The life and work of St. Paul

516 THE LIFE AND WORK OP ST. PAUL.
and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify l the Gospel
of the grace of God. And now behold I know that ye shall never see my face
again, all 2
you among whom I passed proclaiming the kingdom. Therefore, I
call you to witness this very day that I am pure from the blood of all. For I
reserved nothing, but preached to you the whole counsel of God. Take heed,
then, to yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost appointed
you bishops to feed the Church of the Lord 3 which He made His own by His
own blood. I know that there shall come after my departure grievous wolves
among you, not sparing the flock ; and from your own selves * shall arise men
speaking perverse things, so as to drag away disciples after them. Therefore
be watchful, remembering that for three years, night and day, 6 I ceased not
with tears 6 to admonish each one. And now I commend you to God, and to the
word of His grace, who is able to build you up, and give you an inheritance
among all the sanctified. No man's silver or gold or raiment did I covet.
Yourselves know that to my needs, and to those with me, these hands " and
1 The third time that this verb has occurred in these few verses. It is quite true of St.
Paul that " un mot 1'obsede." This is an interesting sign of the genuineness of the
speech.
2
St. Paul speaks partly with a view to the dangers he is about to face, partly with
reference to his intention to go to the far west. Hie ot&x was not necessarily infallible
(compare Phil. i. 25 with ii. 24), and in point of fact it is probable that he did visit
Ephesus again (1 Tim. i. 3, iii. 14, iv. 12 20). But that was long afterwards, and it is
quite certain that as a body (n-avres v^ets) the elders never saw him again.
3 I accept the reading Kvpiow here with A, 0, D, E, the Coptic, Sahidic, Armenian
versions, Irenseus, Didymus, Cyril, Jerome, Augustine, &c., rather than OeoC, the
remarkable reading of M, B, the Vulgate, Syriac, Chrysostom, Basil, Ambrose, &c.,
because " the blood of God " is an expression which, though adopted perhaps from the
variation of this very text by some of the Fathers (Tert. ad Uxor. ii. 3), the Church
has always avoided. Athanasius, indeed, distinctly says, oiSajxoO Si at/ut Oeoii 8i'x