They had gathered for an evening farewell service, but the joy of Christian fellowship, and the fact that the apostle was about to leave them, caused the discussion to be continued far beyond the usual limits. Doubtless the brethren were thoroughly enjoying the informal spiritual feast Paul was giving them before bidding them farewell.

 Gr. dialegomai, “to converse,” “to discuss.” In all instances in the NT, except here and in v. 9, this verb is translated “to dispute,” “to reason,” and once “to speak.” Here and in v. 9 it would be better translated “to discourse.” The meeting was evidently not a regular church assembly with a sermon, but an informal one in which reasoning and conversation were used to answer questions and clear away difficulties among the Christians at Troas, and to impart instruction.

 In Greek the expression is the same as that in Matt. 28:1 (see comment there). There can be no doubt that this corresponds, in general, at least, to our Sunday. Commentators have been divided, however, as to whether the meeting in question took place on the evening following Sunday, or on that preceding it. Those who favor the view that it was a Sunday night meeting point out that Luke, who most probably was a Gentile, presumably used Roman time reckoning, which began the day at midnight. On such reckoning, an evening meeting on the first day of the week could only be on Sunday night. They point out also that the time sequence of the verse, “the first day of the week,” “the morrow,” implies that Paul’s departure took place on the second day of the week; if so, then the meeting must have been on Sunday night. It may be noted, also, that John refers to Sunday night as “the first day of the week” (John 20:19), whereas, according to Jewish reckoning, it was already the second day of the week (see Vol. II, p. 101). It is possible that Luke uses the expression in the same sense here.

Other commentators, including Ellicott, Conybeare and Howson, and A. T. Robertson, have preferred to understand that the meeting took place on the evening before Sunday. Inasmuch as Jewish reckoning began the day at sunset, by that system the dark part of the first day of the week would be the night preceding Sunday, our Saturday night. Such reckoning continued for centuries among Christians, and it is reasonable to think that Luke, whether Gentile or not, may have used it in his narrative. Accordingly, Paul’s meeting at Troas would have begun after sunset on Saturday night, and would have continued through that night. The next day, Sunday, he would have walked to Assos.

Some writers have seen in this passage an indication of early Christian Sunday observance. Whether or not Luke used Jewish or Roman time reckoning is of relatively little importance to this question, for he says clearly that the meeting was on “the first day of the week.” If he was using Jewish reckoning, then the evening before Sunday was considered the first day, and if he was using Roman time, the evening following Sunday was still the first day. The significant factor here, as regards the question of early Christian Sundaykeeping, is whether this first-day meeting represents regular Christian practice, or whether it happened to fall on the first day only because of Paul’s visit.

 A consideration of the whole narrative provides no support for the view that Paul held this meeting specifically because it was the first day of the week. He had been at Troas seven days; certainly he must have met with the believers there already more than once. Now he was to depart, and it was most logical that he would hold a final farewell meeting, and celebrate the Lord’s Supper with them. Luke’s remark that this occurred on the first day of the week, rather than being a notice of specific Sundaykeeping, is quite in harmony with the whole series of chronological notes with which he fills his narrative of this voyage (see chs. 20:3, 6, 7, 15, 16; 21:1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 15). Therefore the simplest way to view this passage would seem to be that the meeting was held, not because it was Sunday, but because Paul was “ready to depart” (ch. 20:7), that Luke includes an account of the meeting because of the experience of Eutychus, and that his note that it was “the first day of the week” is merely a part of his continuing chronological record of Paul’s journey. In evaluating this passage as an evidence of early Christian Sundaykeeping, the eminent church historian, Augustus Neander, remarks:

“The passage is not entirely convincing, because the impending departure of the apostle may have united the little Church in a brotherly parting-meal, on occasion of which the apostle delivered his last address, although there was no particular celebration of a Sunday in the case” (The History of the Christian Religion and Church, tr. Henry John Rose, vol. 1, p. 337).