Paul and Luke spent a week in Troas. It is probable that they disembarked after the Sabbath, which would have concluded their five days’ sail across the Aegean. The seven days, or one full week, that they spent at Troas terminated with the Sabbath. The next day, the first day of the week, Paul planned to start on foot to Assos (v. 13), while the remainder of his party continued by ship to Assos. Between the close of the Sabbath and their early morning departure, the missionaries spent the dark part of the first day of the week—that is, Saturday night—in an eventful, protracted meeting with the church at Troas.

 The westward voyage from Troas to Philippi (see on ch. 16:11, 12) had taken only three days, but the ship, now sailing east, had to meet the southwest current setting in from the Dardanelles, and probably also northeast winds that prevail in the archipelago in the spring (see Paul’s Third Missionary Tour). Paul, Luke, and Timothy had been together at Troas when Paul saw the vision of the Macedonian calling for him to cross to Europe. Sopater, Aristarchus, and Secundus represented part of the fruitage that God had granted to their work in Macedonia.

 Paul seems to have stayed intentionally at Philippi because of the Jewish feast. The Passover season must have continued to be fraught with great religious sentiment for Paul, a Jew and a Pharisee (ch. 23:6). Perhaps also Christians were beginning to think of the Passover time as the anniversary of Christ’s death and resurrection (cf. 1 Cor. 5:7, 8).