弟茂德的母親是猶太人，因此弟茂德也是猶太人。

或許由於他父親是希臘人，他沒有受割禮，因此可能會被指責不尊重祖先的傳統。

保祿為弟茂德行割禮，從而消除了這種可能的批評，甚至連他自己也免於批評。

尊重傳統與向異教徒傳福音以及順服聖神的指示密不可分。

選擇向希臘人傳福音對教會歷史和福音的普世傳播產生了巨大的影響。

路加首次以謙卑的語氣出現在這裡，使用了第一人稱複數形式的動詞。

他同樣謙卑地指出，解夢是他們為實現夢境所做的貢獻，其中也包含了人類行為的限制和不確定性。

The mother of Timothy was Jewish; therefore, Timothy was a Jew. Perhaps, due to his Greek father, he was not circumcised, therefore he could be accused of not respecting the tradition of his ancestors. Paul eliminates such a possible cause of criticism, even to him, by having Timothy circumcised.

Respect for tradition goes hand in hand with openness to evangelization of pagans and to obeying the instructions of the Holy Spirit. The choice of going towards the Greeks had an enormous influence on the history of the Church and on the universal reach of the Gospel.

Luke appears here for the first time, with great humility, through the first-person plural of the verb. With the same humility he says that the interpretation of the dream was their human contribution to its fulfilment, with all the limits and incertitude of human acts.