the Codex Sinaiticus, the two oldest manuscripts, have Θεοῦ, as well as the Vulgate and the Syriac; also the early Fathers as Ignatius and Tertullian use the phrase, "the blood of God," which seems to have been derived from this passage. Alford reasons powerfully in favor of Θεοῦ, dwelling upon the fact that the phrase ἐκκλησία τοῦ Θεοῦ occurs ten times in Pauline epistles, that of ἐκκλησία τοῦ Κυρίου not once. The chief authorities on each side of the question are: It should be added that the evidence for τοῦ Θεοῦ has been much strengthened by the publication by Tischendorf of the Codex Sinaiticus in 1863,, and of the Codex Vaticanus in 1867, from his own collation. With regard to the difficulty that this reading seems to imply the unscriptural phrase, "the blood of God," and to savor of the Monophysite heresy, it is obvious to reply that there is a wide difference between the phrase as it stands and such a one as the direct "blood of God," which Athanasius and others objected to.
Verse 35
This verse is unusual in that it records a saying of Jesus that did not come to be recorded in any of the gospels. In his homily on the Acts of the Apostles, John Chrysostom says, "And where said He this? Perhaps the Apostles delivered it by unwritten tradition; or else it is plain from which one could infer it."
