Acts 20:18

εἶπεν αὐτοῖς, he said to them. This is the only speech recorded in the Acts of the Apostles which we can be sure that the writer heard St Paul make. This is probably the reason why we have it somewhat in detail, and why it is so marked, as we shall see it is, with expressions that are to be found in the Apostle’s letters. While giving other speeches in abstract St Luke employs his own diction or that of some who were his authorities.

ὑμεῖς ἐπίστασθε, ye yourselves know. The pronoun is expressed emphatically, and should be represented. Had St Luke been giving the speech in substance, his Greek training would have made him commence, as he so often does, Ἄνδρες�. That he has not done so in the speech which he gathered from St Paul’s own lips is an evidence of a faithful reporter.

ἀπὸ πρώτης ἡμέρας�' ἧς, from the first day that. The repetition of the preposition in the relative clause is not common. The more usual form is either to omit the second preposition or to write ἀφ' ἧς ἡμέρας, but when πρώτης was to be used this was not very practicable. We must understand ἡμέρας with the relative to make the grammar complete.

ἐπέβην εἰς τὴν Ἀσίαν, I set foot in Asia. The Apostle is appealing not only to what he had done in Ephesus itself, but to what they had heard of his labours elsewhere in Asia. Ephesus was no doubt the greatest centre of Christian life in Proconsular Asia, and all that was done elsewhere would be reported there, and the lesser Churches would seek for intercommunion with a Church in which they could learn so much of what St Paul had taught.

πῶς μεθ' ὑμῶν τὸν πάντα χρόνον ἐγενόμην, after what manner I was with you all the time, i.e. all the time which I spent with you. The Apostle calls to their remembrance how he had borne himself during all the period of his ministry in Asia.