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:
Then came he to Derbe and Lystra: and, behold, a certain disciple was there - that is, at Lystra, not at Derbe (as some conclude from Acts 20:4). See the note at Acts 16:2.
Named Timotheus. As Paul styles this youth his "own son in the faith" (1 Timothy 1:2), and as he had attained to some standing among the Christians of that region before the apostle's second visit, it must have been at his first missionary visit that he was gained to Christ, and in all likelihood in those critical moments and trying circumstances related in Acts 14:19-20. His would be one of 'the souls of the disciples confirmed' by the apostle on his return home by the same route, 'exhorted to continue in the faith,' and warned "that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:21-22).
The son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed. 'The unfeigned faith which dwelt first in his grandmother Lois' descended from her to 'his mother Eunice;' thence it passed to this dear youth (2 Timothy 1:5), who 'from a child knew the Holy Scriptures' (2 Timothy 3:15). His gifts and destination to the ministry seem to have been supernaturally attested before this (1 Timothy 1:18), or at least at the time of his ordination (1 Tim. 4:18). But his father was a Greek. Such mixed marriages (as Howson observes), though seldom occurring in Palestine, and disliked by the stricter Jews (being forbidden by the Mosaic law, Deuteronomy 7:3), must have been very frequent among the Jews of the dispersion, especially in remote districts, where but few of the scattered people were settled.