Acts 20:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

See how they all counted everything of little importance compared with preaching. It was then Pentecost and the day of the week, yet he continued teaching until midnight. He cared so much for the salvation of the disciples that he did not fall silent even at night. Rather, he conversed especially then, when there was quiet. See how long he speaks, and this after the time of the evening meal. But the devil disturbed this feast, though without success, by plunging one listener into sleep and throwing him down. How this happened, the writer narrates further. After staying seven days, Paul devoted the night before the next day to instruction. So painful was it for him to part from them, and for them from him.

"On the first day of the week." At that time it was the feast of Pentecost and the day of the Resurrection. "Until midnight." Paul did not rest even at night, but then conversed all the more, because it was a time of leisure. See how long he spoke even after supper.

Here we may speak allegorically. The upper room is the height of spiritual gifts of grace. Night is the obscurity of Scripture. The many lamps are the explanation of hidden words. The Lord's Day is the remembrance of the Lord's Resurrection, or of our own resurrection. This text also serves as a reminder to the spiritual teacher. Encouraged by the sweetness of the Resurrection and the joys of the life to come, he calls his hearers to higher virtues. When, in a long discourse, he touches upon certain mysteries of the Scriptures, he should then enlighten the unwise hearers by the lamp of intelligible exposition. The Apostle also did this when he said: 'Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman' (Gal 4:22). Then he explains: 'These are two covenants' (Gal 4:24), and so forth.

In the spring, around Pascha of the year 58 or 59, Paul left Corinth. Some of his companions crossed over to Troas before him (Acts 20:4-5). Paul spent Pascha in Philippi and took Luke from there, whom he had previously left there. He spent a week in Troas to make up for the shortness of his previous stay there, which had been caused by his desire to learn quickly the state of the Corinthian Church (2 Cor 2:12). There, on the first day of the week, he was present at the Church's worship and conversed with the brethren in a house. Providence, seeing the need to confirm the faithful in the teaching they had received and to spread it among the Gentiles, opened an occasion for the divine power active in the Apostle to show itself most strikingly.

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 activity: the resurrection of a young man named Eutychus, who had fallen from a window of the house. From Troas the Apostle Paul made his journey hurriedly, directing his way toward Jerusalem, where he wished to be on the day of Pentecost. Therefore, though he greatly desired to visit the Christians in Ephesus on the way to Jerusalem, he passed that city by so as not to be delayed there. He arrived instead at Miletus, a coastal city south of Ephesus.

The first day of the week was the day of Christ's Resurrection. Could Christ's disciples forget this, when their whole faith and all their hope were founded on the Lord's rising (1 Cor 15:17)? Certainly not. Therefore they gathered on this day in remembrance of Christ's Resurrection. This Sunday assembly was not unique, but customary, proper to that day continually, and therefore established from the beginning of the Church. 'On the first day of the week,' says the writer of the book, 'when the disciples came together to break bread.' Clearly, they gathered precisely because it was this day and because such was the requirement of this day. How did this Sunday assembly proceed?

In this city an event occurred which shows that Christians at that time already had regular liturgical assemblies on Sundays. On the eve of the apostle's departure there was an evening gathering. The whole Church of Troas was present, assembled for the last time to hear the sweet discourse of the great preacher.

On the first day of the week: according to the Jewish reckoning of weeks, the week ended with the Sabbath. The first day of the week was the first after the Sabbath, that is, in our reckoning, Sunday. It was the day in whose deep morning the Savior of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, rose from the dead; compare Mt 28:1 and parallels. When the disciples, that is, the Christians of Troas, gathered to break bread, it seems necessary to recognize this as a liturgical assembly. St. Chrysostom, however, does not recognize this and considers the breaking of bread mentioned here a simple meal. In this assembly the Mystery of the Eucharist, instituted by the Lord in remembrance of Him, was celebrated. After this there were the so-called love feasts.

The nocturnal preaching of the Apostle Paul in Troas is remarkable in many respects. First, it is remarkable for its length, which is explained by his leaving Troas the next day. Second, it is remarkable for the day on which it was delivered, since it was the eve of Sunday. It was also during the time of preparation for the breaking of bread, that is, for the celebration of the Eucharist. 'It seems to me,' says St. John Chrysostom, 'that Paul tried to spend the feasts in great cities. And see how they counted everything of little importance compared with preaching. It was then Pentecost, the period after Pascha, and the day of the week, yet he continued teaching until midnight. So much did he care for the salvation of the disciples that he did not fall silent even at night.