Acts 20:12

And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

20:7-12 Though the disciples read, and meditated, and prayed, and sung apart, and thereby kept up communion with God, yet they came together to worship God, and so kept up their communion with one another. They came together on the first day of the week, the Lord's day. It is to be religiously observed by all disciples of Christ. In the breaking of the bread, not only the breaking of Christ's body for us, to be a sacrifice for our sins, is remembered, but the breaking of Christ's body to us, to be food and a feast for our souls, is signified. In the early times it was the custom to receive the Lord's supper every Lord's day, thus celebrating the memorial of Christ's death. In this assembly Paul preached. The preaching of the gospel ought to go with the sacraments. They were willing to hear, he saw they were so, and continued his speech till midnight. Sleeping when hearing the word, is an evil thing, a sign of low esteem of the word of God. We must do what we can to prevent being sleepy; not put ourselves to sleep, but get our hearts affected with the word we hear, so as to drive sleep far away. Infirmity requires tenderness; but contempt requires severity. It interrupted the apostle's preaching; but was made to confirm his preaching. Eutychus was brought to life again. And as they knew not when they should have Paul's company again, they made the best use of it they could, and reckoned a night's sleep well lost for that purpose. How seldom are hours of repose broken for the purposes of devotion! but how often for mere amusement or sinful revelry! So hard is it for spiritual life to thrive in the heart of man! so naturally do carnal practices flourish there!

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Not a little comforted - By the fact that he was alive; perhaps also strengthened by the evidence that a miracle had been performed.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11. broken bread and eaten—with what a mixture of awe and joy after such an occurrence! "And eaten"—denoting a common repast, as distinguished from the breaking of the eucharistic bread.

and talked a long while, even till break of day—How lifelike this record of dear Christian fellowship, as free and gladsome as it was solemn! (See Ec 9:7).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

They rejoiced not only that the young man was restored to life, but that by this means the gospel was attested to, and many confirmed in the belief of it.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And they brought the young man alive,.... Up into the upper room, and presented him alive to the disciples:

and were not a little comforted; that is, the disciples, at the sight of the young man, who was taken up dead, not only for his sake, but chiefly because by this miracle the Gospel, which the apostle preached, and who was about to depart from them, was greatly confirmed to them.

Geneva Study Bible

And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Acts 20:12. ἤγαγον: the subject must be supplied; probably those who had attended to the boy, and who, now that he was sufficiently recovered, brought him back to the room. Rendall thinks that the expression means that they took the lad home after the assembly was over. The comfort is derived from the recovery of the boy, as is indicated by ζῶντα, and it is forced to refer it to the consolation which they received from the boy’s presence, as a proof which the Apostle had left behind him of divine and miraculous help (so Wendt, Weiss); see also , critical note, and Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 291.—ζῶντα: the word is pointless unless on the supposition that the accident had been fatal. It is in fact impossible to deny that a miracle is intended to be narrated; otherwise the introduction of the whole story is meaningless, as Overbeck insists against Baur and Renan. The word νεκρός, the action of Paul, the word ζῶντα all point to an actual death, whilst the vivid details in the narrative also indicate the presence of an eye-witness as an informant. Schneckenburger has shown exhaustively, as Zeller admits, that an actual raising of the dead is intended; but we are asked to see in the narrative only an attempt to set off the raising of Eutychus against the raising of Tabitha at Joppa, a parallel between Paul and Peter; so Baur, and recently Overbeck and Weizsäcker. But the conclusion of Overbeck is disappointing in face of the fact that he dwells (p. 333) most pointedly upon the difference between the narrative here and in Acts 9:36—how in this latter case we have the expectation of the miracle emphasised, whilst here it is entirely wanting; how too the laudatory description of Tabitha may be contrasted with the simple mention of the name, Eutychus here.—οὐ μετρίως: often in Plutarch, cf. 2Ma 15:38. On Luke’s use of οὐ with an adjective, to express the opposite, see Lekebusch, Apostelgeschichte, p. 62; Klostermann, Vindiciæ Lucanæ, p. 52; and four times in “We” sections (twelve times in rest of Acts, rare in rest of N.T.), Acts 20:12, Acts 27:14; Acts 27:20, Acts 28:2; Hawkins, Horæ Synopticæ, p. 153.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

12. And they brought the young man alive] Here is a different noun, and the Rev. Ver. rightly gives “the lad.” It would seem as though those who had had the care of him brought him, before the congregation broke up, perhaps even before the Apostle’s departure, back again into the upper room.

Bengel's Gnomen

Acts 20:12. Ἤγαγον) they brought, or led, not carried: he was not at all enfeebled by his fall.—ζῶντα, alive) Not even by the accident did they receive any damage from Paul: 2 Corinthians 7:9.

Acts 20:12