With these words we may compare the record of Acts 20:7 :

`And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them,

ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight'.

Much has been written regarding the true translation of the phrase `The first day of the week'. The original reads

En de te mia ton sabbaton, and has sometimes been translated `The first of the sabbaths'. The Companion Bible has

the following note on this point:

`FIRST, &c. = first day of the sabbaths, i.e. the first day for reckoning the seven sabbaths to Pentecost. It

depended upon the harvest (Deut. 16:9), and was always from the morrow after the weekly sabbath when the

wave sheaf was presented (Lev. 23:15). In John 20:1 this was the fourth day after the Crucifixion, "the Lord's

Passover". Cp. Ap. 156. This was by Divine ordering. But in A. D. 57 it was twelve days after the week of

unleavened bread, and therefore more than a fortnight later than in A.D. 29'.

The reader may feel that there is a weak point in this argument, for there is no evidence given for the `twelve

days' that this view necessitates. Those who regard `the first day of the week' as referring to Sunday, draw attention

to the fact that if we assume this day to be the Sabbath, then, as this day begins at sunset, by travelling at day-break

Paul would have been travelling on the Sabbath. This would not have been likely in view of the Jews' bitter

opposition to his teaching, and the apostle's conciliatory attitude at Jerusalem a few weeks later (Acts 21:21-24). It

is also a point worth considering that if we translate Sabbaton and Sabbata as `Sabbath' and `Sabbath day', then

there is no word for `week' in the New Testament, which seems rather unlikely.

If we were not called under the dispensation of the Mystery, we should feel obliged to devote considerable space

and time to this subject, but as the question of the observance of any particular day, be it a Sabbath, or the first day

of the week, belongs only to those of other callings, we feel that we can safely leave the matter without further

investigation. The same remark applies to the expression that meets us in Acts 20:7: `to break bread'. We have

already realized on other and fundamental grounds, that the observance of a New Covenant memorial feast has no

place in the dispensation of the Mystery, and we are therefore not personally concerned with the question as to

whether these believers at Troas met to keep the Lord's supper, or whether, as in Acts 27:33-35, the words simply

indicate an ordinary meal. We have already written fairly fully on this debatable subject, and we trust therefore, that

we shall not be charged with seeking to evade the issue, if we say no more about it here.

The apostle's speech referred to in verse 7 (Acts 20.) lasted until midnight, and we read that a `certain young

man named Eutychus ... fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead'. The fact that even such a speaker as

the apostle could have at least one member of his congregation overcome with sleep sounds a very human note. The

wording of verse 9 reads like the record of an eye-witness. First, the young man sinks into drowsiness (`being fallen

into a deep sleep') and then, having been overpowered (`entirely relaxed by sleep'), he falls from the third loft where

he had been sitting, and is `taken up dead'. The word translated `dead' is nekros, which is used 18 times in the Acts

and in every other instance without ambiguity. The apostle immediately descends to where the young man lies. He

does not first reassure the mourning company that the young man's `life is in him', but at once embraces him, as

Elijah and Elisha had done before him (1 Kings 17:21 and 2 Kings 4:34). After `breaking bread' and continuing his

discourse until daybreak, the apostle departs.

The structure here (page 254) brings into correspondence the division of his company and the waiting of some of

them for Paul at Troas, and the division of his company and the waiting of them all for Paul at Assos.

`And we went before to ship, and sailed unto Assos, there intending to take in Paul: for so had he appointed,

minding himself to go afoot' (Acts 20:13).

The distance between Troas and Assos is between 20 and 30 miles, and travellers have spoken of difficulty in

finding the road. In Paul's day, however, there was a good Roman road (see the Antonine Itinerary), and it was

doubtless along this road that the apostle travelled.

Some commentators `wonder why' the apostle took this course, but we believe that any who have been engaged

for any length of time in public ministry, especially if it has involved meeting fresh people and dealing with fresh