Acts 20:5

These going before tarried for us at Troas.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) These going before tarried for us at Troas.—Two motives may be assigned for this arrangement—(1) It enabled St. Paul to keep the Passover with the church at Philippi, starting “after the days of unleavened bread,” and that feast was already assuming a new character as the festival of the Resurrection, bringing with it also the commemoration that “Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us” (1Corinthians 5:7-8); (2) The disciples who went on in advance would announce St. Paul’s coming to the church of Troas, and so there would be a full gathering to receive him and listen to him on his arrival.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

20:1-6 Tumults or opposition may constrain a Christian to remove from his station or alter his purpose, but his work and his pleasure will be the same, wherever he goes. Paul thought it worth while to bestow five days in going to Troas, though it was but for seven days' stay there; but he knew, and so should we, how to redeem even journeying time, and to make it turn to some good account.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

These going before - Going before Paul and Luke. Dr. Doddridge supposes that only Tychicus and Trophimus went before the others. Perhaps the Greek most naturally demands this interpretation.

Tarried for us - The word "us," here, shows that Luke had again joined Paul as his companion. In Acts 16:12 it appears that Luke was in Philippi, in the house of Lydia. Why he remained there, or why he did not attend Paul in his journey to Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, etc., is not known. It is evident, however, that he here joined him again.

At Troas - See the notes on Acts 16:8.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5, 6. These going before—perhaps to announce and prepare for the apostle's coming.

tarried for us at Troas.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Us; whereby it appears, that St. Luke was one of them that accompanied St. Paul, though neither here nor elsewhere doth he express his own name.

Troas; either the city of Troy, or the country thereabout so called.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

These going before,.... The apostle into Asia, all but Sopater, who accompanied him:

tarried for us at Troas; a city in Asia Minor; see Acts 16:8 whither they went before hand a nearer way, to provide for the apostle, and where they waited for him, and for Sopater, and for Luke, the writer of this history, who appears from hence to be in company with the apostle, and for as many others as were along with him.

Geneva Study Bible

These going before tarried for us at Troas.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Acts 20:5-6. Ἡμᾶς] Luke had remained behind at Philippi, Acts 16:40. Now, when Paul, on his present journey back through Macedonia, came to Philippi, Luke again joined him. But the above-mentioned seven companions (οὗτοι) journeyed before (wherefore? is unknown; possibly to make preparations for the further sea voyage) to Troas, and there waited the arrival of Paul and Luke. For οὗτοι cannot, without arbitrariness, be otherwise referred than to all the seven above mentioned, which is not precluded by Acts 21:29, Acts 27:2, and thereby, no doubt, our passage is decisive against the hypothesis that Timothy speaks in the ἡμεῖς (see Introduction, § 1). Hence the supporters of that hypothesis are necessarily reduced to refer, as already Beza and Wolf have done, οὗτοι merely to Tychicus and Trophimus (Steiger on Col. p. 337; Schenkel in the Stud. u. Krit. 1841, p. 85; Ulrich, Bleek, Beitr. I. p. 52; de Wette, Lachmann).

μετὰ τὰς ἡμέρ. τῶν ἀζ.] Paul remained over the Paschal days (A.D. 59) in quietness, keeping holy the festival of his people in Christian freedom. Comp. Chrys.

ἄχρις ἡμερ. πέντε] specifies ἄχρι τίνος (Heliod. iv. 19. 65), i.e. how long the ἔρχεσθαι lasted from the sailing from Philippi, namely, up to five days. Comp. on Luke 2:37; Plut. Mor. p. 791 E. The reading πεμπταῖοι (D, Born.) is a correct gloss.

ἡμέρας ἑπτά] a full week. Comp. Acts 21:4. More is not to be sought behind this simple statement of time (in opposition to Baumgarten, II. p. 48 f.).

Expositor's Greek Testament

Acts 20:5. προελθόντες, see critical note. If we read προσελ. render as in R.V. (margin), “these came, and were waiting for us at Troas,” cf. Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 287, and Rendall, in loco.—ἡμᾶς: the introduction of the word is fatal to the idea that Timothy could have been the author of this “We” section.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. These going before tarried for us at Troas] Better (with Rev. Ver.), But these had gone before and were waiting for us, &c. What the writer wants to point out is that these men before-mentioned did not stop like St Paul at Philippi, nor indeed tarry at all in Macedonia. As in this verse the change of pronoun indicates that the writer of the narrative again becomes a fellow-traveller with St Paul, we may presume, as has before been said, that he had been left here by the Apostle, who now separated himself for a brief time from his companions that he might pick up St Luke.

Bengel's Gnomen

Acts 20:5. Ἐν Τρωάδι, in Troas) The name of the region and town.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - But these had gone for these going, A.V. and T.R.; and were waiting for tarried, A.V. The narrative is so concise that the exact details are matters of conjecture. There is consequently much difference of opinion about them. Howson, with whom Farrar (vol. 2:274) apparently agrees, thinks that the whole party traveled together by land through Bercea and Thessalonica, to Philippi; that the party consisting of Sopater, Aristarchus and Secundus, Gains, Timothy, Tychicus, and Trophimus, went on at once from Philippi via Neapolis, to Troas, leaving St. Paul, who was now joined by St. Luke, at Philippi, to pass eight or nine days there during the Feast of the Passover. And this seems quite consistent with St. Luke's narrative. But Lewin (vol. it. p. 74) thinks that only St. Paul (accompanied, as he supposes, by Luke, Titus, and Jason) went to Macedonia, and that the others sailed direct from Cenchreae to Troas. Renan, on the other hand, thinks they all sailed together from Cenchreae to Neapolis, whence Paul's party went to Philippi, and the others to Troas. There is no clue to the reason why the party thus separated. Acts 20:5

Vincent's Word Studies

Us

The first person resumed, indicating that Luke had joined Paul.