 |  |
the common resting-place, and there await the apostle's arrival, and that Paul himself,
and Luke and Titus with Jason should make a forced march by land up to and through
Macedonia and rejoin the others at Troas."
Speaking of these same events, Farrar writes:
"Of the seven converts who accompanied St. Paul, Sosipater son of Pyrrhus, a
Berean, Aristarchus & Secundus of Thessalonica, Gaius of Derbe, Timothy of Lystra,
Tychicus & Trophimus of Ephesus, and Luke--all except the latter (i.e. Luke) left him
apparently at Philippi, and went on to Troas to await him there."
Farrar's view seems more in accord with all the facts that we possess, but the matter is
not important enough to debate. Whatever the truth may be, some arrived at Troas and
"tarried for us" (says Luke)--"and we sailed away from Philippi after the days of
unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days" (Acts 20: 6). We have no
information as to whether the Apostle actually observed the feast of unleavened bread or
not. Probably, being in Philippi, he did not, although in another community, if the
influence of Jewish upbringing had been strong, he would have had no scruples in doing
so.
The journey from Troas to Neapolis had only taken two days on a former occasion
(Acts 16: 11). It would seem, therefore, that the wind must have been contrary in this
case, as we read that it took five days to make the return journey. It has been supposed
that from Neapolis, or at least from Troas, to Patara, Paul chartered a vessel, for it not
only waited for him at Assos, but sailed by Ephesus, and waited for the elders at Miletus.
The famous letter written by Pliny the younger from Bithynia to the Emperor Trajan
some 50 years after Paul's visit to Troas, provides an interesting sidelight on Luke's
inspired record. Concerning the early Christians, Pliny writes:
"They were wont to meet together on a stated day before it was light, and sing among
themselves alternatively a hymn to Christ as God, and bind themselves by an oath not to
commit any wickedness, but on the contrary, not to be guilty of theft, or robbery, or
adultery, never to falsify their word, nor to deny a pledge committed to them: and when
these things were ended it was their custom to separate, and then to come together again
to a meal which they ate in common without any disorder."
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, etc.=first day of the Sabbaths, i.e. the first day for reckoning their 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).