Verses 17-35
Acts 20:17-Habakkuk : . Paul’ s Speech to the Elders of Ephesus at Miletus.— See Ramsay, art. “ Miletus” in HDB, as to the difficulties of the journey at that period from Miletus to Ephesus; one had to sail to Priene and make from there a journey of 25 miles across the mountains to Ephesus. The elders or presbyters ( mg.) , afterwards called “ bishops” or “ overseers” ( Acts 20:28), make the toilsome journey, and Paul addresses them. We have had Paul addressing Jews (ch. 13 ) and Gentiles (ch. 17 ); here he addresses Christian office-bearers at a solemn point of his life. This speech hardly stood as we have it in the source; still there are things in it which do belong to this situation and to no other; some heads of it might be in the source, which have been worked up later with hints from Paul’ s epistles and other writings, and with reference, as we shall see, to later circumstances in the Church. The whole is in a fine style and in a warm tone of sentiment. There is an entire absence of specific Pauline ideas, but there is much in it that Paul could say and did say ( cf. Cambridge Biblical Essays, pp. 401 ff.).
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