On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together ato break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. 8 There were many lamps in bthe upper room where we were gathered. 9 And a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. And being overcome by sleep, he cfell down from the third story and was taken up dead. 10 But Paul went down and dbent over him, and taking him in his arms, said, e“Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.” 11 And when Paul had gone up and fhad broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed. 12 And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted.
Luke records only one incident during this week in Troas, namely the dramatic sleep, fall, death and resuscitation of a young man called Eutychus. Because it took place in the context of a worship service, however, the story is also instructive in the area of early Christian worship.
a. The death and resuscitation of Eutychus
On the first day of the week we came together to break bread (7a). How we interpret this ‘first day’ depends on whether we think Luke followed the Jewish reckoning of a day (from sunset to sunset) or the Roman (from midnight to midnight). It is because the NEB translators opted for the former that they rendered the opening expression ‘on the Saturday night’. And certainly the Bezan text of 19:9 ‘from the fifth hour to the tenth’ (11 a.m. to 4 p.m.) is a Jewish calculation, with the day beginning at 6 a.m. But here Luke is following the Roman way of reckoning, since the ‘daylight’ of verse 11 is already ‘the next day’ of verse 7. Professor Bruce is surely right, therefore, that Luke’s reference to ‘the first day of the week’, i.e. Sunday, ‘is the earliest unambiguous evidence we have for the Christian practice of gathering together for worship on that day’.24 Moreover, the purpose of their assembly was ‘to break bread’, which Luke understood as the Lord’s Supper in the context of a fellowship meal, as in the upper room in Jerusalem.25 In addition, Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking (JBP, ‘prolonged his address’) until midnight (7b).
Luke was himself present on this occasion (‘we came together’, 7, and ‘where we were meeting’, 8), so that he was able to supply several eyewitness details which help us to visualize the scene. First, it was an evening service or meeting, for if Paul’s address ended at [Acts, Page 320] midnight, it can hardly have begun at midday! No, it probably began at about sunset, the congregation assembling for worship at the conclusion of their day’s work. Next, the meeting was being held in a private house, upstairs (8), indeed on the third floor (9). Thirdly, there were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting (8), so that the atmosphere became stuffy and oily, even for Eutychus who was seated in a window (9a; NEB, ‘was sitting on the window-ledge’), which, being unglazed, gave him some fresh air to breathe. Fourthly, although Eutychus is called ‘a young man’ (neanias) in verse 9, in verse 12 he is only a ‘boy’ (NEB, JB) or ‘lad’ (RSV), pais normally covering the years from 8 to 14. Fifthly, Luke does not intend us to attach any blame to the boy for falling asleep during the apostle’s sermon. For the impression is that he had a protracted struggle with his sleepiness. To begin with, he was gradually sinking into a deep sleep, or better ‘grew drowsy’; it was only as Paul talked on and on that he fell sound asleep (NEB, JBP, he was ‘completely overcome by sleep’) and the accident happened: he fell to the ground from the third storey and was picked up dead (9b). The NEB ‘picked up for dead’, hinting that he might not really have been dead, is definitely wrong. Luke declares that he was dead; as a doctor he could vouch for it.
One can imagine the confusion which then took over, as everybody tried to run downstairs. Paul at once suspended his sermon and himself went down. Then, surely following the precedent established by Elijah with the son of the widow at Zarephath26 and by Elisha with the son of the Shunammite woman,27 he threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him, and said, ‘Don’t be alarmed.… He’s alive!’ (10). This was not a statement that he was still alive in spite of his disastrous fall, but that as a result of Paul embracing him he had come alive again. Then he (Paul) went upstairs again and broke bread and ate, sharing in both the Lord’s Supper and the fellowship supper, which had evidently not been served previously. Paul also resumed his sermon and after talking until daylight, he left (11). Meanwhile, the people (relatives and friends, one may assume) took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted (12).
b. Some principles of Christian worship
What can we learn about Christian worship from that Sunday evening service in Troas many centuries ago? We will be wise to exercise due caution in answering this question, for Luke’s account is purely descriptive, and is not intended to be prescriptive. We have no liberty, therefore, to be slavish, either in copying what [Acts, Page 321] took place (e.g. assembling in a house, indeed on the third floor, meeting in the evening, using oil lamps for illumination and listening to an inordinately lengthy sermon) or in omitting what is not mentioned (e.g. prayers, psalms, hymns and Scripture readings). Nevertheless, there seem to be principles of public worship here, which are endorsed by biblical teaching elsewhere and are applicable to us today.
First, the disciples met on the Lord’s Day for the Lord’s Supper. At least verse 7 sounds like a description of the normal, regular practice of the church in Troas. And the evidence is that the Eucharist, as a thankful celebration of the now risen Saviour’s death, very early became the main Sunday service, in the context of an agapeœ, that is, a ‘love feast’ of fellowship meal.
Secondly, in addition to the supper there was a sermon, indeed a very long one, for its first part lasted from sunset to midnight (7), and its second from midnight to sunrise (11). Not that we are to envisage Paul’s preaching as purely monologue, since Luke uses the verb dialegomai twice (7, 9), which implies discussion, perhaps in the form of question and answers. The other word he uses is homileoœ (11), which JBP renders ‘a long earnest talk’ and NEB ‘much conversation’. It was clearly more free and open than a formal sermon. But at least the apostle took his teaching responsibility seriously. So should we. ‘There is no hint that Paul took the incident as a rebuke for long-windedness.’28 And since we have no living apostles comparable to Paul to instruct us today, we need to listen to the teaching of Christ’s apostles as it has come down to us in the New Testament. From the earliest days local churches began to make their own collection of the memoirs and letters of the apostles, and obeyed the repeated apostolic injunction to read them, alongside the law and the prophets, in the public assembly.29
So it is, thirdly, that word and sacrament were combined in the ministry given to the church at Troas, and the universal church has followed suit ever since. For God speaks to his people through his Word both as it is read and expounded from Scripture and as it is dramatized in the two gospel sacraments, baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Perhaps ‘word and sacrament’ is not the best or most accurate coupling, common though it is. For strictly speaking the sacrament itself is a word, a ‘visible word’ according to Augustine. What builds up the church more than anything else is the ministry of God’s word as it comes to us through Scripture and Sacrament (that is the right coupling), audibly and visibly, in declaration and drama.
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