A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Lois and Eunice
LOIS AND EUNICE,
Mother and daughter, were Jewish women, and early believers in the Christian faith; they resided at Lystra, a city of Lycaonia. Eunice was the mother of Timothy, who was the first bishop of the Ephesians, and the favourite convert and friend of the apostle Paul. As the husband of Eunice was a Greek, the religious education of Timothy must have been entirely the work of his mother and grandmother. This is proved by what Paul says in his epistle to Timothy regarding the "unfeigned faith" of these two noble women. He judged the piety of this gifted young man by the measure of excellence they possessed; and if Timothy came up to this standard of the female soul, Paul was satisfied. Thus was the piety of woman held up as the pattern for the best of men, by the sternest and most masculine mind among the apostles. See Acts, chap. xvi., and 2 Timothy, chap. i.