Kisah Para Rasul 20:17-27

20:17 From Miletus ¹  he sent a message ²  to Ephesus, telling the elders of the church to come to him. ³ 

20:18 When they arrived, he said to them, “You yourselves know how I lived ⁴  the whole time I was with you, from the first day I set foot ⁵  in the province of Asia, ⁶  20:19 serving the Lord with all humility ⁷  and with tears, and with the trials that happened to me because of the plots ⁸  of the Jews. 20:20 You know that I did not hold back from proclaiming ⁹  to you anything that would be helpful, ¹⁰  and from teaching you publicly ¹¹  and from house to house, 20:21 testifying ¹²  to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus. ¹³  20:22 And now, ¹⁴  compelled ¹⁵  by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem ¹⁶  without knowing what will happen to me there, ¹⁷  20:23 except ¹⁸  that the Holy Spirit warns ¹⁹  me in town after town ²⁰  that ²¹  imprisonment ²²  and persecutions ²³  are waiting for me. 20:24 But I do not consider my life ²⁴  worth anything ²⁵  to myself, so that ²⁶  I may finish my task ²⁷  and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news ²⁸  of God’s grace.

20:25 “And now ²⁹  I know that none ³⁰  of you among whom I went around proclaiming the kingdom ³¹  will see me ³²  again. 20:26 Therefore I declare ³³  to you today that I am innocent ³⁴  of the blood of you all. ³⁵  20:27 For I did not hold back from ³⁶  announcing ³⁷  to you the whole purpose ³⁸  of God.

[20:17]  ¹ sn Miletus was a seaport on the western coast of Asia Minor about 45 mi (72 km) south of Ephesus.

[20:17]  ² tn The words “a message” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context, but must be supplied for the modern English reader.

[20:17]  ³ tn The words “to him” are not in the Greek text but are implied. L&N 33.311 has for the verb μετακαλέομαι (metakaleomai) “to summon someone, with considerable insistence and authority – ‘to summon, to tell to come.’”

[20:18]  ⁴ 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.

[20:18]  ⁵ 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.”

[20:18]  ⁶ tn Grk “Asia”; see the note on this word in v. 16.

[20:19]  ⁷ sn On humility see 2 Cor 10:1; 11:7; 1 Thess 2:6; Col 3:12; Eph 4:2; Phil 2:3-11.

[20:19]  ⁸ sn These plots are mentioned in Acts 9:24; 20:13.

[20:20]  ⁹ tn Or “declaring.”

[20:20]  ¹⁰ 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.

[20:20]  ¹¹ tn Or “openly.”

[20:21]  ¹² 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.”

[20:21]  ¹³ 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.

[20:21]  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.

[20:22]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “And now, behold.” Here ἰδού (idou) has not been translated.

[20:22]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “bound.”

[20:22]  ¹⁶ sn 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).

[20:22]  ¹⁷ tn 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.”

[20:23]  ¹⁸ tn BDAG 826 s.v. πλήν 1.d has “πλὴν ὅτι except that…Ac 20:23.”

[20:23]  ¹⁹ tn 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).

[20:23]  ²⁰ tn The Greek text here reads κατὰ πόλιν (kata polin).

[20:23]  ²¹ tn Grk “saying that,” but the participle λέγον (legon) is redundant in English and has not been translated.

[20:23]  ²² tn Grk “bonds.”

[20:23]  ²³ tn Or “troubles,” “suffering.” See Acts 19:21; 21:4, 11.

[20:24]  ²⁴ tn Grk “soul.”

[20:24]  ²⁵ tn 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’).”

[20:24]  ²⁶ tn BDAG 1106 s.v. ὡς 9 describes this use as “a final particle, expressing intention/purpose, with a view to, in order to.”

[20:24]  ²⁷ tn 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.

[20:24]  ²⁸ tn Or “to the gospel.”

[20:25]  ²⁹ tn Grk “And now, behold.” Here ἰδού (idou) has not been translated.

[20:25]  ³⁰ tn Grk “all of you…will not see.” Greek handles its negation somewhat differently from English, and the translation follows English grammatical conventions.

[20:25]  ³¹ sn 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.

[20:25]  ³² tn Grk “will see my face” (an idiom for seeing someone in person).

[20:26]  ³³ tn Or “testify.”

[20:26]  ³⁴ tn Grk “clean, pure,” thus “guiltless” (BDAG 489 s.v. καθαρός 3.a).

[20:26]  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.

[20:26]  ³⁵ tn 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.

[20:27]  ³⁶ tn 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.”

[20:27]  ³⁷ tn Or “proclaiming,” “declaring.”

[20:27]  ³⁸ tn Or “plan.”