Acts 20:16

ἔκρινε (see critical note) … παραπλεῦσαι τὴν Ἔ.: “to sail past Ephesus,” R.V., i.e., without stopping there. The words have sometimes been interpreted as if St. Paul had control over a ship which he had hired himself, and could stop where he pleased, so Alford, Hackett, Rendall. But if so, there seems no definite reason for his going to Miletus at all, as it would have been shorter for him to have stopped at Ephesus, or to have made his farewell address there. According to Ramsay the probabilities are that Paul experienced at Troas some delay in continuing his journey. In starting from Troas he had therefore to choose a vessel making no break in its voyage except at Miletus, or a vessel intending to stop at Ephesus, perhaps as its destination, perhaps with a previous delay elsewhere. He determined for the former by the shortness of the time, and his desire to reach Jerusalem. He may no doubt have been also influenced to some extent by the thought that it would be difficult to tear himself away from a Church which had so many claims upon him, and by the reflection that hostilities might be aroused against him and his progress further impeded (cf. McGiffert, p. 339, who thinks that the author's reason for St. Paul's desire not to visit Ephesus “is entirely satisfactory”). χρονοτριβ.: nowhere else in N.T. or in LXX, but in Arist., Plut. γένηται αὐτῷ, cf. Acts 11:26 for construction. ἔσπευδε γὰρ : if the verb expresses as the imperfect intimates the whole character of the journey (Blass, Gram., p. 216), the repeated long delays at first sight seem inexplicable, but we know nothing definitely of the special circumstances which may have occasioned each delay, and we must not lose sight of the fact that the Apostle would have to guard against the constant uncertainty which would be always involved in a coasting voyage. Whether St. Paul reached Jerusalem in time we are not told. St. Chrysostom maintained that he did, see also Ramsay, St. Paul, pp. 296, 297; McGiffert, p. 340 (on the other hand, Weiss, Renan, Felten). Mr. Turner, Chron. of N. T., p. 422, holds that the Apostle probably reached Jerusalem just in time, while Farrar sees in Acts 24:11 an intimation that he arrived on the very eve of the Feast. The Pentacostal Feast was the most crowded, most attended by foreigners, cf. Acts 2:1.