Acts 20:25
And now behold, I know that all you, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.
Open Acts 20:25 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et nunc ecce ego scio quia amplius non videbitis faciem meam vos omnes, per quos transivi prædicans regnum Dei.
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- Καὶ νῦν ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ οἶδα ὅτι οὐκέτι ὄψεσθε τὸ πρόσωπόν μου ὑμεῖς πάντες ἐν οἷς διῆλθον κηρύσσων τὴν βασιλείαν.
Haydock's commentary
I know, &c. It appears sufficiently evident, from many parts of St. Paul's epistles, that he not only designed, but likewise, according to the opinion of most able critics, actually did revisit the churches of Asia. Of this occasion, then, he only expresses his belief, his conviction, that he should see them no more, judging it impossible for him to escape all the dangers that were prepared for him. (Calmet)
All you. Although St. Paul might return again to the same place, he might truly say of so great an assembly, that all of them should not see him again. (Witham)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Chrysostom A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, Homily XLIV on Acts xx. 17-21
(Recapitulation.) “Not knowing,” he says, “the things that shall befall me.” ( v. 22, 23 .) Then is this why thou departest? By no means; on the contrary (I know that), “bonds and afflictions await me.” That (there are) trials, I know, but of what kind I know not: which was more grievous. “But none of these things move me” ( v. 24 ): for do not suppose that I say these things as lamenting them: for “I hold not my own life dear.” It is to raise up their minds that he says all this, and to persuade them not only not to flee, but also to bear nobly. Therefore it is that he calls it a “course” and a “ministry,” on the one hand, showing it to be glorious from its being a race, on the other, showing what was due from it, as being a ministry. I am a minister: nothing more. …
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, Philippians 4:10-14
Here some one may enquire, how when he had said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” ( Acts xx. 25, 34 .); and, “These hands ministered to my necessities, and to them that were with me”; and again when writing to the Corinthians, “For it were good for me rather to die, than that any man should make my glorying void” ( 1 Cor. ix. 15 .); he suffereth his glorying to be made void? And how? By receiving. For if his glorying was, that he received not, how doth he now endure so to do? What is it then? Probably, he then did not receive on account of the false Apostles, “that wherein they glory” ( 2 Cor. xi. 12 .), saith he, “they may be found even as we.” And he said not “are,” but “glory”; for they received but secretly. Wherefore he said, “wherein they glory.” Wherefore he also said, “No man shall stop me of this glorying.” ( 2 Cor. xi. …