Acts 20:5 - Printer Friendly

ESV: These went on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas,

NIV: These men went on ahead and waited for us at Troas.

NASB: Now these had gone on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas.

CSB: These men went on ahead and waited for us in Troas,

NLT: They went on ahead and waited for us at Troas.

KJV: These going before tarried for us at Troas.

NKJV: These men, going ahead, waited for us at Troas.

Paul is making his way back to Jerusalem from the churches he planted along the coast of the Aegean Sea. He and Luke are in Philippi while the rest of their companions have already sailed to Troas on the coast of modern-day Turkey.

Of Paul's companions (Acts 20:4), neither Sopater nor Secundus are mentioned outside of this passage. Aristarchus was with Paul in Ephesus; he was dragged into the riot in the theater but managed to escape (Acts 19:29). Gaius, however, is from the same area as Timothy—in Galatia in central Turkey—while the Gaius who was caught up with Aristarchus was from Macedonia. Tychicus and Trophimus are from the province where Ephesus sits.

This is the first time Luke has used a first-person plural pronoun since Paul was in Philippi during his second missionary voyage (Acts 16:16). Luke will now stay with Paul, not only traveling with him to Jerusalem, but joining the sea voyage to Rome. It appears that Luke will also be with Paul during his second and final imprisonment in Rome (2 Timothy 4:11).

The team will spend a week at Troas. On the first day of the week, Paul will meet with the church and preach long into the night. A young man named Eutychus will try to get fresh air by sitting by the window. When Paul keeps preaching, Eutychus falls asleep and then falls out the window to his death. Paul will raise him back to life, take a meal which likely includes communion, and start preaching again. When the sun rises, Paul and his companions continue on their way (Acts 20:7–12).

Acts 20:1–6 records a very short summary of Paul's travels after he leaves Ephesus during his third missionary voyage. He sails to Macedonia and visits the churches there before going south to Corinth where he spends three months. He wants to sail directly to Judea, but a plot against his life forces him to retrace his footsteps to Macedonia and Troas. He and his team will spend one week—including one infamously long sermon—in Troas then travel south to Miletus where they will meet with the Ephesian elders one last time (Acts 20:7–38).

Acts 20 finishes Paul's third missionary journey. He leaves Ephesus after three years and travels to Macedonia and Corinth. Threats from the Corinthian Jews send him and his team back to Macedonia and Troas. In Troas, Paul gives a very long sermon and raises Eutychus from the dead after he falls—both asleep and out a window. In Miletus, Paul meets with the Ephesian elders. He reminds them to beware of false teachers and tells them he is going to be imprisoned and will not see them again. After a tearful farewell, he boards a ship for Judea.

Acts 20 records the last stages of Paul's third missionary journey. He started by visiting the churches he and Barnabas had planted in central modern-day Turkey (Acts 18:23). From there, he traveled southwest to the province of Asia, where he established a church in Ephesus (Acts 19). In Acts 20, he visits the churches in Macedonia and Greece before returning to Judea. When he lands, he meets briefly with Philip the Evangelist in Caesarea Maritima before going to Jerusalem and getting arrested. He will stay in house arrest for the next two years before embarking on a dangerous sea voyage to Rome (Acts 21—28).

The summary of the book of Acts is provided in Jesus' words in Acts 1:8: ''But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.'' In Acts 2:1–13, the Christ-followers receive the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:14—7:60 describes the rapid growth of the church in Jerusalem. Chapters 8—12 find Jewish persecution inadvertently spreading the gospel throughout Judea and Samaria. And in chapters 13—28, Paul and his companions spread the good news throughout the Roman Empire.