Acts 20:35-38

20:35 By all these things, ¹  I have shown you that by working in this way we must help ²  the weak, ³  and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” ⁴ 

20:36 When ⁵  he had said these things, he knelt down ⁶  with them all and prayed. 20:37 They all began to weep loudly, ⁷  and hugged ⁸  Paul and kissed him, ⁹  20:38 especially saddened ¹⁰  by what ¹¹  he had said, that they were not going to see him ¹²  again. Then they accompanied ¹³  him to the ship.

[20:35]  ¹ sn The expression By all these things means “In everything I did.”

[20:35]  ² tn Or “must assist.”

[20:35]  ³ tn Or “the sick.” See Eph 4:28.

[20:35]  ⁴ sn The saying is similar to Matt 10:8. Service and generosity should be abundant. Interestingly, these exact words are not found in the gospels. Paul must have known of this saying from some other source.

[20:36]  ⁵ tn Grk “And when.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[20:36]  ⁶ tn Grk “kneeling down…he prayed.” The participle θείς (qeis) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[20:37]  ⁷ tn Grk “weeping a great deal,” thus “loudly” (BDAG 472 s.v. ἱκανός and BDAG 546 s.v. κλαυθμός).

[20:37]  ⁸ tn Grk “fell on Paul’s neck” (an idiom, see BDAG 1014 s.v. τράχηλος).

[20:37]  ⁹ sn The Ephesians elders kissed Paul as a sign of both affection and farewell. The entire scene shows how much interrelationship Paul had in his ministry and how much he and the Ephesians meant to each other.

[20:38]  ¹⁰ tn Or “pained.”

[20:38]  ¹¹ tn Grk “by the word that he had said.”

[20:38]  ¹² tn Grk “to see his face” (an idiom for seeing someone in person).

[20:38]  ¹³ tn BDAG 873 s.v. προπέμπω 1 has “they accompanied him to the ship Ac 20:38.”