Acts 20:37
And there was much weeping among them all; and falling on the neck of Paul, they kissed him,
Open Acts 20:37 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Magnus autem fletus factus est omnium : et procumbentes super collum Pauli, osculabantur eum,
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- ἱκανὸς δὲ κλαυθμὸς ἐγένετο πάντων, καὶ ἐπιπεσόντες ἐπὶ τὸν τράχηλον τοῦ Παύλου κατεφίλουν αὐτόν,
Haydock's commentary
They kissed him. These marks of tenderness are dictated by nature, and have always been used between friends, who were separating from each other, or who meet after a long absence. The Scripture furnishes us with numberless examples of it. (Calmet)
He likewise prayed, as he usually did, when he bade his last farewell. See his last adieus with the Tyrians, (chap. xxi. 5. 6.) where they all kneeled down to pray on the shore. This is also reasonable, and becoming a Christian. It is a sign of communion and mutual charity, and implores a prosperous voyage for those who were departing, whilst those who remained, cherish in their mind the remembrance of the virtues of their absent friend. (Menochius)
The mind of man cannot conceive a finer subject for the painter than this melting separation. After the discourse, we see St. Paul falling on his knees, and praying with them all for the last time; an general burst of tears takes place, when they are told that they are to see their father's face no more; they fall upon his neck and kiss him; and with hearts full of grief and gratitude, they accompany him on his way to the very ship which is to transport their father, friend, and benefactor, to other souls, who wanted the charitable assistance of the man of God.
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 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom, Matthew II. 1, 2
If thou also weep thus, thou art become a follower of thy Lord. Yea, for He also wept, both over Lazarus, and over the city; and touching Judas He was greatly troubled. And this indeed one may often see Him do, but nowhere laugh, nay, nor smile but a little; no one at least of the evangelists hath mentioned this. Therefore also with regard to Paul, that he wept, that he did so three years night and day,both he hath said of himself, and others say this of him; but that he laughed, neither hath he said himself anywhere, neither hath so much as one other of the saints, either concerning him, or any other like him; but this is said of Sarah only,when she is blamed, and of the son of Noe, when for a freeman he became a slave.
St John Chrysostom A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, Homily XLV on Acts xx. 32
What he does when writing in an Epistle, this he does also when speaking in council: from exhorting, he ends with prayer: for since he had much alarmed them by saying, “Grievous wolves shall enter in among you” ( v. 29 ), therefore, not to overpower them, and make them lose all self-possession, observe the consolation (he gives). “And now,” he says, as always, “I commend you, brethren, to God, and to the word of His grace:” that is, to His grace: it is grace that saveth. He constantly puts them in mind of grace, to make them more earnest as being debtors, and to persuade them to have confidence. “Which is able to build you up.” He does not say, to build, but, “to build up,” showing that they had (already) been built. …
St John Chrysostom A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, Homily XLV on Acts xx. 32
(Recapitulation.) “Silver, or gold, or apparel,” etc. ( ch. xx. 33, 34; 1 Cor. ix; 2 Cor. xi .) So then, it was not in Corinth only that they did this, they that corrupted the disciples, but in Asia as well. But he nowhere casts this up as a reproach to the Ephesians, when writing to them. And why? Because he did not fall upon any subject that obliged him to speak of this. But to the Corinthians he says, “My boasting has not been stopped in the regions of Achaia.” ( 2 Cor. xi. 10 .) And he does not say, Ye did not give to me; but, “Silver, or gold, or apparel, I coveted not,” that it might not seem to be their doing, that they had not given. And he does not say, From no man have I coveted the necessaries of life, that again it might not look like accusing them: but he covertly hints as much, seeing that he provided subsistence for others as well as himself. …