Eunice and Lois

Scripture: Acts 16:1–3; 2 Timothy 1:5; 3:14–15

Introduction at Lystra (Acts 16:1–3), When Paul came to Derbe and Lystra on his second missionary journey, he found a disciple there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who believed, but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, because everyone knew that his father was a Greek. The mother is identified only as "a Jewish woman who believed." The grandmother Lois is not mentioned in Acts. The faith in the household is: there.

Paul's commendation (2 Timothy 1:5), 2 Timothy is Paul's final letter, written from prison at the end of his life. He addresses Timothy directly: "I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well" (1:5). This is the only verse in the New Testament that names Lois and the only verse that names Eunice. The sequence is deliberate: Lois first, then Eunice, then Timothy. The sincere faith (ἀνυπόκριτος πίστις, anypokritos pistis, unfeigned, unhypocritical, genuine faith) had a house it lived in before it moved into Timothy. Paul knew both women well enough to name them from prison in his final letter.

The sacred writings from childhood (2 Timothy 3:14–15), "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus" (3:14–15). "From whom you learned it", the plural pronoun points backward to the women named in 1:5. Eunice and Lois had taught Timothy the sacred writings (the Hebrew Scriptures) from childhood. His father was Greek and was not a believer; the faith instruction came from the women in the household. What Timothy knew of Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, he knew because his mother and grandmother taught it to him before he was old enough to read for himself.

The mixed household, Timothy's household was the kind of household that required navigation: a Jewish mother with Jewish faith who had married a Greek man, in a city where Jewish and Greek cultures overlapped. The father is mentioned only once in Acts 16 and is not called a believer. The faith tradition was maintained by the women. Paul's letters to Timothy circle back to those women as the source of the unfeigned faith he is urging Timothy to hold and guard. "Guard the good deposit entrusted to you" (2 Timothy 1:14), the deposit that was first entrusted to Lois, then to Eunice, then to Timothy.

Two names, one household, Lois is Timothy's maternal grandmother; Eunice is his mother. Both are named; neither appears in any other passage. They are known entirely by their relationship to Timothy and Timothy's relationship to Paul. Their theological significance is the faith they transmitted and the Scriptures they taught. Paul's letter places them at the origin of everything Timothy became: "knowing from whom you learned it."

The Sanctum holds Eunice and Lois as the named origin point of the faith that produced Timothy. Paul named them from prison in his last letter as the household where sincere faith dwelt before it dwelt in the man he was writing to. They taught the sacred writings in a house where the father was Greek and not a believer. What Timothy carried into the Pauline mission, his formation, his knowledge of the Scriptures, his unfeigned faith, he learned from these two women.