Acts 20:12Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

They were greatly comforted both because they received the young man alive and because there had been a sign.

In the spring, about Pascha of the year 58 or 59, Paul left Corinth. Some of his companions had crossed over before him to Troas (Acts 20:4-5). Paul kept Pascha in Philippi and there took Luke, who had been left there earlier.

He spent a week in Troas to make up for the brevity of his previous stay there. That earlier brevity had been caused by his desire to learn quickly about the state of the Corinthian Church (2 Cor 2:12).

Here, on the first day of the week, he was present at the Church’s worship and spoke with the brethren in a house. Providence saw the need to confirm the faithful in the teaching they had received and to spread it among the Gentiles.

This stay of the Apostle Paul in Troas was marked by one of the greatest works of the grace of God that accompanied Paul in his apostolic labor. This was the resurrection of a young man named Eutychus, who had fallen from the window of a house.

From Troas the Apostle Paul continued his journey in haste, directing his way toward Jerusalem, where he wished to be on the day of Pentecost.

Therefore, desirable as it was for him to visit the Christians in Ephesus on the way to Jerusalem, he passed that city by so as not to be delayed there. He came instead to Miletus, a coastal city south of Ephesus.

Meanwhile Eutychus had fully recovered, and they brought him in alive, evidently into the upper room. All were not a little comforted.

After Paul's departure, the young man Eutychus was brought alive into the upper room where the assembly was held. This stands in contrast to the phrase, "they found him dead" in verse 9. Those gathered there, who had not yet dispersed, were not a little comforted in their grief at parting from their father and teacher Paul. They were comforted "both because they received the young man alive and because there had been a sign" (Chrysostom).

The resurrection of Eutychus by the Apostle Paul was as wondrous as it was consoling. Eutychus’s death during the preaching surely disturbed many and greatly darkened the festal joy.

Saint John Chrysostom is even ready to ascribe Eutychus’s death to the devil’s involvement. He says: “The devil troubled this feast, though unsuccessfully, by plunging one hearer into sleep and casting him down.

Therefore they were greatly comforted, both because they received the youth alive and because there was a sign.”

The manner of Eutychus’s resurrection was like that by which the Prophet Elijah once raised the son of the widow of Zarephath (see 3 Kgs 17:21), and the Prophet Elisha raised the son of the Shunammite woman (see 4 Kgs 4:34).