Through Macedonia and Greece
1 After the uproar had ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and having encouraged them and said farewell, he departed to travel to Macedonia.
2 And having passed through those regions and given them much encouragement, he came to Greece.
3 He spent three months there, and when a plot was formed against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia.
4 Accompanying him were Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe and Timothy, and from the province of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus.
5 These men went on ahead and were waiting for us in Troas.
6 And we sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and came to them in Troas within five days, where we stayed for seven days.
v.2: “Greece” here is Ἑλλάς (Hellas) — one of the few times Luke uses this term instead of the Roman provincial name “Achaia.” Paul almost certainly spent most of this three-month stay in Corinth, and it is during this period that he most likely wrote the Epistle to the Romans — arguably the most influential letter in Christian history — preparing the ground for his planned visit to Rome and onward to Spain.
v.3: The plot against Paul as he was about to board a ship to Syria is not elaborated, but the likely scenario is an ambush planned for the close quarters of a pilgrim ship heading to Jerusalem for Passover. Jewish travelers would have been numerous on such a vessel, and Paul’s enemies could have acted with impunity at sea. Paul’s decision to go overland through Macedonia instead was a significant detour — adding weeks to his journey.
v.4: This list of traveling companions is more significant than it first appears. These men represent churches from across Paul’s missionary territory: Berea, Thessalonica, Derbe, Lystra, and the province of Asia. They are almost certainly delegates accompanying the collection — the large financial gift Paul had been organizing from Gentile churches to the impoverished Jewish Christians in Jerusalem (see Romans 15:25–27, 1 Corinthians 16:1–4, 2 Corinthians 8–9). Each church sent its own representative to ensure accountability and to demonstrate the unity of Jewish and Gentile believers. This collection was one of Paul’s most important projects, and he staked a great deal on its reception.
ημῖν / ημεῖς (hēmōn / hēmeis) — v.5–6: The “we” passages resume here. Luke switches from “they” to “we,” indicating that the author has rejoined Paul’s company — apparently at Philippi, where the previous “we” section ended (16:17). This is generally taken as evidence that Luke (the traditional author) was personally present for the events that follow, and may have remained in Philippi during the intervening years to pastor the church there.
v.6: “After the days of Unleavened Bread” — i.e., after Passover. Luke dates events by the Jewish calendar, which tells us the group is observing Jewish festivals. The five-day crossing from Philippi (Neapolis) to Troas is notably slow; the same journey took only two days in favorable conditions (Acts 16:11). They were sailing against prevailing spring winds.
Eutychus at Troas
7 On the first day of the week, when we had gathered together to break bread, Paul was speaking to them, intending to depart the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.
8 Now there were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered.
9 And a young man named Eutychus, who was sitting on the windowsill, was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul kept talking on and on. Overcome by sleep, he fell from the third story and was picked up dead.
10 But Paul went down and fell upon him, and embracing him said, “Do not be alarmed — his life is in him.”
11 And having gone back up and broken the bread and eaten, he talked with them for a considerable time further, until daybreak, and so departed.
12 And they brought the boy home alive, and were immeasurably comforted.
τῇ μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων (tē mia tōn sabbatōn) — v.7: “The first day of the week” — literally “the first (day) of the Sabbaths.” This is one of the earliest references to Christians meeting on Sunday rather than Saturday. The stated purpose is “to break bread” (κλάσαι ἄρτον), which likely refers to the Lord’s Supper combined with a shared meal — what later tradition would call the agape feast. We are seeing the embryonic form of Sunday Christian worship.
v.7: Whether this “first day” means Sunday evening (by Roman reckoning, where the day begins at midnight) or Saturday evening (by Jewish reckoning, where the new day begins at sunset) is debated. If Jewish reckoning, the gathering began Saturday evening after Sabbath and ran past midnight into Sunday. If Roman reckoning, it was Sunday evening. Either way, the gathering went deep into the night.
λαμπάδες ἱκαναί (lampades hikanai) — v.8: “Many lamps” — Luke mentions this detail seemingly in passing, but it’s doing several things at once. Oil lamps in an enclosed upper room would have generated significant heat and consumed oxygen, making the atmosphere stuffy and contributing to Eutychus’s drowsiness. Some scholars also see Luke countering any potential suspicion of impropriety (secret meetings by night had a bad reputation), or simply painting the scene with eyewitness vividness — he remembers the heat and the flickering light.
νεανίας ... τὸν παῖδα (neanias ... ton paida) — vv.9, 12: Luke calls Eutychus a “young man” (νεανίας) in v.9 but a “boy” (παῖς) in v.12. The term νεανίας typically covers ages 8–24 or so, while παῖς leans younger. He was likely an adolescent — old enough to stay up but young enough to lose the battle with sleep.
καταφερόμενος ὕπνῳ βαθεῖ (katapheromenos hypnō bathei) — v.9: The language of falling asleep here is wonderfully layered. He was “being borne down” (καταφερόμενος) by “deep sleep” — the same downward motion foreshadows his literal fall. And “as Paul kept talking on and on” (διαλεγομένου τοῦ Παύλου ἐπὶ πλεῖον) carries a gentle note of “he just kept going.” Luke is not above a bit of loving humor at Paul’s expense.
ἤρθη νεκρός (ērthē nekros) — v.9: “Was picked up dead” — the question of whether Eutychus actually died or merely appeared dead has been debated since antiquity. Luke’s language is straightforward: νεκρός means “dead,” not “appearing dead.” A fall from the third story (ἀπὸ τοῦ τριστέγου) would have been roughly 30 feet. Paul’s action of falling on him and embracing him deliberately echoes the Old Testament prophets Elijah (1 Kings 17:21) and Elisha (2 Kings 4:34–35), both of whom raised the dead by stretching themselves over the body.
v.11: The detail that Paul went back upstairs, finished the meal, and kept talking until dawn is remarkable. A young man has just fallen to his death and been raised, and Paul’s response is to go back to dinner and keep preaching for another five or six hours. The congregation apparently goes along with this. The scene has an almost surreal quality — part miracle, part comedy, part portrait of a community so hungry for Paul’s teaching (knowing they’ll never see him again) that even a resurrection is just an interruption.
v.12: The name Eutychus (Εὔτυχος) means “Fortunate” or “Lucky.” It was a common name, especially among slaves and freedmen. Given what happens to him, the name reads like an understatement.
From Troas to Miletus
13 We went ahead to the ship and sailed to Assos, where we intended to take Paul aboard, for so he had arranged, intending to go by land himself.
14 And when he met us at Assos, we took him aboard and came to Mitylene.
15 And sailing from there, we arrived the following day opposite Chios; the next day we crossed over to Samos; and the day after that we came to Miletus.
16 For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in the province of Asia; for he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost.
v.13: Paul’s decision to walk overland from Troas to Assos while the rest of the group sailed is striking. The distance is about 20 miles on foot through hilly terrain. Why? Luke doesn’t say. Some speculate Paul wanted solitude to pray or think before the journey to Jerusalem, which he knew would be dangerous. Others suggest practical reasons — the road was more direct than the sea route around Cape Lectum. Whatever the reason, Paul chose to walk alone while his companions sailed, and Luke thought the detail worth recording.
vv.14–15: This is one of several voyage itineraries in Acts where Luke records daily progress in careful detail — Assos, Mitylene (on Lesbos), opposite Chios, Samos, then Miletus. The specificity reads like a travel diary. These island-hopping stops along the coast of Asia Minor were standard for ancient coastal navigation, which preferred to stay within sight of land and harbor each night.
v.16: Paul’s urgency to reach Jerusalem by Pentecost is significant. Pentecost fell fifty days after Passover, and they had already left Philippi after Passover (v.6). The clock was ticking. Paul bypasses Ephesus — a city he spent three years in and loved deeply — to save time. But he can’t leave the region without saying goodbye to its leaders, so he summons them to Miletus, about 30 miles south of Ephesus.
Paul’s Farewell to the Ephesian Elders
17 And from Miletus he sent word to Ephesus and summoned the elders of the church.
18 And when they came to him, he said to them: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the entire time from the first day I set foot in the province of Asia,
19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and trials that came upon me through the plots of the Jews;
20 how I did not shrink back from declaring to you anything that was profitable, teaching you publicly and from house to house,
21 solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus.
πρεσβυτέρους (presbyterous) — v.17: “Elders” — this is the term from which we get “presbyter” and eventually “priest.” In v.28, the same men are called ἐπισκόπους (episkopous, “overseers” or “bishops”). In this period, the two terms are interchangeable — the later distinction between “bishop” and “elder/priest” as separate offices had not yet developed. This is one of the key texts in debates about early church governance.
v.18–21: This speech is the only address in Acts directed to a Christian audience (all other speeches are evangelistic or apologetic). It functions as Paul’s last will and testament to church leaders he will never see again, and it reveals Paul in a deeply personal, emotionally unguarded mode. The speech has three parts: looking back (vv.18–21), looking ahead (vv.22–27), and looking to them (vv.28–35).
μετὰ δακρύων (meta dakryōn) — v.19: “With tears” — Paul mentions tears three times in this speech (vv.19, 31, 37). This is a side of Paul rarely seen in Acts but visible in his letters, where he writes about weeping over the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 2:4) and over enemies of the cross (Philippians 3:18). The tough, driven apostle was also a man who cried.
κατ’ οἴκους (kat’ oikous) — v.20: “From house to house” — this reveals the dual structure of Paul’s ministry: public teaching (in the synagogue, then the hall of Tyrannus) combined with private, home-based instruction. The early church met in homes, and the house church remained the basic unit of Christian community for nearly three centuries, until Constantine.
22 And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem bound in the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there,
23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me.
24 But I do not consider my life of any value to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus — to testify to the good news of the grace of God.
25 And now, behold, I know that none of you, among whom I went about proclaiming the kingdom, will ever see my face again.
26 Therefore I testify to you on this day that I am innocent of the blood of all people,
27 for I did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.
δεδεμένος τῷ πνεύματι (dedemenos tō pneumati) — v.22: “Bound in the Spirit” — the verb δέω (deō, to bind) is the same word used for being physically bound as a prisoner. Paul feels himself a prisoner of the Spirit, compelled to go to Jerusalem even though every prophetic warning tells him suffering awaits. The metaphor is striking: he is free and yet bound, walking voluntarily toward chains.
v.24: “I do not consider my life of any value to myself” — the Greek is terse and powerful: οὐδενὸς λόγου ποιοῦμαι τὴν ψυχήν, literally “I make my life of no account.” The word ψυχή (psychē) means both “life” and “soul” — Paul is not being morbid but expressing a complete reorientation of values. His life has meaning only insofar as it fulfills its assignment.
τὸν δρόμον (ton dromon) — v.24: “My course” — literally “the race” or “the running.” The athletic metaphor is one of Paul’s favorites (see also Philippians 3:14, 2 Timothy 4:7). He sees his life as a race to be completed, not a prize to be protected.
v.25: “None of you will ever see my face again” — this is the emotional center of gravity of the entire speech. Paul is saying goodbye forever, and he knows it. Whether this prediction proved absolutely true is debated — some scholars believe Paul was released from his first Roman imprisonment and did return to the East, while others believe he did not. But in this moment, Paul believes he is looking at these faces for the last time.
v.26: “I am innocent of the blood of all people” (καθαρός εἰμι ἀπὸ τοῦ αἵματος πάντων) — this echoes the watchman imagery from Ezekiel 33, which Paul also invoked in Acts 18:6. The watchman who faithfully sounds the alarm is not responsible for those who ignore it. Paul has delivered the message; the responsibility now rests on those who heard it.
πᾶσαν τὴν βουλὴν τοῦ θεοῦ (pasan tēn boulēn tou theou) — v.27: “The whole purpose of God” — βουλή (boulē) means “counsel,” “purpose,” or “plan.” Paul’s claim is not just that he preached the gospel but that he declared the complete plan of God, holding nothing back out of fear or people-pleasing. The word “whole” (πᾶσαν) is emphatic — all of it, the comfortable parts and the uncomfortable parts alike.
28 Keep watch over yourselves and over the entire flock, among which the Holy Spirit has placed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he obtained through his own blood.
29 I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.
30 And from among your own selves men will arise, speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.
31 Therefore be on the alert, remembering that for three years, night and day, I did not stop warning each one of you with tears.
32 And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who have been sanctified.
ἐπισκόπους ... ποιμαίνειν (episkopous ... poimainein) — v.28: Three ministry metaphors are stacked on top of each other here. The same men are called “overseers” (ἐπίσκοποι, from which we get “bishops”), told to “shepherd” (ποιμαίνειν, from which we get “pastor”), the “flock” (ποίμνιον). Overseer, shepherd, and elder are all applied to the same group of people. The later threefold distinction of bishop/priest/deacon is a development not yet visible here.
τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ θεοῦ (tēn ekklēsian tou theou) — v.28: “The church of God” — some ancient manuscripts read “the church of the Lord” (κυρίου), and others read “the church of the Lord and God.” The textual variant matters theologically because “which he obtained through his own blood” takes on different meanings depending on who “he” is. If “church of God,” the sentence appears to speak of God’s blood — an extraordinary theological claim. This is one of the most debated textual problems in the New Testament.
λύκοι βαρεῖς (lykoi bareis) — v.29: “Savage wolves” — literally “heavy” or “oppressive” wolves. The wolf-and-sheep metaphor comes from Jesus himself (Matthew 7:15, 10:16, John 10:12). Paul’s warning is double-edged: external threats (wolves coming “in among you”) and internal corruption (men arising “from your own selves”). The history of the Ephesian church suggests both threats materialized — the letters to Timothy (set in Ephesus) deal extensively with false teaching, and Revelation 2:1–7 commends Ephesus for testing false apostles but warns that it has “lost its first love.”
v.31: “Three years” is a round number for the period covering the three months in the synagogue, the two years in the hall of Tyrannus, and some additional time (19:8, 10, 22). “Night and day” combined with “each one” (ὕνα ἕκαστον) emphasizes both the relentlessness and the individuality of his pastoral care. Paul wasn’t just giving public lectures; he was counseling people one at a time.
v.32: “I commend you to God and to the word of his grace” — this is Paul’s formal handoff. He can no longer watch over them personally, so he entrusts them to two things: God himself and the message they have received. The “word of his grace” is not a book (the New Testament doesn’t exist yet as a collection) but the gospel message as Paul has taught it. This is the early church in its most elemental form — a community, a message, and God.
33 I have coveted no one’s silver or gold or clothing.
34 You yourselves know that these hands served my own needs and the needs of those who were with me.
35 In all things I showed you that by laboring in this way you must help the weak, and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
vv.33–34: Paul’s insistence on financial independence was strategic in Corinth (where traveling philosophers were notorious for exploiting patrons) and equally important in Ephesus. By holding up his own calloused hands (“these hands,” a dramatic physical gesture), Paul models a ministry that takes nothing and gives everything. The mention of “silver or gold or clothing” is not random — clothing was a significant store of wealth in the ancient world and could function almost like currency.
μακάριόν ἐστιν μᾶλλον διδόναι ἢ λαμβάνειν (makarion estin mallon didonai ē lambanein) — v.35: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” — this saying of Jesus is not found in any of the four Gospels. It is what scholars call an “agraphon” — an unwritten saying, a piece of oral tradition preserved outside the written Gospel accounts. Its presence here is a vivid reminder that the early church possessed far more teaching from Jesus than what was eventually written down. The Gospels themselves acknowledge this (John 21:25). Paul had access to traditions about Jesus that circulated orally for decades before the Gospels were composed.
The Farewell
36 And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all.
37 And there was much weeping among them all, and they fell on Paul’s neck and kissed him repeatedly,
38 grieving especially over the word he had spoken, that they would never see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.
ἐπιπεσόντες ἐπὶ τὸν τράχηλον τοῦ Παύλου κατεφίλουν αὐτόν (epipesontes epi ton trachēlon tou Paulou katephiloun auton) — v.37: “They fell on Paul’s neck and kissed him repeatedly” — the verb κατεφίλουν is an intensified, iterative form: they kept kissing him, again and again. The scene is raw and unrestrained. These are grown men — church leaders — weeping openly and clinging to Paul. In a culture where public displays of male emotion were more accepted than in many modern Western contexts, this scene would still have been striking for its intensity.
ὀδυνώμενοι (odynōmenoi) — v.38: “Grieving” — from ὀδύνη (odynē), meaning sharp pain, anguish. This is not gentle sadness; it’s the gut-level distress of bereavement. The word is used elsewhere for the pain of childbirth and the torment of the rich man in Jesus’s parable of Lazarus (Luke 16:24–25). The Ephesian elders are experiencing anticipatory grief — Paul is still alive, but they are mourning him as if he were already dead.
v.38: “They accompanied him to the ship” — the Greek προέπεμπον (“they sent him forward” or “escorted him”) was a formal act of honor in the ancient world. To escort a departing guest or dignitary to the harbor was a mark of profound respect. The Ephesian elders walk Paul down to the water, watch him board, and stand on the shore as the ship pulls away. Luke ends the scene at the waterline. It is one of the most quietly devastating moments in the New Testament.
General Notes on the Chapter
Acts 20 functions as a hinge point in the book. Everything before it moves outward — Paul planting churches, traveling to new cities, expanding the reach of the gospel. Everything after it moves inward — toward Jerusalem, toward arrest, toward trial, toward Rome. The Miletus speech is Paul’s own acknowledgment of the turn: the era of pioneering missionary work is over, and what lies ahead is suffering and testimony under constraint. The free man is becoming a prisoner.
The Miletus speech is often compared to Jesus’s farewell discourse in John 13–17 and to the farewell speeches common in ancient literature (Jacob in Genesis 49, Moses in Deuteronomy 31–33, Joshua in Joshua 23–24). The genre has consistent features: the departing leader reviews the past, warns of future dangers, commends the community to God, and models the values they should carry forward. Paul’s speech follows this pattern precisely.
The “we” sections throughout this chapter give it the quality of a first-person travel memoir. The daily sailing itinerary (vv.13–16), the detail about the lamps (v.8), the note about Paul walking while others sailed (v.13) — these are the kind of details that come from someone who was there and remembers what it was like. If Luke is indeed the narrator, this chapter is his closest companion’s account of watching Paul say goodbye to his life’s work.
The agraphon in v.35 (“It is more blessed to give than to receive”) is a reminder that the oral tradition about Jesus was vast and that the Gospels represent a selective, curated account. Paul, who never met Jesus during his earthly ministry, had access to sayings of Jesus through the oral tradition of the earliest community. The early church was not primarily a text-based movement — it was a community of memory, passing on what it had received by word of mouth, in worship, and in daily teaching. The written Gospels emerged from this living tradition, not the other way around.