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We have already drawn attention to the similarity of language in Acts 20:32 with passages in Ephesians and
Colossians.
Without clearer revelation it is impossible for us to decide whether the apostle, with the new ministry in front of
him with its impending change, spoke prophetically, commending these believers to `that word of His grace which
... build ... inheritance', but which had not yet been made known.
As Peter, it will be remembered, exhorted those who were in charge of the flock not to serve for filthy lucre but
rather to be ensamples, so Paul repudiates any idea that he had been prompted by covetousness, and asserts that he
was an example, saying:
`Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.
I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of
the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive' (Acts 20:34,35).
How truly the apostle could say; `I have shewed you'. With an available choice of five different compounds of
the word and with deiknumi itself making a sixth, the word he used for `show' was hupodeiknumi. Let us endeavour
to understand the reason for his choice. He could have used deiknumi, `to show', which would have been a perfect
parallel with the example of the Lord, Who, when He had spoken the word of peace `shewed unto them' His hands
and His side (John 20:20). Paul, too, could supplement his saying in the same way, though not in the same blessed
degree. Anadeiknumi, `to show up by raising aloft, hence to indicate', would hardly fit his purpose, for the word is
used to indicate the choice of someone to fill an office (Acts 1:24). Apodeiknumi means `to point away from other
things', with the object of focussing upon one, and so `to prove' (Acts 25:7), but that was not quite the suitable
word. Endeiknumi means `to point out', the English idiom using `out' to express the Greek idea of showing what
was `in'. Epideiknumi means `to show up, as a specimen', `to exhibit'. This the apostle might have used, for Luke
24:40 uses it of Christ showing His hands and His feet.
But Paul passes all these by, and selects the word hupodeiknumi, `to show under', to give a glimpse, to suggest,
as it were, without making too much `show' in the process. Truth demanded that the apostle should remind the
Ephesians of the consistency that had always existed between his doctrine and his practice, but in giving that needful
reminder a beautiful humility constrained him to seek out a word that would not be too `showy'. Such is the wonder
of the inspired Scriptures, their every word and part of speech yielding a full measure of teaching. The apostle
refers in the latter part of verse 35 to a saying of the Lord that is not recorded in any of the four Gospels. This is not
surprising, for Luke, under the influence of Paul, in the preface to the Gospel that bears his name, makes it very
evident that there were many attempts to retain the words which the Lord spoke, and John goes so far as to say that
he supposed that the world itself could not contain the books that would have to be written were everything the
Saviour had taught recorded. In connection with the exhortation to `support the weak' we must remember that it is
only after centuries of Christian teaching, the world has become conscious that the weak have some claim for
protection, and that this doctrine would have been rejected by the ordinary Roman citizen of the apostle's day.
To revert to the narrative, the apostle then knelt down and prayed with the little company of elders. They wept
sore, falling on Paul's neck and kissing him, for he who roused undying enmity inspired also undying friendship, for
they ,'sorrowed most' because of his words, `that they should see his face no more'. `And they accompanied him
unto the ship'.
Paul would have been the last to have rebuked these sorrowing saints. He ever blended `natural affection' with
the more austere graces of his calling. He knew what it was to desire to see the face of his son Timothy once more
before his death (2 Tim. 1:4), and he had already written to the Thessalonians that he had `endeavoured' the more
abundantly to see their face with great desire (1 Thess. 2:17), and again, in the next chapter, he wrote `Night and day
praying exceedingly that we might see your face' (1 Thess. 3:10).
The full bearing of this chapter upon Paul's prison ministry will be better realized when we reach chapter 28, and
can view it shorn of the wealth of detail that has nevertheless made our study of it so precious. Like the apostle
himself, we have to `drag' (`gotten from', 21:1) ourselves away, for time and space have gone and we must draw to
a close.