A Spark of Life

A Spark of Life Commentary by Amina Wright Cite Share Show Bible Passage In this detail from an extravagant royal tapestry, Paul’s week in Troas has reached its climax: the moment Eutychus is restored to life. The drama is acted out by three pairs of figures. Two women hover anxiously on the threshold of the meeting house as Eutychus lies at death’s door. The passive, huddled women are contrasted with two active men dashing round the corner towards the fallen youth, their arms, legs, and cloaks flying. The two men may be Paul’s travelling companions: one wears a heavy purse on his belt, perhaps the offering gathered from the Greek churches that they are now carrying to Jerusalem (Romans 15:25–27). Together, the bystanders represent the two sides of Christian life, prayer and action, which both meet in the single figure of Paul. The intensity of Paul’s expression is striking, gazing into the distance as though drawing in the life-restoring power of the Holy Spirit from far beyond his own strength. Equally hard to miss is the torch that Eutychus appears to have dropped on his way down from the window; a reminder of the ‘many lights’ lit in the room above. This flambeau also recalls Genesis 15:17, when Abraham sees God’s presence as a burning torch, a theophany that prefigures the burning bush and pillar of fire of Exodus (chapters 3 and 13). Perhaps too it echoes a motif found on certain funerary monuments in which an extinguished torch may presage resurrection hope. While his life hangs in the balance, Eutychus’s insensible finger points towards the torch as it smokes and flickers. It is not clear from the text whether the young man has been killed outright by his three-storey tumble (Acts 20:10), but the flickering torch is a sign that ‘his life is in him’. God is present, he is already safe in Paul’s arms, and by morning he will be fully alive again. References Cleland, Elizabeth A. H. (ed.). 2014. Grand Design: Pieter Coecke van Aelst and Renaissance Tapestry (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art), pp.156–61 See full exhibition for Acts of the Apostles 20:1–12 More Exhibitions Joseph Sold into Slavery, Bad Blood, False Accusations and Portents of the Future, from The Crusader Bible (The Morgan Picture Bible) by Unknown French artist Zulaykha Seizing the Skirt of Yusuf's Robe, from a Yusuf and Zulaykha of Jami by Unknown Bukharan artist Joseph and Potiphar's Wife and Scenes from the life of Joseph, from the Golden Haggadah by Unknown artist Genesis 39 Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife Christ and the Samaritan Woman by Lavinia Fontana Christ and the Samaritan Woman by Unknown artist The Woman at the Well by Diego Rivera John 4:1–42 The Woman at the Well Jali Lattice Window by Mughal artists from Gujurat Self Portrait in a Fur-Trimmed Robe by Albrecht Dürer Still Life with Vessels by Francisco de Zurbarán 2 Corinthians 3:12–4:18 From Glory to Glory Advancing Sign up for our free newsletter Email Address Email Address Submit