Acts 20:8Meaning & 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.

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?

The gathering was in one of the upper rooms, that is, those upper rooms of the third story which in the East were the coolest and most pleasant part of the house. The room blazed with lamps, and from the apostle's mouth flowed a divinely inspired discourse that continued until midnight. All listened to it in silent reverence.

"There were many lamps": to give special solemnity to the feast and to illumine the upper room of the assembly, since night had already fallen.

The fall of the young man during Paul's preaching also says much. This young man evidently listened to the Apostle's preaching so attentively that he did not wish to leave the assembly. He remained despite the late hour of the night, his uncomfortable position on the window, and the fact that the nature of his soul could not long resist the effect of sleep upon his young body. 'It is worthy of wonder,' says St. John Chrysostom, 'how he, being a young man, was not slothful. Feeling inclined to sleep, he did not leave. Seeing the danger of falling, he was not afraid. Do not be surprised that he fell asleep and fell. He slept not from sloth, but from natural necessity. Such was his zeal for listening. Let us be ashamed, then, we who do not do this even by day.