TROPHIMUS trŏf’ ə məs (Gr. Τρόφιμος, G5576, nourishing), an Ephesian Christian (Acts 21:29) who, with Tychicus (20:4), was one of two Asians chosen by the churches to bear the collection (2 Cor 8:19ff.). These, with six other delegates, met Paul at Troas (Acts 20:4-6) and accompanied him to Jerusalem. Jews from Asia saw Paul and Trophimus together in Jerusalem and hastily supposed that Paul had taken him illegally into the Temple proper beyond the outer Court of the Gentiles (21:29). Since it was punishable by death for an uncircumcised Gentile to enter the Court of Israel, thus defiling it, the ensuing uproar led to an attempt on Paul’s life and to his arrest. The serious but false charge of profaning the Temple was later repeated against Paul by Tertullus before the Rom. governor Felix (24:6).

In 2 Timothy 4:20, Paul says that he left Trophimus ill at Miletus. Such a notice does not fit the recorded journeys in Acts since Paul did not leave Trophimus when they were together in Miletus (Acts 20:15) nor did he go to Rome via Miletus. If this is the same man, it shows him traveling again with the apostle, freed from his first imprisonment in Rome before 2 Timothy was written.