Acts 20:15

And we sailed thence, and came the next day over against Chios As the word for "next" here is not the same as that so rendered in the following clause, the Rev. Ver.gives (with more closeness to the Greek) And sailing from thence we came the following day, &c. The island of Chios is about five miles distant from the mainland. It was in the shelter of the roadstead that the Apostle and his companions passed the night in their vessel.

and the next day we arrived[touched] at Samos The verb is a technical seafaring word, which the Rev. Ver.has thus represented. The island of Samos lies off that part of the coast of Asia Minor where the ancient Ionia joined on to Caria. It has been famous both in ancient Greek and modern European history (see Dict. of Greek and Roman Geogr. s.v.). On the mainland opposite, at the termination of the ridge of Mycale, lay Trogyllium, for which the Apostle's vessel made without stopping in Samos.

and tarried at Trogyllium The oldest MSS. omit these words. How they came into the text, if they be an addition, is not easy to explain. As the previous verb only implies the "touching" at Samos, some early marginal annotator knowing the country may have thus suggested the night's halting-place, which the historian did not mention.

and the next day we came to Miletus Here is yet another Greek phrase for "next day." The A.V., which often gives a varied English for the same Greek, has here for varying Greek given the same English three times over. The Rev. Ver.has "the day after," and thus marks the variation in the original. Miletus had been a most famous sea-port in the earlier Greek history, but in the days of St Paul its fame was eclipsed by Ephesus. It lay on the coast of Caria, some 20 or 30 miles distant by land southward from the city of Ephesus, and one day's sail from Trogyllium. The site of the town is now some distance from the sea, and was not close to it in the Apostle's time, as we shall see below (Acts 20:38).