Assos

Assos in the Bible

Assos appears in the Bible only in Acts 20:13-14. Near the end of Paul's third missionary journey, Paul and his companions stayed seven days in Troas on their way back to Jerusalem. While Paul was preaching there late into the night, Eutychus fell from a window (Acts 20:7-12).

Afterward, his companions went ahead by ship to Assos, while Paul decided to go alone on foot. The text records, "for so had he appointed, minding himself to go afoot" (Acts 20:13). The group met Paul at Assos, took him aboard, and sailed by way of Mitylene to Miletus. At Miletus, Paul delivered a farewell address to the elders of the church at Ephesus.

Background

Assos is a coastal city in the region of Mysia in northwestern Asia Minor, facing the Gulf of Adramyttium. Across the water lies the island of Lesbos, whose chief city was Mitylene. Assos was built on a steep hill with a harbor below. The remains of a temple of Athena are reported to survive on the summit. It is also recorded that the Greek philosopher Aristotle lived there for a time.

The overland distance from Troas to Assos is reported to be roughly 30 kilometers (about 20 miles). The sea route is understood to have been longer, since it required rounding the intervening cape. Today the site is said to lie near the village of Behramkale in Turkey.

Significance in the Bible as a Whole

The Assos passage belongs to the so-called "we" passages of Acts, sections in which the narrator tells the story in the first person plural. Church tradition has understood these passages as the account of Luke, who traveled with Paul.

Here the names of ports and the route of travel follow one another in detailed chronological sequence. For this reason, Assos is read as one stop on a journey during which Paul was hastening to reach Jerusalem by the day of Pentecost (Acts 20:16). The Bible contains no record of a church at Assos or of Paul preaching there.

Interpretation and Issues

The text does not explain why Paul walked alone. Commentators have proposed several possibilities:

• That, facing the afflictions awaiting him in Jerusalem (Acts 20:22-23), he wished to have time alone for prayer and reflection
• That he wished to stay a little longer with the believers in Troas and took the overland route, which would allow him to catch up with the ship even if he left later, since the ship had to round the cape
• That he intended to meet other believers along the way

All of these views are interpretive conjectures and are not stated directly in the text. Even when sermons portray Paul as "walking alone in prayer," it is important to recognize this as a meditation added to the text.