Trophimus/ˈtrɒfɪməs,ˈtroʊ-/ (Greek: Τρόφιμος, Tróphimos) or Trophimus the Ephesian (Greek: Τρόφιμος ὁ Ἐφέσιος, Tróphimos ho Ephésios) was a Christian who accompanied Paul during a part of his third missionary journey. He was with Paul in Jerusalem, and the Jews, supposing that the apostle had brought him into the temple, raised a tumult which resulted in Paul's imprisonment. (See Herod's Temple). In writing to Timothy, the apostle comments that he left Trophimus in Miletus due to illness.[1] This must refer to some event not noticed in the Acts.
Trophimus was one of eight friends (Acts 20:4), who accompanied Paul at the close of his third missionary journey and traveled with him from Greece, through Macedonia, into Asia, and onward by sea until Jerusalem was reached. Trophimus completed the journey with Paul, for, in the passages Acts 21:29, he is mentioned as being with Paul in Jerusalem immediately on the close of this journey.
He was the cause of Paul being assaulted in the courts of the temple by the mob, and then of his being arrested and imprisoned by the Romans. The occasion of this outrage was that Paul had "brought Greeks also into the temple, and....defiled this holy place" (Acts 21:28).
Left at Miletus
Trophimus is also mentioned in 2 Timothy 4:20: "Trophimus I left at Miletus sick." This shows that he was again — several years after the date indicated in the previous passages — traveling with Paul on one of the missionary journeys which the apostle undertook after being liberated from his first imprisonment in Rome.
Unnamed brother
It has been conjectured that Trophimus is to be identified with the person mentioned in 2 Corinthians 8:16-24.[5] There, Paul speaks in the highest terms of one of his companions whom he sent with Titus but does not provide his name. Titus and this disciple were evidently, those to whose care Paul entrusted the carrying of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. The apostle says of this unnamed brother, not only that his praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches, but also that he was chosen by the churches to travel with him.[6]
Relevant verses
Sopater the Berean, son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and the Asians, Tychius and Trophimus.
^Ancient Temple Mount ‘warning’ stone is ‘closest thing we have to the Temple’. By Ilan Ben Zion, Times of Israel 22 October 2015. Quote: Carved in bold Greek letters, 2,000-year-old Herodian inscription marked off the section of Jerusalem's most sacred site where gentiles couldn't go -- and shows they were welcome elsewhere in holy area.
