And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.
All Commentaries on Acts 20:12 Go To Acts 20
John Chrysostom
AD 407
But observe, I pray you, the theatre, how crowded it was: and the miracle, what it was. He was sitting in a window, at dead of night. Such was their eagerness to hear him! Let us take shame to ourselves! Aye, but a Paul say you, was discoursing then. Yes, and Paul discourses now, or rather not Paul, either then or now, but Christ, and yet none cares to hear. No window in the case now, no importunity of hunger, or sleep, and yet we do not care to hear: no crowding in a narrow space here, nor any other such comfort. And the wonderful circumstance is, that though he was a youth, he was not listless and indifferent; and though (he felt himself) weighed down by sleep, he did not go away, nor yet fear the danger of falling down. It was not from listlessness that he slumbered, but from necessity of nature. But observe, I beseech you, so fervent was their zeal, that they even assembled in a third loft: for they had not a Church yet. Trouble not yourselves, he says. He said not, He shall come to life again, for I will raise him up: but mark the unassuming way in which he comforts them: for his life, says he, is in him. When he had come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten. This thing cut short the discourse; it did no harm, however. When he had eaten, it says, and discoursed a long while, even till break of day, so he departed. Do you mark the frugality of the supper? Do you observe how they passed the whole night? Such were their meals, that the hearers came away sober, and fit for hearing. But we, in what do we differ from dogs? Do you mark what a difference (between us and those men)? And they brought the young man alive, and, it says, were not a little comforted, both because they received him back alive, and because a miracle had been wrought. And we went before to ship, and sailed unto Thasos, there intending to take in Paul: for so had he appointed, minding himself to go afoot.
