1 But after the tumult had ceased, Paul having called the disciples to [him] and embraced [them], went away to go to Macedonia. 2 And having passed through those parts, and having exhorted them with much discourse, he came to Greece. 3 And having spent three months [there], a treacherous plot against him having been set on foot by the Jews, as he was going to sail to Syria, [the] resolution was adopted of returning through Macedonia. 4 And there accompanied him as far as Asia, Sopater [son] of Pyrrhus, a Berean; and of Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus, and Gaius and Timotheus of Derbe, and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus. 5 These going before waited for us in Troas; 6 but we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and we came to them to Troas in five days, where we spent seven days. 7 And the first day of the week, we being assembled to break bread, Paul discoursed to them, about to depart on the morrow. And he prolonged the discourse till midnight. 8 And there were many lights in the upper room where we were assembled. 9 And a certain youth, by name Eutychus, sitting at the window-opening, overpowered by deep sleep, while Paul discoursed very much at length, having been overpowered by the sleep, fell from the third story down to the bottom, and was taken up dead. 10 But Paul descending fell upon him, and enfolding [him] [in his arms], said, Be not troubled, for his life is in him. 11 And having gone up, and having broken the bread, and eaten, and having long spoken until daybreak, so he went away. 12 And they brought [away] the boy alive, and were no little comforted. 13 And we, having gone before on board ship, sailed off to Assos, going to take in Paul there; for so he had directed, he himself being about to go on foot. 14 And when he met with us at Assos, having taken him on board, we came to Mitylene; 15 and having sailed thence, on the morrow arrived opposite Chios, and the next day put in at Samos; and having stayed at Trogyllium, the next day we came to Miletus: 16 for Paul thought it desirable to sail by Ephesus, so that he might not be made to spend time in Asia; for he hastened, if it was possible for him, to be the day of Pentecost at Jerusalem. 17 But from Miletus having sent to Ephesus, he called over [to him] the elders of the assembly. 18 And when they were come to him, he said to them, Ye know how I was with you all the time from the first day that I arrived in Asia, 19 serving the Lord with all lowliness, and tears, and temptations, which happened to me through the plots of the Jews; 20 how I held back nothing of what is profitable, so as not to announce [it] to you, and to teach you publicly and in every house, 21 testifying to both Jews and Greeks repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. 22 And now, behold, bound in my spirit I go to Jerusalem, not knowing what things shall happen to me in it; 23 only that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and tribulations await me. 24 But I make no account of [my] life [as] dear to myself, so that I finish my course, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the glad tidings of the grace of God. 25 And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom [of God], shall see my face no more. 26 Wherefore I witness to you this day, that I am clean from the blood of all, 27 for I have not shrunk from announcing to you all the counsel of God. 28 Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, wherein the Holy Spirit has set you as overseers, to shepherd the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own. 29 [For] I know [this,] that there will come in amongst you after my departure grievous wolves, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves shall rise up men speaking perverted things to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Wherefore watch, remembering that for three years, night and day, I ceased not admonishing each one [of you] with tears. 32 And now I commit you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build [you] up and give [to you] an inheritance among all the sanctified. 33 I have coveted [the] silver or gold or clothing of no one. 34 Yourselves know that these hands have ministered to my wants, and to those who were with me. 35 I have shewed you all things, that thus labouring [we] ought to come in aid of the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. 36 And having said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. 37 And they all wept sore; and falling upon the neck of Paul they ardently kissed him, 38 specially pained by the word which he had said, that they would no more see his face. And they went down with him to the ship.
Acts 20 Darby Translation
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Aristarchus
A Thessalonian who traveled with Paul, was seized in the Ephesus riot, sailed with him to Rome, and is called Paul's fellow prisoner.
Cited in the guide: Acts 19:29; Acts 20:4; Acts 27:2
Eutychus
A young man who fell asleep during Paul's long talk, fell from a third-story window, and was taken up dead; Paul embraced him and he was restored alive.
Cited in the guide: Acts 20:9
Gaius
Pyrrhus
Secundus
Sopater
A man from Berea, son of Pyrrhus, who accompanied Paul into Asia.
Cited in the guide: Acts 20:4
Trophimus
An Ephesian who accompanied Paul; Jews at Jerusalem falsely claimed Paul had brought him into the temple, and Paul later left him sick at Miletus.
Cited in the guide: Acts 20:4; Acts 21:29; 2 Timothy 4:20
Tychicus
A man from Asia who traveled with Paul; Paul calls him a beloved brother and faithful servant and sent him with letters to Ephesus, Colossae, and elsewhere.
Cited in the guide: Acts 20:4; Ephesians 6:21; Colossians 4:7
Places
Ephesus
The chief city of Roman Asia, famed for the temple of Artemis. Paul's long ministry sparked the silversmiths' riot; the city is also the first addressed in Revelation.
Cited in the guide: Acts 19:1; Acts 19:28; Revelation 2:1
Jerusalem
Set high in the Judean hills (~2,500 ft), Jerusalem was David's royal city, the site of the First and Second Temples, and the stage for Jesus' passion and the church's birth at Pentecost.
Cited in the guide: 2 Samuel 5:6-9; Luke 19:41; Acts 1:8
Philippi
A Roman colony on the Via Egnatia and the site of Paul's first European converts — a beloved church to which he later wrote from prison.
Cited in the guide: Acts 16:12; Acts 16:25; Philippians 1:1
Miletus
Cross references (37)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 2 Corinthians 7:5; Acts 19:21; 1 Timothy 1:3; Genesis 48:10; Romans 16:16
- 2 1 Thessalonians 4:1; Colossians 1:28; 1 Thessalonians 2:3; 1 Thessalonians 2:11; Acts 20:11
- 3 Acts 20:19; 2 Corinthians 11:26; Acts 9:23–24; Acts 25:3; 2 Corinthians 7:5
- 4 Acts 19:29; Ephesians 6:21; 2 Timothy 4:20; Acts 16:1; Acts 21:29
- 5 Acts 16:8; 2 Corinthians 2:12; Acts 16:10–11; 2 Timothy 4:13; Acts 20:6–8
- 6 Acts 12:3; Exodus 12:14–15; Acts 16:12; Exodus 23:15; 2 Timothy 4:13
- 7 1 Corinthians 16:2; Acts 2:42; John 20:19; John 20:1; Revelation 1:10
- 8 Acts 1:13; Luke 22:12
- 9 Mark 13:36; Matthew 26:40–41; Mark 9:26; Jonah 1:5–6; Acts 14:19
- 10 Mark 5:39; John 11:40; Matthew 9:23–24; John 11:11; 1 Kings 17:21–22
- 11 Acts 20:7; Acts 20:9
- 12 2 Thessalonians 2:16; 2 Corinthians 1:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:14; Isaiah 40:1; 1 Thessalonians 3:2
- 13 Mark 6:46; Mark 1:35; Mark 6:31–33
- 15 2 Timothy 4:20; Acts 20:17
- 16 1 Corinthians 16:8; Acts 2:1; Acts 19:21; Acts 20:6; Acts 18:21
- 17 1 Timothy 5:17; Acts 11:30; Titus 1:5; Acts 20:28; James 5:14
- 18 1 Thessalonians 1:5–6; Acts 19:1; Acts 18:19; Acts 19:10; 2 Thessalonians 3:7–9
- 19 Colossians 3:24; 2 Corinthians 2:4; 2 Corinthians 4:7–11; Romans 12:11; Acts 20:3
- 20 Acts 20:27; 2 Timothy 4:2; Acts 5:42; Acts 20:31; Colossians 1:28
- 21 Acts 2:38; 1 John 5:11–13; Acts 11:18; Luke 13:3; Luke 24:47
- 22 James 4:14; 2 Corinthians 5:14; Luke 18:31–33; 2 Peter 1:14; Luke 9:51
- 23 Acts 9:16; Acts 21:4; 1 Thessalonians 3:3; Acts 14:22; Acts 21:33
- 24 2 Timothy 4:6–8; 2 Corinthians 12:10; 2 Corinthians 4:1; 1 Corinthians 15:58; Acts 21:13
- 25 Acts 28:31; Acts 20:38; Matthew 4:23; Matthew 4:17; Matthew 10:7
- 26 Acts 18:6; John 12:17; Ezekiel 3:18–21; Ezekiel 33:2–9; 1 Thessalonians 2:10–12
- 27 Acts 20:20; 1 Thessalonians 2:4; 2 Corinthians 4:2; Galatians 4:16; Jeremiah 23:22
- 28 1 Peter 5:2–3; 1 Timothy 4:16; 1 Peter 1:18–19; Isaiah 40:11; 1 Timothy 3:2
- 29 Matthew 7:15; 2 Peter 2:1; Luke 10:3; Acts 20:28; John 10:12
- 30 1 Timothy 1:19–20; 2 Timothy 4:3–4; Proverbs 23:33; 1 John 2:19; Proverbs 19:1
- 31 Acts 19:8; Acts 19:10; Acts 20:19; Ezekiel 3:17–20; Hebrews 13:17
- 32 Colossians 1:12; Ephesians 1:14; Acts 26:18; Colossians 3:24; Ephesians 1:18
- 33 2 Corinthians 11:9; 1 Corinthians 9:12; 1 Corinthians 9:18; 2 Corinthians 7:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:5
- 34 Acts 18:3; 1 Corinthians 4:12; 2 Thessalonians 3:8–9; Acts 19:22; 1 Thessalonians 2:9
- 35 Hebrews 13:16; Proverbs 19:17; 2 Corinthians 9:6–12; Luke 14:12–14; Matthew 10:8
- 36 Acts 21:5; Luke 22:41; Acts 7:60; Philippians 4:6; Daniel 6:10
- 37 2 Timothy 1:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:26; 2 Corinthians 13:12; Luke 15:20; 1 Corinthians 16:20
- 38 Acts 15:3; Acts 20:25; 1 Corinthians 16:11; Acts 21:16; Acts 21:5
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
There was need of much comforting after that uproar. Accordingly, having done this, he goes into Macedonia, and then into Greece. For, it says, "when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece, and there abode three months.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 11 (1889)
Moreover, ye were all distinguished by humility, and were in no respect puffed up with pride, but yielded obedience rather than extorted it, and were more willing to give than to receive. Content with the provision which God had made for you, and carefully attending to His words, ye were inwardly filled with His doctrine, and His sufferings were before …
Therefore also with regard to Paul, that he wept, that he did so three years night and day, both he hath said of himself, and others say this of him; but that he laughed, neither hath he said himself anywhere, neither hath so much as one other of the saints, either concerning him, or any other like him; but this …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
From this what perverse and impious dogmas have been imagined! What grievous wolves, tearing the flock of the Lord, have sprung from these words to cast themselves upon souls!
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 8 (1895)
Declaring this, Paul said, "Without were fightings, within were fears;" and, "In perils among false brethren;" and in his discourse to the Milesians too He said, "Also of you shall some arise speaking perverse things;" and He Himself too said, "The man's foes shall be they of his own household." But when He said, "It must needs be," it is …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)