Acts 20:19

serving … humility of mind The Rev. Ver.here has "lowliness of mind," as the word is rendered Philippians 2:3, but the version is not consistent, for the same rendering is not kept (Colossians 3:12) where it might just as well have been. Probably the translators of 1611 did not like the collocation all lowliness. St Paul is careful to point out that the service in which he spent himself was done unto the Lord as His Apostle.

and with many tears The oldest authorities omit "many." The adjective is a comment from the statement in Acts 20:31. In 2 Corinthians 2:4 St Paul says "I wrote unto you with manytears."

and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews The old sense of "temptation" is lost. Read (with Rev. Ver.) "and with trials … by the plots of the Jews. We could only see in the account of the tumult at Ephesus that there were some indications that the Jewish population were anxious 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 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.