16:1
We now learn how Paul met Timothy, the recipient of two of Paul’s pastoral letters. Timothy was the son of a Jewish mother and a Gentile father. One of the background features of Acts is the prominence of women in some of the narratives. We will see another example later in this chapter. If you read Paul’s letters you will also note this, Romans 16 being the prime example. The gospel gave importance to women. Timothy’s mother was a believer, we are not told if his father was, but it would seem that he was not.
16:2,3
Timothy was himself a believer and had a good reputation among the believers at Lystra and Iconium. So Paul decided to take Timothy with him on his mission trips. Then we have a quite amazing incident in some ways, Paul has Timothy circumcised. And this after all the fuss over circumcision that we read about in the previous chapter. So why the apparent change? Why circumcision at all? Well as he was uncircumcised Timothy would not be regarded as a Jew, and they were going to be travelling through regions with significant numbers of Jews. So Paul did not want to put any unnecessary obstacle in the way of the Jews believing.This was a pragmatic decision, not a matter of salvation.
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