Who were Lois and Eunice in the Bible?

The name of Timothy is first mentioned in Acts 16:1. His mother's name was Eunice (2 Tim. 1:5); she was a Jewess, but his father was a Gentile (Acts 16:1, 3). Paul called him his son, my own son in the faith (1 Tim. 1:2), from which we conclude that he was converted by the apostle's ministry. His mother and grand mother, Lois (2 Tim. 1:5), were both Christians. They must have been, before their conversion, God-fearing Jewesses. This seems to be implied by 2 Tim. 3:14-15. Young Timothy had an excellent reputation among the brethren in Lystra and Iconium. After having him circumcised "because of the Jews," Paul took him as a fellow-laborer in the gospel (Acts 16:1-3). He must have accompanied the apostle on his journey through Macedonia , for the apostle left him at Berea with Silas (Acts 17:14). He had been in Thessalonica and Paul sent him back to ascertain the state of the Thessalonian church. After that he remained with the apostle in Corinth . He then traveled with Paul from Corinth to Ephesus . From Ephesus he was sent by the apostle with Erastus to Macedonia and Corinth (Acts 19:22; 1 Cor. 4:17). Later we find that he was with Paul, the prisoner, in Rome (Col. 1:1; Phil. 1:1, Philemon, verse 1).

A young man whom Paul calls "my own son in the faith." His mother Eunice was a Jewess and his father a Greek. He had evidently been brought up piously, having known the holy scriptures from a child, and Paul mentions the unfeigned faith both of his mother and of his grandmother Lois. Paul, wishing to take Timothy with him, circumcised him because of the Jews. From Lystra he accompanied Paul into Macedonia, but he and Silas stayed behind at Berea. They joined Paul at Athens, and Timothy was sent back to Thessalonica, and brought his report to Paul at Corinth. Acts 17:14; 1 Thess. 3:1-2.

Timothy's mother, 'a Jewess that believed,' and of whose 'unfeigned faith' Paul testified. Acts 16:1; 2 Tim. 1:5.

This also had been the case with Timothy. There was unfeigned faith in him, which dwelt first in his grandmother, Lois, and in his mother, Eunice. Both Lois, the grandmother, and his own mother, who had a Greek for a husband (Acts 16:1) had trained the child Timothy in the Holy Scriptures (the Old Testament) and he had known them from the earliest childhood (3:15). Therefore when the gospel of Christ was presented to them this unfeigned faith laid hold upon it at once. It was good ground which had been prepared to receive the gospel-seed. Thus it should be in the Christian household. The promise is "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house." (Acts 16:31). Unfeigned faith will be produced in the young by instructing them out of the Word of God, for "faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God" (Rom. 10:17). Without ceasing Paul remembered Timothy in his prayers night and day. He remembered his tears, occasioned no doubt by the second imprisonment. How he desired to see his beloved son to be filled with joy!

Then, putting Timothy in this respect in a similar position to his own in relation to his ancestors, he adds, "When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded in thee also." v. 5. The position is similar, but it is not, as in Paul's case, a good conscience, but "unfeigned faith"; for Timothy had no Jewish ancestry, for his father was a Greek. And hence, though his mother was a Jewess, he was unclean according to the Jewish law. He is thus traced back only to the commencement of the Christian faith in his family, which dated from his grandmother.

It is a beautiful picture, drawn for our instruction; for we learn from this same epistle that Timothy from a child had known (and who can doubt, through the teaching of these pious women, or at least his mother?) the Holy Scriptures. Both the grandmother and mother, as well as Timothy, had embraced the Christian faith; and the Apostle seems to regard this fact as proving the greater reality of "the faith" in Timothy's soul, and as laying him, as will afterward be seen, under all the more solemn obligation of faithfulness to the Lord in this loose and corrupt epoch of the Church. The reflection cannot but be evoked from the mind of every reader, that it is a priceless blessing to have godly parents, and such godly parents as seek to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

We come now to one of the most charming of the New Testament families. We are introduced to Lois the Grandmother, and to Eunice the Mother, of young Timothy. The apostle bears witness to the unfeigned faith in both grandmother and mother (2 Tim. 1:5). And in 2 Tim. 3:15, we read, "From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus."

What a heritage for any child! To know the Holy Scriptures. We may have little to leave our children in the way of earthly possessions, but if we have given them, from a child, the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, we have given them greater riches, greater treasures, than all else this world possesses. Lois the grandmother and Eunice the mother both had real faith, and we may be sure it was they who taught Timothy, while yet an infant, (for so the Greek word means) the Holy Scriptures, for his father was a Greek.

At this point we may notice one who was marked out to be a most devoted companion of the great Apostle and a very true-hearted labourer (Phil.2:19-22). We allude to Paul's own child in the faith, Timothy (1 Tim.1:2), the son of Eunice and the grandson of Lois, two godly women who embraced Christianity. Of what town he was a native it is difficult to say. Very probably he belonged to Lystra. Certainly the province of Lycaonia could claim him as one of her sons, who was destined to be imperishably connected with the early history of Christianity from his close and long association with the Apostle Paul. Converted by Paul on his first missionary journey, Timothy was found on his second journey to have been well reported of by the Christians at Lystra [61] and Iconium (Acts 16:1). The work in the young man was real. It had stood. It bore fruit. And never after had any one reason to discredit his conversion.

Timothy (his name meaning 'honouring God') was yet a young man (1 Tim. 4:12) but one of the most faithful co-labourers of the apostle Paul. He was the son of a Greek father but had a Jewish mother named Eunice. His mother and grandmother Lois had taught Timothy the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament from a child (Acts 16:1; 2 Tim. 1:5; 3:15).

Derbe was the home of a pious Jewess by name of Eunice. She had married a Greek, who had died. Her son was Timotheus and she lived with her mother Lois (Acts 16:1-3; 2 Timothy 1:5). In Lystra another lame man is healed by the power of God. The ignorant heathen, seeing the miracle, thought the two apostles were gods and attempted to worship them. They abhorred their proceedings and refused the honor of men.

Let us refresh our memories a little as to Timothy, and I hope we will find it also refreshes our own souls. His home was in either Derbe or Lystra, probably Lystra; his mother was a Jewess who believed, named Eunice, and unfeigned faith dwelt not only in her, but also, first, in his grandmother Lois: but his father was a Greek, and as he had never been circumcised, he may have been brought up as a Greek. However, he knew the Holy Scriptures from earliest childhood, and was well reported of by the brethren that dwelt in Lystra and Iconium: and on Paul's second missionary journey, he desired to have Timothy go forth with him in the work. (Acts 16:1-3 & 2 Tim. 1:5). Timothy fully knew what persecutions Paul endured at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra. (2 Tim. 3:10-11). Most of these persecutions had been on Paul's first missionary journey (Acts 14), when Timothy was, perhaps, only a boy; but he knew all about them, and may have been an eye-witness of some. It was at Lystra Paul was stoned, and dragged out of the city, supposed to be dead: and it is very probable the boy Timothy was amongst the disciples who "stood round about him," when he "rose up, and came into the city." He must have known also how John Mark had turned back from the very path of service to which he was now called: yet he did not hesitate to follow Paul, though well he must have known it would be to share similar persecutions. I rather wonder how many of us would have done the same thing.