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Timothy had been converted through the ministration of Paul, and was an
eye-witness of the sufferings of the apostle upon this occasion. He stood by
his apparently dead body, and saw him arise, bruised and covered with
blood, not with groans or murmurings upon his lips, but with praises to
Jesus Christ, that he was permitted to suffer for his name. In one of the
epistles of Paul to Timothy he refers to his personal knowledge of this
occurrence. Timothy became the most important help to Paul and to the
church. He was the faithful companion of the apostle in his trials and in his
joys. The father of Timothy was a Greek;
but his mother was a Jewess,
and he had been thoroughly educated in the Jewish religion.
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But before we leave Lystra, we must say a few words on one spectator
of St. Paul's sufferings, who is not yet mentioned by St. Luke, but
who was destined to be the constant companion of his after-years,
the zealous follower of his doctrine, the faithful partner of his
danger and distress. St. Paul came to Lystra again after the
interval of one or two years, and on that occasion we are told4 that he found a certain
Christian there, "whose name was Timotheus, whose mother was a Jewess, while
his father was a Greek," and whose excellent character was highly
esteemed by his fellow-Christians of Lystra and Iconium. It is
distinctly stated that at the time of this second visit Timothy was already
a Christian; and since we know from St. Paul's own expression,—"my
own son in the faith,"5—that he was converted by St. Paul himself, we
must suppose this change to have taken place at the time of the
first visit. And the reader will remember that St. Paul in the second Epistle
to Timothy (iii. 10, 11) reminds him of his own intimate and personal knowledge of
the sufferings he had endured, "at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra,"—the
places (it will be observed) being mentioned in the exact order in which
they were visited, and in which the successive persecutions took place.
We have thus the strongest reasons for believing that Timothy was a
witness of St. Paul's injurious treatment, and this too at a time of life
when the mind receives its deepest impressions from the spectacle of innocent
suffering and undaunted courage. And it is far from impossible that
the generous and warm-hearted youth was standing in that group of
disciples, who surrounded the apparently lifeless body of the Apostle at the
outside of the walls of Lystra.
4 Ibid. xvi. 1.
5 1 Tim. i. 2. Compare i. 18 and 2 Tim. ii. 1. It is indeed possible that
these expressions might be used, if Timothy became a Christian by his mother's influence, and
through the recollection of St. Paul's sufferings; but the common view is the most
natural. See what is said I Cor. iv. 14, 15: "As my beloved sons I warn you; for
though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers; for
in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel."
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Then came he to Derbe and Lystra: and, behold, a
certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain
woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a
Greek. (Acts 16:1)
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