Acts 20:16

Acts 20:16. For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia; for he hasted, if it were possible for him, to he at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost. The apostle had, when at Trogyllium, been much nearer Ephesus than he was when the ship anchored at Miletus; but the stay at Trogyllium had not exceeded a few hours, while at the more important harbour of Miletus, doubtless several days were spent. It must be borne in mind, that the great apostle and his companions were but humble passengers on board this trading vessel. He would not himself revisit the old scene of his ‘two years' labour, lest the many friends and their pressing solicitations, and the varied questions they would of course have laid before him, should have delayed his voyage; and there was barely sufficient time before him to reach the Holy City in time for the Pentecost feast, so he sent the message to Ephesus which we read of in the next (17th) verse. There were several urgent reasons which prompted him to be present at Jerusalem during the coming festival. He knew such a mark of respect for the sacred Hebrew custom would be pleasing to the stricter Jewish Christians. He was also especially desirous to present the generous gifts contributed by the Gentile churches to their distressed brethren of the Holy City in presence of the vast concourse of foreign Jews who would, of course, be present at the great Pentecostal feast, and thus spread abroad in all lands the great fact that even the Gentile members of the new and suspected sect of Christians loved, with a deep love, their Jewish brethren who dwelt under the shadow of the temple on Mount Zion, and refused to separate themselves from them, although they were all the while too conscious that the chosen people grudged, with a strange unreasoning jealousy, the share in His eternal kingdom, which the risen Crucified Master had given to the dwellers in the isles of the Gentiles.