Acts 20:25

Shall see my face no more] St. Paul is not here speaking as a prophet, but is merely giving utterance to an overpowering presentiment that the time of his death is near. As a matter of fact, his life was preserved many years, and he subsequently revisited Miletus (2 Timothy 4:20), Ephesus (1 Timothy 1:3; 1 Timothy 3:14), and other places in Asia.

28. We have here a very decided testimony that though Christian ministers may be elected by the people, their authority comes from God, whose ambassadors they are. Overseers] a literal translation of the Gk. word episcopos (Lat. episcopus, E. 'bishop'). At this time the title 'bishop' (i.e. overseer) was freely applied to the Christian presbyters ('elders') (Philippians 1:1). By the beginning of the second cent, (perhaps already in the Pastoral Epistles) the term was generally restricted, as now, to the chief ruler of a church.

His own blood] The blood of Christ is here called 'God's blood,' a striking expression afftrniing with great emphasis the Deity of Christ. There is an inferior reading,' Feed the Church of the Lord' (RM), which probably originated in a desire to eliminate the unusual expression' the blood of God.' Westcott and Hort think that the original reading may have been 'the blood of His own Son.'