EUTYCHUS ū’ tə kəs (Εὔτυχος, G2366, fortunate, lucky). A young man at Troas who fell from a third story window-seat during Paul’s prolonged nocturnal speech (Acts 20:7-12). For a parallel occurrence, see Expr. Pap. III. 475.

Eutychus was a common slave name. He may have been a slave who had worked hard all day. He had taken a seat in the open window. Overcome by irresistible drowsiness in the hot, over-crowded room, he fell asleep and fell through the opening from the “third story.” He “was taken up dead” (v. 9). As an eyewitness of the event Luke had satisfied himself of the fact. Having embraced him, Paul quieted the tumult with the assuring words, “his life is in him” (v. 10). The presence of the lad alive at dawn greatly comforted the group (v. 12).

Efforts have been made to break the natural meaning of a restoration from the dead. That Eutychus only appeared to be dead is contrary to Luke’s precise statement (v. 9). Paul’s act of embracing the body is not the act of one investigating a case of apparent death; it clearly recalls the action of Elijah (1 Kings 17:21) and Elisha (2 Kings 4:34). To stamp the story as an unhistorical anecdote which Luke mistook for an actual miracle in his account is contrary to Luke’s known accuracy.

Bibliography W. M. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller (1896¹⁴), 290, 291; R. O. H. Lenski, Interpretation of the Acts of the Apostles (1934), 819-828; F. F. Bruce, Commentary on the Book of the Acts (1954), 407-409; M. Dibelius, Studies in the Acts of the Apostles, Eng. tr. (1956), 17-19; C. S. C. Williams, The Acts of the Apostles (1957), 230, 231.