Acts 16:1

Paul and Silas probably crossed the Taurus Mountains at a pass called the Cilician Gates (modern Gülek Bogaz). Alexander the Great had marched east through this pass to conquer the vast Persian Empire four centuries earlier. [Note: Blaiklock, p. 120.] This route would have led them into the kingdom of Antiochus that was west of Cilicia, to the south of Galatia, and to the east of Pamphylia. They proceeded on into Lycaonian Galatia, to Derbe, and then to Lystra.

At Lystra a young believer named Timothy impressed Paul. Many Bible students have assumed that Timothy was from Lystra and had trusted Christ during Paul’s first trip to that town (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:17). The text does not state these facts, but they are certainly strong possibilities. Mixed marriages between Jews and Gentiles were more common outside Palestine than within it. [Note: Bruce, Commentary on . . ., p. 322.] Timothy’s mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois were both sincere Jews and had instructed Timothy in the Hebrew Scriptures (2 Timothy 1:5; 2 Timothy 3:15). [Note: See Levinskaya, pp. 12-17.] This young man now filled the place that John Mark had occupied on the first journey, before Mark returned to Jerusalem. Timothy was to become one of Paul’s closest friends and most faithful fellow workers.

"He [Paul] was always well aware of the necessity of training a new generation for the work and for the days that lay ahead." [Note: Barclay, p. 129.]