Acts 20 Footnotes

20:3-6 This plot by Jewish opponents prompted Paul to change travel plans from taking a ship from Greece (Achaia) to Syria to traveling overland from Greece to Macedonia, where he got a boat in Philippi.

20:5 The “we” narrative resumes (to v. 15).

20:9-10 Like Peter (9:36-41), Paul apparently raised a person from the dead.

20:16 Miletus was thirty miles from Ephesus. So how did going to Miletus and then summoning the Ephesian elders save Paul time, since he wished to get to Jerusalem for Pentecost? Perhaps Paul wanted to avoid Ephesus because a ship going to Ephesus would not be available for some time (21:3), or it could be that further unrest would have been generated by his presence (19:23-41).

20:17 Ephesian church leaders were called elders here, but overseers in v. 28. These apparently interchangeable terms (Ti 1:5,7) designated a functional and formal title of leadership in the Ephesian church.

20:18-35 Although Paul’s speech differed from his others in Acts, note that: (1) this was the only speech delivered to already-believing Christians, and (2) it had many parallels with language in Pauline Letters, including reference to his serving the Lord, his persecution, his not shrinking from teaching them, his ministry to both Jews and Greeks, the need for repentance, his not caring about his own life, and language regarding finishing the course.

20:25 Either Paul realized things might go badly for him in Jerusalem, or he had no intention of returning to this part of the Mediterranean. Instead, after Jerusalem he intended to head to Rome and beyond.

20:28 Reference to redemption through Jesus’s blood, that is, redemption through his death, is unique in Acts. It does reflect Paul’s language in his letters (e.g., Rm 3:25; 5:9; Eph 2:13).

20:35 The saying “It is more blessed to give than to receive” is not found in the Gospels—although it is like some of Jesus’s recorded sayings (Lk 6:38). Obviously, Jesus said more than what the Gospels record, and some of the agrapha (sayings of Jesus not included in the Gospels) originated with Jesus.