Bible Study on Acts 20, verses 1 to 6, Paul and his companions

Acts 20:1 ¶  And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to go into Macedonia. 2  And when he had gone over those parts, and had given  them much exhortation, he came into Greece, 3  And there abode three months. And when the Jews laid wait for him, as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia. 4  And there accompanied him into Asia Sopater of Berea; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus; and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus. 5  These going before tarried for us at Troas. 6  And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven days.

 

Aristarchus the Macedonian had been mentioned in verse 29 of chapter 19. He will be mentioned again as a fellow prisoner with Paul in Rome;

 

Acts 27:2  And entering into a ship of Adramyttium, we launched, meaning to sail by the coasts of Asia; one Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us.

 

Colossians 4:10  Aristarchus my fellowprisoner saluteth you, and Marcus, sister’s son to Barnabas, (touching whom ye received commandments: if he come unto you, receive him;)

 

Philemon 1:24  Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellowlabourers.

 

Due to the context in a few verses there appears to be more than one Gaius which may have been a fairly common name. There is Gaius and Aristarchus who are said to be men of Macedonia in Acts 19:29. Derbe was in Galatia where this Gaius was from. There is a Gaius from Corinth in 1Corinthians 1:14. Finally, Gaius was Paul’s host in Rome in Romans 16:23 where he awaited this fate before Caesar.

 

According to tradition Tychicus wrote Ephesians as Paul’s amanuensis or secretary. He also was co-writer of Colossians with Onesimus as per the postscript added to early King James Bibles. He is mentioned in the letters to the Ephesians, Colossians, and to Timothy.

 

Trophimus will be part of the scandal in the next chapter and in 2Timothy 4:20 he is left at Miletum, not far from Ephesus, sick.

 

Troas is mentioned twice before in Acts 16 and will be referred to again. Troas is also called Troad in its Anglicized version and means ‘The Land of Troy’ and is on the extreme west of the Asian mainland. The ruins of the ancient city of Troy, subject of Homer’s Illiad, the ancient Greek’s “Bible”, are in that region.