Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Acts 20:24 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 24. 24But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Subordinates personal survival to completing the entrusted grace-gospel witness.
Read It With
- Acts 20:17–20:24
Read Acts 20:24 with 20:17–20:24. In isolation, this contribution—subordinates personal survival to completing the entrusted grace-gospel witness—can be mistaken for the scene's whole claim, detached from its speaker or narrator, or separated from its outcome. The complete unit establishes: Paul summons Ephesian elders to Miletus, recalls humble and tearful public and household teaching amid plots, summarizes repentance and faith, and says the Spirit-bound journey matters more than preserving his life if he completes his witness.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Subordinates personal survival to completing the entrusted grace-gospel witness. This precise contribution belongs inside “Paul reviews his service and accepts a costly course” because Paul summons Ephesian elders to Miletus, recalls humble and tearful public and household teaching amid plots, summarizes repentance and faith, and says the Spirit-bound journey matters more than preserving his life if he completes his witness.
Follow the Context
- Paul summons Ephesian elders to Miletus, recalls humble and tearful public and household teaching amid plots, summarizes repentance and faith, and says the Spirit-bound journey matters more than preserving his life if he completes his witness.
- The unit distinguishes narrated event, participant speech, the narrator's framing, material uncertainty, and the ethical boundary: The farewell does not glorify burnout, command leaders to neglect safety, or make suffering a credential that defeats accountability.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
This verse does not detach its specific contribution—subordinates personal survival to completing the entrusted grace-gospel witness—from Acts 20:17–20:24 or negate the unit's explicit boundary: The farewell does not glorify burnout, command leaders to neglect safety, or make suffering a credential that defeats accountability.
What Remains True
Acts 20:24's particular contribution—subordinates personal survival to completing the entrusted grace-gospel witness—shows that faithful witness remains accountable to the verse's speaker, narrated setting, affected people, and the complete movement of Acts 20:17–20:24.
How It Can Shape Life
- Practice Acts 20:24's particular contribution—subordinates personal survival to completing the entrusted grace-gospel witness—through this passage-controlled response: Serve with humility, public and household truthfulness, and financial integrity while accepting costly duty without seeking preventable harm.
Teach It Back
Explain Acts 20:24's precise role in Acts 20:17–20:24. 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 20:17–20:24 — Paul reviews his service and accepts a costly courseSources 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 20:17–20:24, 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 20:17-20:24
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 20:17-20:24
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 20:17–20:24
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 20:17–20:24
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 20:17–20:24, not a settlement of every conflict scene.
Exact location: Smith, JTS 72.2 (2021), pp. 738-765, official abstract and bibliographic record
Open source ↗