Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 16:10

"And when he had seen the vision, straightway we sought to go forth into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them." — Acts 16:10 (ASV)

Troas became an important Greek port about 300 B. C. and was named Alexandria Troas. After the break-up of Alexander the Great’s short-lived empire, Troas was ruled for a time by the Seleucids from Syrian Antioch, but it soon became an independent city-state. At the mouth of the Dardanelles, it was the pivotal port between the land masses of Europe and Asia Minor and the great waterways of the Aegean and Black Seas. At Troas Paul received a vision of a Macedonian asking for help. He took this as a divine call to evangelize Macedonia. Many commentators have suggested that Paul met Luke at Troas, perhaps initially for medical reasons, and that Luke impressed upon him during their conversations the need for the preaching of the Gospel in Macedonia—an encounter God used in a vision to direct Paul and his colleagues to Macedonia. Whatever secondary means God may have used, Paul and his party responded to it at once by making preparations to leave for Macedonia. Such preparations would have required finding passage on a ship sailing for Neapolis. Authentic turning points in history are few. But surely among them that of the Macedonian vision ranks high. Because of Paul’s obedience at this point, the Gospel went westward; and ultimately Europe and the Western world were evangelized. Christian response to the call of God is never a trivial thing. Indeed, as in this instance, great issues and untold blessings may depend on it. It is at Troas that the first of the “we” sections of Acts appears (16:10–17).

Because (1) this “we” section stops at Philippi, (2) the second “we” section (20:5–15) begins when the missionaries revisit Philippi after the third missionary journey, and (3) the ministry at Philippi receives the greatest attention (thirty verses) in this fifth panel, we may reasonably suppose the narrator implied in “we” was Luke and that he was a resident of Philippi who traveled from Troas to Philippi with Paul and Silas.