(5) These going before tarried for us at Troas.--Two motives may be assigned for this arrangement--(1) It enabled St. Paul to keep the Passover with the church at Philippi, starting "after the days of unleavened bread," and that feast was already assuming a new character as the festival of the Resurrection, bringing with it also the commemoration that "Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us" (1Corinthians 5:7-8); (2) The disciples who went on in advance would announce St. Paul's coming to the church of Troas, and so there would be a full gathering to receive him and listen to him on his arrival.

Verse 5. - But these had gone for these going, A.V. and T.R.; and were waiting for tarried, A.V. The narrative is so concise that the exact details are matters of conjecture. There is consequently much difference of opinion about them. Howson, with whom Farrar (vol. 2:274) apparently agrees, thinks that the whole party traveled together by land through Bercea and Thessalonica, to Philippi; that the party consisting of Sopater, Aristarchus and Secundus, Gains, Timothy, Tychicus, and Trophimus, went on at once from Philippi via Neapolis, to Troas, leaving St. Paul, who was now joined by St. Luke, at Philippi, to pass eight or nine days there during the Feast of the Passover. And this seems quite consistent with St. Luke's narrative. But Lewin (vol. it. p. 74) thinks that only St. Paul (accompanied, as he supposes, by Luke, Titus, and Jason) went to Macedonia, and that the others sailed direct from Cenchreae to Troas. Renan, on the other hand, thinks they all sailed together from Cenchreae to Neapolis, whence Paul's party went to Philippi, and the others to Troas. There is no clue to the reason why the party thus separated.

20:1-6 Tumults or opposition may constrain a Christian to remove from his station or alter his purpose, but his work and his pleasure will be the same, wherever he goes. Paul thought it worth while to bestow five days in going to Troas, though it was but for seven days' stay there; but he knew, and so should we, how to redeem even journeying time, and to make it turn to some good account.These going before,.... The apostle into Asia, all but Sopater, who accompanied him:

tarried for us at Troas; a city in Asia Minor; see Acts 16:8 whither they went before hand a nearer way, to provide for the apostle, and where they waited for him, and for Sopater, and for Luke, the writer of this history, who appears from hence to be in company with the apostle, and for as many others as were along with him.