Acts 20:18

And … he said unto 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.

Ye know The pronoun is emphatically expressed, and for this reason the Rev. Ver.says, "Ye yourselves know." Had St Luke been giving the speech in substance, his Greek training would have made him commence, as he so often does, "Men andbrethren." 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.

from the first day that I came into Asia The Rev. Ver.brings out the force of the Greek verb "I set foot in." 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.

after what manner I have been with you at all seasons The A.V. neither represents duly the last noun, which is singular, nor the tense of the verb. Read (with Rev. Ver.) I was with you all the time. The Apostle is appealing to his behaviour from first to last during his residence in Asia. It is not that he had been with them at all seasons which he desires to note, but howhe had borne himself while he was among them.