Acts 20:22

And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: AND NOW, BEHOLD, I GO. The "I" is emphatic: q.d., 'As' for me, I go' BOUND IN THE SPIRIT UNTO JERUSALEM. This does not mean (as Erasmus, Grotius, and Bengel interpret it), 'knowing by the prophetic spirit that I am to be bound, and so feeling myself already bound, as a prisoner of Jesus Christ'-with which the following words do not all accord. Nor yet are we to take "the spirit" here to mean the Holy Spirit, as the Greek fathers and others generally understood it. The usual phraseology of the apostle leads us to take the expression in the simple sense of an 'internal pressure,' the result of that higher guidance which shaped all his movements, and which in the present case, while all-powerful in itself, left him in the dark as to what was to happen to him at Jerus...

− 22._And, behold. _He declareth now more fully to what end he intreated of his upright dealing; to wit, because they should never see him any more. And it was very expedient that the pattern which was set before them by God of them to be followed should be always before their eyes, and that they should remember him when he was dead. For we know how readily men degenerate from pure institution. But though he deny that he doth know what shall befall him at Jerusalem, yet because he was taught by many prophecies that bonds were prepared for him there, as if he were now ready to die, he cutteth off shortly after the hope of his return. And yet for all this he is not contrary to himself. He speaketh doubtfully at the first of set purpose, that he may soften that which was about to be more (hard and) bitter; and yet he doth truly affirm, that he knew not as yet the ends and events of things,...

17-27 The elders knew that Paul was no designing, self-seeking man. Those who would in any office serve the Lord acceptably, and profitably to others, must do it with humility. He was a plain preacher, one that spoke his message so as to be understood. He was a powerful preacher; he preached the gospel as a testimony to them if they received it; but as a testimony against them if they rejected it. He was a profitable preacher; one that aimed to inform their judgments, and reform their hearts and lives. He was a painful preacher, very industrious in his work. He was a faithful preacher; he did not keep back reproofs when necessary, nor keep back the preaching of the cross. He was a truly Christian, evangelical preacher; he did not preach notions or doubtful matters; nor affairs of state or the civil government; but he preached faith and repentance. A better summary of these things, witho...

Verse Acts 20:22. _I GO BOUND IN THE SPIRIT_] Δεδεμενος τῳ πνευματι - Either meaning the _strong influence_ of the _Divine Spirit_ upon his mind, or the _strong propensity_ in his own _will, wish_, and _desire_, to visit Jerusalem; and in this sense δεειν, _to bind_, is sometimes used. But it appears more consistent with the mind of the apostle, and with that influence under which we find that he constantly acted, to refer it to the influence of the Holy Ghost; ὑπο του πνευματος, being _under the power of that Spirit_; as if he had said: "I have now no choice - God has not left me either to the advices of friends, or to my own prudence: the Spirit of God _obliges_ me to go to Jerusalem, and yet does not intimate to me what peculiar trials shall befall me there: I have only the general intimation that, in every city where I proclaim the Gospel, bond...

BOUND IN THE SPIRIT - Strongly urged or constrained by the influences of the Holy Spirit on my mind. Not by any desire to see the place where my fathers worshipped, and not urged merely by reason, but by the convictions and mighty promptings of the Holy Spirit to do my duty in this case. The expression “bound in the spirit” δεδεμένος τῷ πνεύματι dedemenos tō pneumati is one of great strength and emphasis. The word δέω deō, “to bind,” is usually applied to “confinement by cords, fetters, or bands” Matthew 13:30; Matthew 14:3; Matthew 21:2; and then it denotes “any strong obligati

EXPOSITION ACTS 20:1 _Having sent for_ …_ and exhorted _for _called unto him, _A.V. and T.R.; _took leave of them, and departed _for _and embraced them, and departed, _A.V. DEPARTED FOR TO GO INTO MACEDONIA. This was St. Paul's purpose, as he had written to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 16:5) from Ephesus. He judged it wise, not only with a view to his own safety and that of his companions, but also for the rest and quiet of the Ephesian Church, to take advantage of the lull in the popular storm, and withdraw into quiet waters before any fresh outbreak occurred. Aquila and Priscilla seem to have left Ephesus about the same time, or soon after, since the Epistle to the Romans found them again at Rome ...

AND NOW BEHOLD, I GO BOUND IN THE SPIRIT UNTO JERUSALEM,.... Not in his own spirit, though the Ethiopic version reads, "in my spirit"; as if he was pressed and straitened, and troubled within himself, at what afflictions and bonds he was to endure at Jerusalem; for this is not consistent with what he says in Acts 20:24 nor is the sense, that he was bound in conscience and duty to go to Jerusalem, to carry the collections of the churches made for the poor saints there, which the Gentile churches importuned him to take upon him, and which he undertook, and promised to perform, and so was under obligation to do it; but rather that he was resolved and determined in his own mind, within himself, or he purposed in his spirit, as in Acts 19:21 to go to Jerusalem: but it is best to understand it of the Spirit of God; as th

SPIRIT Compare (Acts 21:4). In (Acts 20:22) Paul's own spirit (_ See Scofield) - (1 Thessalonians 5:23) _ is meant; in (Acts 21:4), the Holy Spirit is meant. Paul's motive in going to Jerusalem seems to have been his great affection for the Jews (Romans 9:1) and his hope that gifts of the Gentile churches, sent by him to the poor saints at Jerusalem (Romans 15:25) would open the hearts of the law-bound Jewish believers to the

CHAPTER 20 __ 1. Paul in Macedonia (Acts 20:1). 2. His abode in Greece, the visit to Troas and what transpired there (Acts 20:3). 3. The journey from Troas to Miletus (Acts 20:13). 4. The farewell to the Ephesian Elders (Acts 20:17). The record before us is very brief. Some have thought the reason is the fact that the Apostle had turned aside from His given ministry, and therefore the Holy Spirit had nothing to report. We believe that this is correct. The object of the Spirit of God is now to lead us rapidly forward to the last visit of the Apostle to Jerusalem, therefore much is passed over in the untiring s

PAUL'S SPEECH TO THE ELDERS OF EPHESUS AT MILETUS. See Ramsay, art. Miletus in HDB, as to the difficulties of the journey at that period from Miletus to Ephesus; one had to sail to Priene and make from there a journey of 25 miles across the mountains to Ephesus. The elders or presbyters (_mg.),_ afterwards called bishops or overseers (Acts 20:28), make the toilsome journey, and Paul addresses them. We have had Paul addressing Jews (ch. 13) and Gentiles (ch. 17); here he addresses Christian office-bearers at a solemn point of his life. This speech hardly stood as we have it in the source; still there are things in it which do belong to this situation and to no other; some heads of it might be in the source, which have been worked up later with hints from Paul's epistles and other writings, and with reference, as we shall see, to later circumstances in the Church. The whole is in a fine st...