Eutychus Raised from the Dead

Overview

• Testament: New
• Book: Acts
• Chapters: Acts 20:7-12
• Summary: At Troas on the first day of the week, Paul preaches until midnight in a room lit with many lamps; a young man named Eutychus, sitting in a window, falls asleep and falls from the third floor; he is taken up dead; Paul goes down, embraces him, and declares “his life is in him”; the disciples take him home alive, “not a little comforted.”

Significance

The account is embedded in a “we passage” — Luke is present and narrates as an eyewitness. The timing (first day of the week, breaking of bread) locates this in a Sunday Eucharistic assembly, one of the earliest explicit references to the church’s weekly Lord’s Day gathering. The resurrection of Eutychus echoes Elijah raising the widow’s son (1 Kings 17) and Elisha raising the Shunammite’s son (2 Kings 4), marking Paul as standing in the line of prophetic miracle-workers. The lightness of the narrative’s ending — the congregation simply returns to the meal — reflects the early church’s steady confidence in the resurrection power at work among them.

Key Verses

“And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.” — Acts 20:10 (KJV)

Cross-References

• Acts — Acts 20:7-12; embedded in the third missionary journey farewell circuit
• Paul’s Third Missionary Journey — Troas is part of the final journey home
• Troas — the place where this occurred
• Luke — present as eyewitness; “we” narrative
• The Resurrection (theme) — a narrative sign of resurrection life in the community

Key Figures

• Paul (Apostle) — raises Eutychus with a prophetic embrace
• Luke — eyewitness narrator