What is generally called Paul’s “Third Missionary Journey” begins when he leaves Antioch in Acts 18:23. Chapters 20 to 21:15, the boundaries of this posting, constitute the last part of this long narrative unit. But since Paul spent over three years in Ephesus, and his itinerary from that point on was not planned at the outset of the “third” journey, we are justified in seeing it as a discreet unit. I will therefore call it “this trip” in what follows.
Paul departs on his second journey to Europe (20:1-6)
In the last chapter we saw how Paul barely escaped injury in the riot instigated by the artisans of the temple of Artemis in Ephesus, because the success of the gospel in that city was cutting into the profits from visiting worshipers at the Temple of Artemis.
After the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia. 2 When he had gone through those regions and had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece (i.e., Corinth). 3 There he spent three months, and when a plot was made against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. 4 Sopater of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus from Berea, accompanied him; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus. 5 These went on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas, 6 but we sailed away from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days we came to them at Troas, where we stayed for seven days (Acts 20:1-6 ESV).20:1-6 Luke’s account here is only a truncated itinerary with notes as to who was with Paul. This trip was originally planned (with guidance from the Holy Spirit, ἔθετο ... ἐν τῷ πνεύματι) as taking the following route: Macedonia, Achaia, Jerusalem, and Rome (Acts 19:21-22). There were three purposes Paul had in mind for this trip: (1) While in Ephesus, Paul had heard of problems at Corinth and had written a strong and painful letter to them (2Cor 7:8). He was worried about how they might respond, and Titus was to meet him in Troas to bring word of the church’s response to that letter (2Cor 2:12-13). (2) Secondly, for a long time he had been planning to have a group of Gentile delegates from the churches he had founded accompany him to Jerusalem for the Passover and deliver to the Jerusalem believers a generous gift of money to help them feed themselves and carry on their evangelistic work among the Jews of Palestine. This, Paul hoped, would help to cement a good relationship between the predominantly Jewish churches of Palestine with the Gentile-dominated ones in Syria (Antioch), Asia Minor and Greece, many of which he had founded. (3) And thirdly, Paul wished to show by his own example of worshiping in Jerusalem in all the traditional Jewish ways that his fight to keep Gentile converts from being required to become Jews in order to be saved did not mean that he was discouraging Jewish converts from continuing to follow OT forms of worship, including sacrifice. In other words, he wished this Passover pilgrimage to build unity in the young Church.
Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, 13 I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said good-by to them and went on to Macedonia. … 5 … when we came into Macedonia, this body of ours had no rest, but we were harassed at every turn—conflicts on the outside, fears within. 6 But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, 7 and not only by his coming but also by the comfort you had given him. He told us about your longing for me, your deep sorrow, your ardent concern for me, so that my joy was greater than ever (2Cor. 2:12-13; 7:5-7).Luke fails to give us some important background information, which we must retrieve from Paul's own letters, such as the historical note above. When Paul reached Troas, he did not find Titus there (2Cor 2:12). Purpose #1 seemed to be in jeopardy.
It has been speculated that Titus missed the last boat from Corinth to Troas before navigation ceased for the winter (W.L. Knox cited by Bruce, Acts [Greek] 369), and had been forced to travel by land northward through Greece to meet Paul in Philippi in Macedonia. There Paul found him and was heartened with the news that the Corinthian church had received his rebuke in the “painful” letter in a good spirit and had dealt with the abuses as he had asked them to. All was well in Corinth. Purpose #1 was now accomplished! Thanks be to God!
Purpose #2: The Collection for the Jerusalem Church. For some reason Luke is silent about the second purpose: the collection of funds from Paul’s churches as a gift to the Jerusalem saints. We know of this activity at this time from Paul’s own letters. And although Luke is quiet about it, the fact that he records the men who accompanied Paul — two from each of the regions where he had founded churches — makes it clear that Paul was in fact gathering local delegates and funds for this purpose.
Timothy and Erastus had been sent to Macedonia, the first stop, as advance men. Luke’s conciseness must not mislead us into thinking this was a lightning trip covering only a few months. "Those regions" — (so correctly NRSV, ESV; NIV’s “that area” obscures the plural in the Greek) — shows that more than just Philippi, Thessalonica and Beroea were included. And “many words of encouragement” (NIV; Greek λόγῳ πολλῷ) indicates what Johnson (Acts 354), Witherington (Acts), and others refer to as “many speeches”, probably one or two major addresses in each of a number of cities and regions.
“Just how long Paul stayed in Macedonia we do not know. Luke’s words seem to suggest a fairly prolonged period. It was probably during this time that the Gospel entered the province of Illyricum in the northwest corner of the Balkan peninsula (Ro 15:19; cf. also 2Ti 4:10, where Titus is mentioned as returning to Dalmatia, the southern district of the province of Illyricum). — [HH: Illyricum is shown in the upper left quarter of the map at the top of this posting, located where Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia are today.] — Perhaps Paul himself traveled across the Balkan peninsula on the Via Egnatia to the city of Dyrrhachium. It is probable that this ministry in Macedonia lasted for a year or more, from the summer of 56 through the latter part of 57” (NIV Comm.)After a three-month visit to Corinth in Achaia (v. 2-3), Paul discovered a plot to kill him while sailing to Jerusalem. In Corinth he had influential friends in high governmental positions to protect him. At sea—especially on a ship bound directly for Syria, perhaps filled with Jewish pilgrims— he would be vulnerable to assassination. So he changed his plans and set out with seven men of his traveling party, members of which represented the churches on his route: Beroea, Thessalonica, Ephesus (Province of Asia) and Derbe.
Acts 20:3 in the Codex Bezae ("D") of Acts (the so-called "Western" text) indicates that Paul's change of plans was—like the original planned route (19:21-22)— the result of the leading of the Holy Spirit: “And when he had spent three months there, and a plot was laid against him by the Jews he wished to sail for Syria. But the Spirit said to him to return through Macedonia, therefore …" (The bolded blue parts of the above translation of Codex Bezae represent its additions to the Greek text on which all current versions of the New Testament are based.)
Many scholars believe that the differences between Codex Bezae and the other texts are not due to scribal additions or errors, but to Luke’s own revision of his earlier manuscript. They represent therefore authentic information from the author himself. You can read a complete English translation of Codex Bezae's Acts material online by clicking here.
Since part of the purpose for this trip was to collect funds to aid the poor and hungry saints in Jerusalem, these local representatives were helpful in taking charge of the contributions raised from each area (so L. T. Johnson, Acts 355). The lack of a Corinthian representative may indicate strained relations with that church, while Luke who joined the travelers in Philippi (the "they" of v. 5 becomes "we" in v. 6) may have represented that church.
5-6 Having been unable to get to Jerusalem for Passover, Paul remained at Philippi to celebrate it and the week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread. He sent his Gentile companions ahead to Troas and stayed on at Philippi, apparently with Silas and Timothy.
"The fact that the delegation travels together ahead of Paul and then makes rendezvous with him again suggests its real role as one of arranging the delivery of the collection to the Jerusalem Church (Rom 15:25-27)" (Johnson, Acts 355).Then after the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the missionaries—accompanied by Luke (note the “we” section of vv. 5-15)—went down to Neapolis, the port city of Philippi, and crossed the Aegean to Troas. It was evidently a difficult crossing because it took five days instead of two days as earlier (Acts 16:11).
Paul's enthusiasm at Troas leads to an accident (v. 7-12)
On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. 8 There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting. 9 Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. 10 Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!” 11 Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. 12 The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted (Acts 20:7-12).The unique blend of loyal Judaism and fervent messianic Christianity in Paul is exemplified in the rapid transition from longing to reach Jerusalem to celebrate the Pesach and the dating of the time spent in Philippi as "the days of Unleavened Bread" (v. 6) to the celebration in Troas of the Eucharist on the Lord's Day, the "first day of the week" (v. 7).
Although we cannot deny Luke the right to a sense of humor, it is unlikely that in a book as short as The Acts of the Apostles, which after all had a serious purpose, that he would include an episode like this just to get a laugh out of Theophilus. The mention of the torches in the crowded house suggests that Eutychus' falling asleep may have had more of a biochemical cause (lack of oxygen, warmth) than simply being literally "bored to death" by Paul's prolonged speech.
There is no hint that Paul took the incident as a rebuke for long-windedness. Nor were the people troubled by the meeting’s length. They were eager to learn and only had Paul with them a short time. It was an evening of great significance for the church at Troas: Paul had taught them, they had fellowshiped together in the Lord’s Supper, and they had witnessed a dramatic sign of God’s presence and power. No wonder Luke says that they “were greatly comforted.” (NIV Comm.)When Luke makes the closing comment that they "were not a little comforted" (παρεκλήθησαν οὐ μετρίως), there is a pun in the Greek, since the verb "comfort" used here (παρακαλεω) is the verb regularly used of Paul's addresses to the believers (Acts 14:22; 15:32; 16:39-40)!
Why then does Luke include this story? Perhaps to show how spiritually hungry these new Christians were for the kind of teaching that Paul could give them. Hungry enough to stay up into the wee hours of the morning to hear him, after many of them had put in a complete day (even on the Lord's day) of backbreaking work. This is the kind of spiritual hunger that Paul alluded to in 2 Cor 2:12, where he says that God had given him an “open door” for the gospel in Troas on his previous visit to the city.
We sail to Miletus
We went on ahead to the ship and sailed for Assos, where we were going to take Paul aboard. He had made this arrangement because he was going there on foot. 14 When he met us at Assos, we took him aboard and went on to Mitylene. 15 The next day we set sail from there and arrived off Kios. The day after that we crossed over to Samos, and on the following day arrived at Miletus. 16 Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia, for he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost (Acts 20:13-16).When he had arrived in Corinth, Paul had doubtless hoped to sail to Jerusalem in time to celebrate Passover there. But the plot mentioned above forced him to change his travel plans and proceed north overland. He spent Passover/Unleavened Bread in Philippi, and resumed his travels down the western coast of Asia Minor on a schedule to reach Jerusalem in time to celebrate Pentecost (Hebrew hag ha-shavu'ot) 50 days later. When his ship stopped at Miletus to unload and reload cargo, Paul knew he didn’t have time to travel to Ephesus and back, lest his ship sail without him. Therefore he arranged for the leaders of the congregations (the "elders") to come to Miletus for a conference with him. Since Luke by hindsight (and Paul by foresight!) knew that this would be Paul's last face-to-face contact with that important church, he preserves for us here his synopsis of what Paul said to the elders.
Paul's moving farewell message to the elders of Ephesus (20:17-38)
This is another of Luke's edited speeches (or synopses). It is no insult to him as a historian or to the Holy Spirit who inspired this book to recognize that Luke's purpose was not to give a verbatim transcript. Having said that, the present text certainly has the rambling character of a real speech. In it Paul doubles back several times to say the same thing he has said before. It gives the impression of precisely the emotional intensity of the occasion: a man sensing he will never see these people again on earth for whom and with whom he has labored long in the bonds of the gospel (v. 25).
First of all, Paul explains where he is going next and why. He goes to Jerusalem (v. 22) and after that probably to Rome. He goes "compelled by the (Holy) Spirit" (v. 23 δεδεμένος … τῷ πνεύματι). The comment in the NIV Study Bible states the case well and concisely:
Paul did not go to Jerusalem against the direction of the Spirit, as some have suggested, but because of the guidance of the Spirit. People pleaded with him not to go (21:4,12), not because the Spirit prohibited his going but because the Spirit revealed the capture that awaited him there (21:11-12).He is well aware, and lets his hearers know he is, that dangers await him (v. 23 "imprisonment and afflictions") and most likely at the end death (v. 24).
Knowing that this will be the last time he will see these believers and their churches, he wants to remind them of the tenor and purpose of his ministry among them and give them final warnings. He reminds them that he has not held back from them any truth or teaching that is spiritually and theologically helpful to them (vv. 20-21, 26-27). In the future they must give heed to all that he has taught them (v. 32 "the message of His [i.e., God's] grace") and beware of those future teachers (he calls them "savage wolves", v. 29) who will seek to undermine and distort this precious heritage of Christian truth (vv. 28-32). This warning will henceforth be heavy on Paul's mind, and it shows up frequently in his later letters, such as 1 and 2 Timothy.
In vv. 33-35 Paul reprises the final words of great spiritual leaders from the Old Testament, such as Samuel (1 Sam 12:1-5), by giving an account of his blameless behavior among the flock, challenging them to cite any dishonest behavior, whether dishonesty in speech (lying, distorting, flattering) or in monetary matters (embezzling funds intended for the poor, etc.). Paul rarely accepted money or goods to support himself, preferring to work at his trade and labor in the gospel free of charge. This too he reminds them.
The brothers at Tyre warn Paul not to go to Jerusalem
After we had torn ourselves away from them, we put out to sea and sailed straight to Cos. The next day we went to Rhodes and from there to Patara. 2 We found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, went on board and set sail. 3 After sighting Cyprus and passing to the south of it, we sailed on to Syria. We landed at Tyre, where our ship was to unload its cargo. 4 Finding the disciples there, we stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. 5 But when our time was up, we left and continued on our way. All the disciples and their wives and children accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray. 6 After saying good-by to each other, we went aboard the ship, and they returned home. Acts 21:7 We continued our voyage from Tyre and landed at Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and stayed with them for a day. 8 Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. 9 He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied. 10 After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’” 12 When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14 When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.” (Acts 21:1-6)The “we”s show that Luke is part of the traveling party here. Was Tyre a church that Paul and Barnabas had a role in founding or at least ministering to? Its location not far south of Antioch makes this quite possible. Regardless, it is clear how affectionately attached to Paul the believers there were. This fact also mirrors the affection felt for him by the Ephesian elders in Miletus (Acts 20:36-37), where he had to “tear himself away” from them (literally in the Greek) in order to depart (so Bruce, Acts 438; cf. also With. Acts 629).
One manifestation of their love was the earnest warnings members of the group gave to Paul not to go on to Jerusalem (v. 4). Luke says that these warnings were given “through the [Holy] Spirit” (διὰ τοῦ πνεύματος), but as Keener (Bible Background Comm., 385) observes, the Greek expression here is not Luke’s normal way of describing the Holy Spirit speaking through someone. Therefore Longenecker (Acts 516) and others favor what is called an “occasional” use of Greek διὰ “through”, meaning that on the occasion that the Spirit was warning of the dangers Paul would face on this trip that the Spirit had originally told him to take (Acts 19:21; 20:22), some members of the congregation warned him not to go. See also my remarks below on Agabus.
At Caesarea, Agabus prophesies
The stopover in Ptolemais (OT Acco) was motivated not only by travel logistics, but because there was a Christian community there as well (Acts 11:19).
8-9 In Caesarea Paul and his party stayed in the home of Philip “the evangelist”, one of “the Seven” who were chosen in Acts 6-7 to see to the distribution of food to the widows of the Greek-speaking believers, and who brought the gospel to Samaria and to the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8). Although he has four unmarried daughters with the “gift of prophecy”, it is not they but a man named Agabus whose prophecy is mentioned in vv. 10-11. It has been suggested (by I. R. Reimer, Women in the Acts, 249) that Agabus had just come from Jerusalem (in Acts 11:27 Jerusalem is given as his home base) and could give prophetic insight into what awaited Paul there.
Here in Agabus’ prophecy we are confronted with a prediction made by a Christian “prophet” with all the trappings of OT prophecy, including acting it out (v. 11, compare Jer 19:1-13; Ezek 4:1-17). David Aune (Prophecy in early Christianity and the ancient Mediterranean world [1983]) comments:
“Symbolic actions performed by Christian prophets are very rare. Agabus appears to have been allowed an unusual degree of freedom in his activity; that is implied by his unusual action of taking Paul's girdle, or belt, and binding himself with it. After binding himself Agabus correlates his action with the impending fate of Paul by using the adverb houtōs, "thus," "in this manner," a linguistic feature which also characterized the symbolic prophetic actions in the OT” (p. 263).And he further adds:
“[I]n form this oracle has little relationship to OT prophetic speech forms, which nearly always provide a reason (Begründung) for the threat in terms of an accusation. That form is clearly irrelevant here, where the fate of Paul cannot be construed as a divine threat”.In Jerusalem Paul is warmly welcomed by the Believers (21:15-16)
“The content of the oracle deserves some discussion. Agabus does not tell Paul to take a particular course of action, nor does he forbid him to journey to Jerusalem. His oracle is wholly predictive; it simply warns Paul of what will transpire if he follows a certain course of action: he will be arrested and turned over to the Romans. While the oracle in its present form is not syntactically conditional, it seems understood that the predicted fate could be avoided if Paul were to stay away from Jerusalem. At least that is how Luke undoubtedly understood the oracle, since Paul's companions in Acts 21:12-14 are depicted as actively attempting to dissuade Paul from proceeding on to Jerusalem” (p. 264).
After this, we got ready and went up to Jerusalem. 16 Some of the disciples from Caesarea accompanied us and brought us to the home of Mnason, where we were to stay. He was a man from Cyprus and one of the early disciples (Acts 21:15 ).Luke often incidentally introduces us to someone who sounds fascinating, and we would wish to know more about him. Such a man is this Mnason. His name is Greek, and he is from Cyprus, both of which imply that he belongs to the Hellenist wing of the early Church. Yet he is called here “one of the earliest disciples”. Does this mean that he was a Jew and a disciple in the days of Jesus’ earthly ministry? Or does it mean one of those converted when Peter preached at Pentecost (Acts 2)? Most likely the latter. Luke as a historian is aware of the distance in time between the events he is now narrating and those of his second chapter. What happened then qualifies as the “earliest” period, even though Acts is the second of the two-volume work, the first of which was his gospel. Furthermore, the very fact that he has a home in Jerusalem large enough to house Paul’s entire traveling party shows that he was a wealthy Jew who, although he was born on Cyprus, had lived in Jerusalem most of his life—like Barnabas.
The large number of Gentile believers accompanying Paul might have made last-minute hospitality in a Jewish Christian’s Jerusalem home awkward. Paul and his friends must have known that Mnason held to their more tolerant views regarding uncircumcised believers in Jesus, and sent someone ahead to Mnason’s house to arrange for lodging. Either that, or Mnason might have been in Caesarea and accompanied the party to Jerusalem himself.
Many commentators have pointed out that the last stages of Paul's journey— when so many sincere Christians tried to dissuade him from going to Jerusalem, where death may await him, and where many of them believed that he was doing this contrary to the will of God — are crafted by Luke in such a way as to remind the readers of Jesus' last days going to Jerusalem to His death and resurrection, against the advice of all of his disciples. If so, then Luke is reminding us that Paul models for every Christian the "way of the cross" that true Christian discipleship entails. Jesus said "whoever wishes to follow me must take up his/her cross and follow me". Paul and Luke knew that this meant a willingness to suffer for the sake of the gospel, whatever form that suffering might take. It is a lesson for us today!
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