Acts 20:19

πολλῶν before δακρύων omitted with אABDE. Not represented in Vulg.

19. δουλεύων τῷ κυρίῳ μετὰ πάσης ταπεινοφροσύνης, serving the Lord with all humility of mind. The verb is interesting when we remember how often St Paul calls himself in his Epistles δοῦλος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. Cf. Romans 1:1; Philippians 1:1; Titus 1:1.

καὶ δακρύων, and tears. The πολλῶν of the Text. recept. is a comment derived from the statement in Acts 20:31 below. In 2 Corinthians 2:4 St Paul uses διὰ πολλῶν δακρύων.

καὶ πειρασμῶν τῶν συμβάντων μοι ἐν ταῖς ἐπιβουλαῖς τῶν Ἰουδαίων, and with trials that befell me by the plots of the Jews. We could only see in the account of the tumult at Ephesus some indications how anxious the Jewish population were to make it plain that they had no sympathy with the Apostle who was so obnoxious to the Gentiles. Here we have an express declaration made before those who knew all the circumstances that plots had been laid against Paul’s life by the Jews. It did not fall in with St Luke’s purpose to tell us of them, but he manifestly knew about them, for he feels no difficulty in recording the Apostle’s own mention of them here, nor has he a thought that his narrative will be held for other than true, though men may point out here an allusion to events of which he had made no mention before. We cannot too often bear in mind that the book is not meant for a history of either one or other Apostle, but as a record of how the course of the Gospel was guided according to Christ’s injunction, (beginning at Jerusalem’ and ending when an Apostle had proclaimed Christ in the Imperial capital.