Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 20:23

"save that the Holy Spirit testifieth unto me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me." — Acts 20:23 (ASV)

The Holy Ghost witnesses in every city.—This can hardly refer to mere internal previsions of the future, but implies, like the analogous phraseology of 1 Timothy 4:1, predictions uttered by the mouth of prophets, such as the one later spoken by Agabus (Acts 21:11). In every city, Corinth, Berea, Thessalonica, Philippi, Troas, there had been like utterances, of which, though they are implied here, we have no separate record.

There was a general dread concerning the results of his journey, which led the disciples who loved him to dissuade him from attempting it. We may trace the influence of such predictions in the anxiety he himself expresses when he asks for the prayers of his friends at Rome (Romans 15:30–31) that he might be delivered from those who did not believe in Judea. These words are not without their value in throwing light on the nature and limits of inspiration. The prophets of whom St. Paul speaks were truly inspired, as far as their prevision of the future was concerned; yet that inspiration did not make them infallible advisers, and the Apostle felt that he was right in acting on those convictions of his own in which he, too, recognized the promptings of the Holy Ghost.