Acts 20:18-21

20:18 When they arrived, he said to them, “You yourselves know how I lived 1  the whole time I was with you, from the first day I set foot 2  in the province of Asia, 3  20:19 serving the Lord with all humility 4  and with tears, and with the trials that happened to me because of the plots 5  of the Jews. 20:20 You know that I did not hold back from proclaiming 6  to you anything that would be helpful, 7  and from teaching you publicly 8  and from house to house, 20:21 testifying 9  to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus. 10 

1 tn Grk “You yourselves know, from the first day I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time.” This could be understood to mean “how I stayed with you the whole time,” but the following verses make it clear that Paul’s lifestyle while with the Ephesians is in view here. Thus the translation “how I lived the whole time I was with you” makes this clear.

2 tn Or “I arrived.” BDAG 367 s.v. ἐπιβαίνω 2, “set foot in…εἰς τ. ᾿Ασίαν set foot in Asia Ac 20:18.” However, L&N 15.83 removes the idiom: “you know that since the first day that I came to Asia.”

3 tn Grk “Asia”; see the note on this word in v. 16.

4 sn On humility see 2 Cor 10:1; 11:7; 1 Thess 2:6; Col 3:12; Eph 4:2; Phil 2:3-11.

5 sn These plots are mentioned in Acts 9:24; 20:13.

6 tn Or “declaring.”

7 tn Or “profitable.” BDAG 960 s.v. συμφέρω 2.b.α has “τὰ συμφέροντα what advances your best interests or what is good for you Ac 20:20,” but the broader meaning (s.v. 2, “to be advantageous, help, confer a benefit, be profitable/useful”) is equally possible in this context.

8 tn Or “openly.”

9 tn BDAG 233 s.v. διαμαρτύρομαι 1 has “testify of, bear witness to (orig. under oath)…of repentance to Judeans and Hellenes Ac 20:21.”

10 tc Several mss, including some of the more important ones (Ì74 א Α C [D] E 33 36 323 945 1175 1241 1505 1739 pm and a number of versions), read Χριστόν (Criston, “Christ”) at the end of this verse. This word is lacking in B H L P Ψ 614 pm. Although the inclusion is supported by many earlier and better mss, internal evidence is on the side of the omission: In Acts, both “Lord Jesus” and “Lord Jesus Christ” occur, though between 16:31 and the end of the book “Lord Jesus Christ” appears only in 28:31, perhaps as a kind of climactic assertion. Thus, the shorter reading is to be preferred.

sn Repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus. Note the twofold description of the message. It is a turning to God involving faith in Jesus Christ.