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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the NT: Eunice
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( Åὐíßêç ; the spelling Åὐíåßêç of TR [Note: Textus Receptus, Received Text.] is erroneous)
Eunice, the mother of Timothy (2Ti_1:5) is referred to in Act_16:1 as a Jewess who believed. Her husband, however, was a Greek, and we find that, although she was a Jewess, she had refrained from circumcising her son, probably out of respect for her husband’s opinions. The grandmother of Timothy is alluded to as Lois (q.v. [Note: quod vide, which see.] ), and she was in all likelihood the mother of Eunice, Some have put forward the conjecture that, as both Lois and Eunice are Greek names, the women were Jewish proselytes, but this is improbable; nor is it likely that the father of Timothy was in any way attached to the Jewish religion. The Apostle refers to the faith of both Lola and Eunice (2Ti_1:5) and to their careful training of Timothy in the Jewish scriptures (3:15). As to find Eunice described as a ‘Jewess who believed,’ on St. Paul’s second visit to Lystra (Act_16:1), she was probably converted to Christianity on the Apostle’s first visit to the town. One of the cursives 25 adds the word ÷Þñáò in Act_16:1; and although this is undoubtedly a marginal gloss that crept into the text, it may refer to an early tradition that Eunice was a widow at the date of the Apostle’s visit to Lystra, and would give added emphasis to the injunction of 1Ti_5:4 regarding the treatment of widows by their children or grandchildren,
W. F. Boyd.