the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Tychicus
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or (Τυχικός, ‘fortunate’)
Tychicus was an Ephesian Christian who journeyed with St. Paul from Macedonia to Asia and preceded him to Troas (Acts 20:4). Thence he accompanied him to Jerusalem on the Apostle’s last visit there, acting along with Trophimus as a delegate of the church of Ephesus and conveying the offerings of the church to the poor brethren at Jerusalem. He was a companion of the Apostle during his first captivity, and was sent to Ephesus from Rome probably with the Epistle to the Ephesians. He is described by St. Paul as a ‘beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord,’ and he is entrusted with the duty of telling the Ephesians of the writer’s welfare and of comforting their hearts (Ephesians 6:21). In the same way in the Epistle to the Colossians (Colossians 4:7) he is described as ‘a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow-servant,’ and the same duty is committed to him of telling the Colossians of the Apostle’s condition and comforting their hearts. In 2 Timothy 4:12 the writer tells Timothy that he has sent Tychicus to Ephesus, from which we may conclude that he was with the Apostle in his second captivity in Rome. The same conclusion is borne out by the reference in Titus 3:12, where the writer purposes to send either Artemas or Tychicus to Titus in Crete with the injunction that Titus should meet the Apostle at Nicopolis. It is possible that the reference in 2 Corinthians 8:18 to ‘the brother whose praise in the gospel is spread through all the churches,’ and who was deputed along with Titus and another unnamed Christian to carry the Second Epistle to the Corinthians from Ephesus to Corinth, may be Tychicus, and the other unnamed deputy may be Trophimus. This, however, is little more than conjecture, although from Acts 20:4 we may gather that these two Ephesians were known to the church in Corinth, and that the two deputies referred to in 2 Corinthians 8:18 were also well known to those addressed.
A late tradition makes Tychicus bishop of Chalcedon in Bithynia. The Greek Menologion (9 Dec.) reports that he was bishop of Colophon after Sosthenes, and suffered martyrdom for the faith.
W. F. Boyd.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Tychicus'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/t/tychicus.html. 1906-1918.
