3rd Missionary Trip - Lorin

up on the multiplication of numerous house church groups scattered over the
city and surrounding region. Ephesus was approximately 45 kilometers (28
miles) north of Miletus, so it took a few days for the messenger to get to Ephesus,
the group get organized to travel, and then make the at least two day trip
south to Miletus from Ephesus. And within a few days, this delegation of leaders
arrived in the seafaring city of Miletus with a hugely rich history of producing
a significant part of the Greek philosophical tradition. 228
Upon their arrival, the most significant part of the episode for Luke was
what Paul said to them. And thus he provides us with a synopsis of Paul’s
words to these beloved leaders of the Ephesian church. As the narrative conclusion
(vv. 36-38) signals, the speech came at the end of his visit with these
leaders. Luke doesn’t indicate how many days the church leaders met with
the apostle, but it is hard to imagine this being a single day meeting. These
people were far too precious to Paul to ask them to make the significant journey
to Miletus just to deliver a thirty minute sermon to them! And then tell them
goodbye. Actually, should one mistakeningly assume Luke is doing a verbatim
recording of Paul’s speech, he spoke to them less than three minutes before
shoving off to the next stop on the trip. Very obviously, this is not how the
meeting unfolded historically. And Luke doesn’t intend for his readers to take
it that way either! Luke is an ancient historian not a modern six o’clock news
reporter!
Luke does not tell us where in the city the meeting took place. 229 It is
not entirely clear whether or not a Christian community existed in the city at
this point, although Paul’s earlier evangelizing efforts in Asia impacted cities
all over the province of Asia according to Luke’s statement in Acts 19:10. 230
This statement of Luke reaches back close to a year prior to this meeting in
the late spring of 57 AD at some point in April to May, describing a two year period prior to that point. Thus it is
not unreasonable to assume a Christian community in Miletus at this point. And this would have been the most
natural meeting place for the group.
Even though Paul assumed he would not ever come back through this region, 2 Tim. 4:20 indicates that
some four to six years later he will pass through Miletus, and drop off Trophimus, a traveling companion whose
τοὺς πρεσβυτέρους τῆς ἐκκλησίας, his more frequent term for local church leaders. Paul calls these same individuals ἐπισκόπους, care
takers (v. 28) and instructs them to ποιμαίνειν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ θεοῦ, to pastor the church of God (v. 28). To attach highly formalized
significance to these three sets of terms is highly questionable. As this passage makes very clear, these were functional oriented terms
asserting ministry responsibilities to the community of believers.
228 “Miletus was a very important city in its own right. In ancient times it was situated on a peninsula. It does not seem that it
was a terminus for a trade route from the east as were Smyrna and Ephesus, but it was more of a seafaring city/center which established
trading colonies (Pliny says 90) throughout the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions. Because of its contacts with the Phoenicians at
the eastern end of the Mediterranean, Miletus may have been the mediator that brought the Phoenician alphabet into the Aegean region
– and this in turn became the Greek alphabet!
“In addition many early philosophers were from Miletus: Thales (640-546 B.C.), Anaximander (610-546), and Hecataeus (540-
480) as was the great urban planner Hippodamus (fifth century B.C.) – and the list goes on. Miletus was fought over by the Persians
and the Greeks in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.”
[“Miletus (Balat),” Holy Land Photos org]
229One of the fictional legends has Paul sitting on the steps of the Great Harbour Monument in order to speak to the Ephesian
leaders. But this has no historical basis to it at all: “t is believed that Paul stopped by the Great Harbour Monument and sat on its steps.
He may have met the Ephesian elders there and then bid them farewell on the nearby beach.” [“Melitus,” Wikipedia.org]
230Acts 19:9-10. 9 When some stubbornly refused to believe and spoke evil of the Way before the congregation, he left them,
taking the disciples with him, and argued daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. 10 This continued for two years, so that all the residents
of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord.
9 ὡς δέ τινες ἐσκληρύνοντο καὶ ἠπείθουν κακολογοῦντες τὴν ὁδὸν ἐνώπιον τοῦ πλήθους, ἀποστὰς ἀπʼ αὐτῶν ἀφώρισεν τοὺς
μαθητὰς καθʼ ἡμέραν διαλεγόμενος ἐν τῇ σχολῇ Τυράννου. 10 τοῦτο δὲ ἐγένετο ἐπὶ ἔτη δύο, ὥστε πάντας τοὺς κατοικοῦντας τὴν Ἀσίαν
ἀκοῦσαι τὸν λόγον τοῦ κυρίου, Ἰουδαίους τε καὶ Ἕλληνας.
Note also 1 Cor. 16:8-9. 8 But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, 9 for a wide door for effective work has opened to me,
and there are many adversaries.
8 ἐπιμενῶ δὲ ἐν Ἐφέσῳ ἕως τῆς πεντηκοστῆς· 9 θύρα γάρ μοι ἀνέῳγεν μεγάλη καὶ ἐνεργής, καὶ ἀντικείμενοι πολλοί.
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