Acts 16:9

A vision (orama). Old word, eleven times in Acts, once in Matthew 17:9 . Twice Paul had been hindered by the Holy Spirit from going where he wanted to go. Most men would have gone back home with such rebuffs, but not so Paul. Now the call is positive and not negative, to go "far hence to the Gentiles" ( Matthew 22:21 ). He had little dreamed of such a call when he left Antioch. Paul's frequent visions always came at real crises in his life. A man of Macedonia (anhr Makedwn). Ramsay follows Renan in the view that this was Luke with whom Paul had conversed about conditions in Macedonia. Verse Matthew 10 makes it plain that Luke was now in the party, but when he joined them we do not know. Some hold that Luke lived at Antioch in Syria and came on with Paul and Silas, others that he joined them later in Galatia, others that he appeared now either as Paul's physician or new convert. Ramsay thinks that Philippi was his home at this time. But, whatever is true about Luke, the narrative must not be robbed of its supernatural aspect ( Matthew 10:10 ; Matthew 22:17 ). Was standing (hn estw). Second perfect active participle of isthmi, intransitive, periphrastic imperfect. Vivid picture. Help us (bohqhson hmin). Ingressive first aorist active imperative of bohqew (boh, qew), to run at a cry, to help. The man uses the plural for all including himself. It was the cry of Europe for Christ.