Verse Lens · Expanded explanation

Acts 20:1 Explained in Context

Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.

Selected verse

Verse 1. And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to go into Macedonia.

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Quick Meaning

Reports Paul embracing disciples and departing after the uproar.

Read It With

  • Acts 20:1–20:6

Read Acts 20:1 with 20:1–20:6. In isolation, this contribution—reports Paul embracing disciples and departing after the uproar—can be mistaken for the scene's whole claim, detached from its speaker or narrator, or separated from its outcome. The complete unit establishes: After the riot Paul encourages disciples, travels through Macedonia and Greece, changes course because of a plot, and a named multi-regional team precedes him to Troas after Passover season.

Why This Verse Appears Here

Reports Paul embracing disciples and departing after the uproar. This precise contribution belongs inside “Paul strengthens communities on the way to Troas” because After the riot Paul encourages disciples, travels through Macedonia and Greece, changes course because of a plot, and a named multi-regional team precedes him to Troas after Passover season.

Follow the Context

  1. After the riot Paul encourages disciples, travels through Macedonia and Greece, changes course because of a plot, and a named multi-regional team precedes him to Troas after Passover season.
  2. The unit distinguishes narrated event, participant speech, the narrator's framing, material uncertainty, and the ethical boundary: The journey does not authorize antisemitism, speculative calendar certainty, or leader-centered histories that erase coworkers.

What This Verse Is Not Saying

This verse does not detach its specific contribution—reports Paul embracing disciples and departing after the uproar—from Acts 20:1–20:6 or negate the unit's explicit boundary: The journey does not authorize antisemitism, speculative calendar certainty, or leader-centered histories that erase coworkers.

What Remains True

Acts 20:1's particular contribution—reports Paul embracing disciples and departing after the uproar—shows that faithful witness remains accountable to the verse's speaker, narrated setting, affected people, and the complete movement of Acts 20:1–20:6.

How It Can Shape Life

  • Practice Acts 20:1's particular contribution—reports Paul embracing disciples and departing after the uproar—through this passage-controlled response: Strengthen communities after conflict through presence and encouragement, not by treating constant movement or danger as a badge of superior faith.

Teach It Back

Explain Acts 20:1's precise role in Acts 20:1–20:6. Distinguish narrator and speaker, include the first Jewish, Gentile, household, disabled, enslaved, imprisoned, or Roman horizon as relevant, disclose the material uncertainty, and name one conclusion this verse does not authorize.

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Continue in Context

The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.

Read Acts 20:1–20:6 — Paul strengthens communities on the way to Troas
Sources used for this Verse Lens

How certain is this explanation? probable

These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.

Biblical text

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society

USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.

Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and unit coverage.

Exact location: Acts 20:1–20:6, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus

Open source ↗

Greek textual evidence

The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition

Michael W. Holmes, editor; Society of Biblical Literature and Logos

Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010

Supports: Greek wording and punctuation control, without pretending one edition is a complete apparatus.

Exact location: SBLGNT official text, Acts 20:1-20:6

Open the Acts Greek text file ↗

Lexical and grammatical evidence

STEP Bible Data

Tyndale House Cambridge

Tyndale House Cambridge, repository snapshot verified 2026

Supports: Morphology and lexical cross-check for words explicitly discussed in this unit.

Exact location: STEP Bible Data, TAGNT rows for Acts 20:1-20:6

Open source ↗

open translation and translator notes

NET Bible First Edition Notes: Acts

Biblical Studies Press

Biblical Studies Press, 2006

Supports: Verse-attached textual, translation, language, geography, chronology, and historical notes actually printed for the unit.

Exact location: NET Bible First Edition Acts PDF, printed pp. 2104-2205, exact tn/tc/sn entries attached to 20:1–20:6

Open source ↗

open university bible study course

Acts of the Apostles Course and Study Guides

Yale Divinity School faculty

Yale Bible Study, 2019

Supports: Introductory critical orientation to the unit's place in Luke-Acts, with contested judgments retained as interpretations.

Exact location: Yale Bible Study Acts course, course unit 'Co-operative Ministry,' Acts 18-20 study guide

Open source ↗

open confessional commentary

The Acts of the Apostles

Alan J. Thompson

The Gospel Coalition, 2023

Supports: One complete confessional commentary reading, independently checked against the text and critical controls.

Exact location: Thompson, online Acts commentary, heading and paragraphs explicitly covering Acts 20:1–20:6

Open source ↗

peer reviewed article abstract and metadata

The Jewishness of Luke-Acts: How Recent Scholarship Has Challenged the View that Luke-Acts Is Pro-Gentile and Anti-Jewish

Joshua Paul Smith

The Journal of Theological Studies 72.2, 2021

Supports: Abstract-supported control for Jewish continuity and Gentile inclusion in Acts 20:1–20:6, not a settlement of every conflict scene.

Exact location: Smith, JTS 72.2 (2021), pp. 738-765, official abstract and bibliographic record

Open source ↗
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