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Act 16:1 He also came to Derbe and to Lystra. At Lystra he found a disciple, Timothy by name--the son of a Christian Jewess, though he had a Greek father.
Act 16:2 Timothy was well spoken of by the brethren at Lystra and Iconium,
Act 16:3 and Paul desiring that he should accompany him on his journey, took him and circumcised him on account of the Jews in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.
Act 16:4 As they journeyed on from town to town, they handed to the brethren for their observance the decisions which had been arrived at by the Apostles and Elders in Jerusalem.
Act 16:5 So the Churches went on gaining a stronger faith and growing in numbers from day to day.
Notes: At Lystra he found a disciple, Timothy by name-
(Timotheos). Apparently a native of Lystra (“there,” ekei), his Hebrew mother named Eunice and grandmother Lois (2Ti_1:5) and his Greek father’s name not known. He may have been a proselyte, but not necessarily so as Timothy was taught the Scriptures by his mother and grandmother (2Ti_3:15), and, if a proselyte, he would have had Timothy circumcised. It is idle to ask if Paul came on purpose to get Timothy to take Mark’s place. Probably Timothy was about eighteen years of age, a convert of Paul’s former visit a few years before (1Ti_1:2) and still young twelve years later (1Ti_4:12). Paul loved him devotedly (1Ti_1:3; 1Ti_5:23; 2Ti_3:15; Phi_2:19.). It is a glorious discovery to find a real young preacher for Christ’s work. RWP
| Paul mentoring Timothy |
Note: It is always necessary to listen to the testimony of local people before making any decision concerning new recruits for the Work of God.
“It was a continuous witness that was borne the young disciple both in his home town of Lystra and in Derbe. Already he had so borne himself that his gifts and graces for the ministry were recognized. It is a wise precaution that the approval of the local church is necessary for the licensing and the ordaining of a preacher. If God has called a man for the work signs of it will be manifest to others.”RWP
Act 16:3 and Paul desiring that he should accompany him on his journey,
Paul already had Silas as his companion on this journey. Acts 15 :37-41 Notice Barnabas chose his nephew and left for Cyprus, while Paul chose Silas.
Now he wanted to add a new travelling companion. We don’t hear too much of Silas except in prison at Philippi, but the name Timothy becomes more and more prominent.
Acts 16:3b Paul took him and circumcised him on account of the Jews in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.
JFB Commentary “though Silas would supply the place of Barnabas, it was no weakness to yearn for the society of one who might become, what Mark once appeared to be, a son in the Gospel [Howson]. And such he indeed proved to be, the most attached and serviceable of his associates (Phi_2:19-23; 1Co_4:17; 1Co_16:10, 1Co_16:11; 1Th_3:1-6). His double connection, with the Jews by the mother’s side and the Gentiles by the father’s, would strike the apostle as a peculiar qualification of his own sphere of labor.”
Paul took him and circumcised him on account of the Jews in those parts,
This seems to imply that the father was no proselyte. Against the wishes of a Gentile father no Jewish mother was, as the Jews themselves say, permitted to circumcise her son. We thus see why all the religion of Timothy is traced to the female side of the family (2Ti_1:5). “Had Timothy not been circumcised, a storm would have gathered round the apostle in his farther progress. His fixed line of procedure was to act on the cities through the synagogues; and to preach the Gospel to the Jew first and then to the Gentile. But such a course would have been impossible had not Timothy been circumcised. JFB
Applications
1. This young Candidate for the ministry had a real grounding in the Scriptures from His Mother and Grandmother. Look into the background of the person.
2. He was a spiritual son in the faith to Paul having accepted Christ on Paul’s first missionary journey to Lystra. There was already a relationship from a previous visit.
3. Paul has many travelling companions on his missionary journeys but none is as close to him as Timothy.
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