Acts 20:20-27

20:20 You know that I did not hold back from proclaiming¹ to you anything that would be helpful,² and from teaching you publicly³ and from house to house, 20:21 testifying⁴ to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus.⁵ 20:22 And now,⁶ compelled⁷ by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem⁸ without knowing what will happen to me there,⁹ 20:23 except¹⁰ that the Holy Spirit warns¹¹ me in town after town¹² that¹³ imprisonment¹⁴ and persecutions¹⁵ are waiting for me. 20:24 But I do not consider my life¹⁶ worth anything¹⁷ to myself, so that¹⁸ I may finish my task¹⁹ and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news²⁰ of God’s grace.

20:25 “And now²¹ I know that none²² of you among whom I went around proclaiming the kingdom²³ will see me²⁴ again. 20:26 Therefore I declare²⁵ to you today that I am innocent²⁶ of the blood of you all.²⁷ 20:27 For I did not hold back from²⁸ announcing²⁹ to you the whole purpose³⁰ of God.

¹tn Or “declaring.”

²tn 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.

³tn Or “openly.”

⁴tn BDAG 233 s.v. διαμαρτύρομαι 1 has “testify of, bear witness to (orig. under oath)…of repentance to Judeans and Hellenes Ac 20:21.”

⁵tc 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.

⁶tn Grk “And now, behold.” Here ἰδού (idou) has not been translated.

⁷tn Grk “bound.”

⁸sn This journey to Jerusalem suggests a parallel between Paul and Jesus, since the “Jerusalem journey” motif figures so prominently in Luke’s Gospel (9:51-19:44).

⁹tn BDAG 965 s.v. συναντάω 2 has τὰ ἐν αὐτῇ συναντήσοντα ἐμοὶ μὴ εἰδώς without knowing what will happen to me there Ac 20:22.”

¹⁰tn BDAG 826 s.v. πλήν 1.d has “πλὴν ὅτι except that…Ac 20:23.”

¹¹tn The verb διαμαρτύρομαι (diamarturomai) can mean “warn” (BDAG 233 s.v. διαμαρτύρομαι 2 has “solemnly urge, exhort, warn…w. dat. of pers. addressed”), and this meaning better fits the context here, although BDAG categorizes Acts 20:23 under the meaning “testify of, bear witness to” (s.v. 1).

¹²tn The Greek text here reads κατὰ πόλιν (kata polin).

¹³tn Grk “saying that,” but the participle λέγον (legon) is redundant in English and has not been translated.

¹⁴tn Grk “bonds.”

¹⁵tn Or “troubles,” “suffering.” See Acts 19:21; 21:4, 11.

¹⁶tn Grk “soul.”

¹⁷tn Or “I do not consider my life worth a single word.” According to BDAG 599 s.v. λόγος 1.a.α, “In the textually uncertain pass. Ac 20:24 the text as it stands in N., οὐδενὸς λόγου (v.l. λόγον) ποιοῦμαι τὴν ψυχὴν τιμίαν, may well mean: I do not consider my life worth a single word (cp. λόγου ἄξιον [ἄξιος 1a] and our ‘worth mention’).”

¹⁸tn BDAG 1106 s.v. ὡς 9 describes this use as “a final particle, expressing intention/purpose, with a view to, in order to.”

¹⁹tn Grk “course.” See L&N 42.26, “(a figurative extension of meaning of δρόμος ‘race’) a task or function involving continuity, serious, effort, and possibly obligation – ‘task, mission’…Ac 20:24.” On this Pauline theme see also Phil 1:19-26; Col 1:24; 2 Tim 4:6-7.

²⁰tn Or “to the gospel.”

²¹tn Grk “And now, behold.” Here ἰδού (idou) has not been translated.

²²tn Grk “all of you…will not see.” Greek handles its negation somewhat differently from English, and the translation follows English grammatical conventions.

²³sn Note how Paul’s usage of the expression proclaiming the kingdom is associated with (and intertwined with) his testifying to the good news of God’s grace in v. 24. For Paul the two concepts were interrelated.

²⁴tn Grk “will see my face” (an idiom for seeing someone in person).

²⁵tn Or “testify.”

²⁶tn Grk “clean, pure,” thus “guiltless” (BDAG 489 s.v. καθαρός 3.a).

sn I am innocent. Paul had a clear conscience, since he had faithfully carried out his responsibility of announcing to (the Ephesians) the whole purpose of God.

²⁷tn That is, “that if any of you should be lost, I am not responsible” (an idiom). According to L&N 33.223, the meaning of the phrase “that I am innocent of the blood of all of you” is “that if any of you should be lost, I am not responsible.” However, due to the length of this phrase and its familiarity to many modern English readers, the translation was kept closer to formal equivalence in this case. The word “you” is not in the Greek text, but is implied; Paul is addressing the Ephesian congregation (in the person of its elders) in both v. 25 and 27.

²⁸tn Or “did not avoid.” BDAG 1041 s.v. ὑποστέλλω 2.b has “shrink from, avoid implying fear…οὐ γὰρ ὑπεστειλάμην τοῦ μὴ ἀναγγεῖλαι I did not shrink from proclaiming Ac 20:27”; L&N 13.160 has “to hold oneself back from doing something, with the implication of some fearful concern – ‘to hold back from, to shrink from, to avoid’…‘for I have not held back from announcing to you the whole purpose of God’ Ac 20:27.”

²⁹tn Or “proclaiming,” “declaring.”

³⁰tn Or “plan.”