Acts 20:1-16
Dear RTB’ers,
Paul’s third missionary journey continued, today with a lot of travel. First, a bit of geography reminder – Macedonia is part of Greece today, but back then, with reference to Paul’s travels it referred to Philippi and Thessalonica. Achaia is a synonym for Greece, which (again, with reference to Paul’s travels) included Corinth and Athens.
There is a lot going on in these travels which we don’t see. In our Chronological Study Bible the first three verses in chapter 20 fall between I and II Corinthians. That is, Paul was on the move from Ephesus to Macedonia, where he presumably wrote II Corinthians, then on to Corinth, from where he wrote Romans. We now have him leaving Corinth and going back through Macedonia, then by way of Ephesus traveling to Jerusalem.
We have another set of “we” pronouns here in today’s reading, presumably Luke reflecting himself. In verses 5-6 it is Luke traveling with Paul. Later in verses 13 and 14 the “we” is Luke without Paul. Then we pick up Luke and Paul together again in verse 15. So in summary, the “we/us” pronouns are Luke and Paul, except in verses 13 and 14. Incidentally, the last “we” verses were back in Acts 16:16-17, also in Philippi. So I wonder if Luke spent all this time (3-5 years?) in Philippi while Paul continued on his second and third missionary journeys.
More geography… This ship travel between islands is confusing if you don’t have a Study Bible that has maps. In verse 6, Philippi is at the northeastern tip of Macedonia while Troas is at the northwestern tip of Asia Minor. Assos is about 20 miles south of Troas by land, but 40 miles by sea. From Assos the disciples hugged the coast of Asia Minor, moving between and around the islands (Chios and Samos, v. 15). Finally, Miletus (v. 15) is about 30 miles south of Ephesus. Presumably Paul did not want to go directly to Ephesus – too many friends there who would have taken up too much time with him visiting them all (v. 16).
Finally, Sopater the Berean, son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus. (v. 4) For our purposes the individual names are not so important; however, what we need to know is that Paul now has traveling companions from Achaia, Macedonia, Galatia and Asia as he is carrying funds for the relief of the believers in Jerusalem.
Blessings!