Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 20:2

"And when he had gone through those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece." — Acts 20:2 (ASV)

And when he had gone over those parts.—Here we can also fill in the outline of the narrative from the Epistles. We may take for granted that St. Paul would revisit the churches he himself had founded at Thessalonica and Berea, as well as at Philippi. The names in Acts 20:4 indicate that delegates were chosen, probably by his direction, for the great journey to Jerusalem, which he now began to contemplate. Romans 15:19 indicates an even wider range of activity. He had taken the great Roman road across Macedonia, and going westward to the shores of the Adriatic, had preached the gospel in Illyricum, where it had not yet been heard.

He came into Greece.—The word Hellas, or Greece, seems used as synonymous with Achaia, the southern province. This may have led to an unrecorded visit to Athens. It certainly brought him to Corinth and Cenchrea. There, we may hope, he found all his hopes fulfilled. Gaius was there to receive him as a guest, and Erastus was still a faithful friend.

There, if not before, he found Timothy, and he had with him Jason of Thessalonica and Sosipater of Berea (Romans 16:21–23). In one respect, however, he found a great change, and missed many friends.

The decree of Claudius had either been revoked or was no longer acted on. Aquila and Priscilla had gone straight from Ephesus to Rome on hearing that they could do so safely, and with them went the many friends, male and female, most of them of the libertini class, whom he had known in Corinth, and whose names fill such a large space in Romans 16.

The desire he had felt before (Acts 19:21) to see Rome was naturally strengthened by their absence. His work in Greece was done, and he felt an impulse, not merely human, drawing him further west.

A rapid journey to Jerusalem, a short visit there to show how generous were the gifts that the Gentile Churches sent to the Churches of the Circumcision, and then the desire of his life might be gratified. To preach the gospel in Rome, to pass on from Rome to the Jews at Cordova and other cities in Spain (Romans 15:24–28)—this was what he now proposed for himself. How different a path was actually marked out for him, the rest of the story shows.