Acts 20:29. For I know this, that after my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. ‘Primum venit Paulus; deinde venient lupi' (Bengel). Two distinct classes of teachers who should arise after his departure are alluded to by Paul the ‘grievous wolves' who would come to Ephesus from other cities, and the ‘speakers of perverse things' who would arise from within.

It has been suggested with great probability that the apostle foresaw that his bitterest enemies would be the Judaizing teachers who came from a distance, and that they, who had injured him and his cause in past times, are hinted at here.

He seems to press home to them what he foresaw would surely come to pass, that after he had gone, other teachers of an entirely different character would come among them. The sad words of St. Paul in the last epistle of his life, some six years after these words were spoken, show how mournfully the prediction contained in these solemn warning words was verified: ‘This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me' (2 Timothy 1:15).

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Old Testament