Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 20:37
And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul’s neck, and kissed him,
37. kissed him ] The word is not the simple verb but expresses earnest, sorrowing salutations.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Wept sore – Wept much. Greek: There was a great weeping of all.
And fell on Pauls neck – Embraced him, as a token of tender affection. The same thing Joseph did when he met his aged father Jacob, Gen 46:29.
And kissed him – This was the common token of affection. See the Mat 26:48 note; Luk 15:20 note; Rom 16:16 note; 1Co 16:20 note.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Act 20:37-38
And they all wept sore sorrowing most of all that they should see his face no more.
Pauls farewell
I. The tears of the noble servants of God.
1. A painful tax of human weakness, which even the best have to pay in–
(1) External trials.
(2) Internal temptations.
2. A precious ornament of holy souls from which shines forth the faithfulness which follows the Lord in suffering, and the love which weeps over the misery of the world.
3. A fruitful seed for the beautiful harvest of joy, which shall ripen to those who weep–
(1) Not only in heaven, when those who have sown in tears will reap in joy; but also–
(2) Here, on the field of the heart, since their labour is not in vain in the Lord.
II. The saying of separating love (cf. Joh 16:16)
.
1. With its bitterness–sorrow of orphanage–reproaches of conscience, if we have neglected the hour of our merciful visitation.
2. With its sweet comfort.
(1) Continued uniting in the Lord.
(2) Reunion with the Lord. (K. Gerok.)
The sorrow of parting
Surely there is nothing so sad in life as the sadness of partings. I listened the other day to two little children talk–two little simple children–without any experience of the sorrows of life. They were about to part for a short time, and I overheard their words. I am so sorry to leave you, dear, said one, almost an infant. And so am I, so sorry to part with you. What was the meaning of such words from young lips? Dear innocent hearts! They knew little or nothing of the sorrows of life. For them all that was to come; if black the future, the present was in sunlight. It was the expression of one of those deep truths which lie buried in the very essence of our mortal nature. It was the expression of the pang of parting. Partings are the saddest things in life. Partings create sorrows whilst we are living; partings robe the beds of death in the deepest gloom; partings fill the eyes of the dying with looks of anguish; partings make our hearts ache as we gaze at those who lie before us loved and dead. (Knox-Little.)
Robert Moffats farewell
Robert Moffat laboured for more than fifty years in South Africa and chiefly at Kuruman. On Sunday, March 20, 1870, he preached for the last time in Kuruman church. In all that great congregation there were few of his own contemporaries. With a pathetic grace he pleaded with those who still remained unbelieving. It was an impressive close to an impressive career. On the Friday following the aged missionary and his wife took their departure. As they came out of their house and walked to their waggon they were beset with crowds of the Bechuanas, each longing for a handshake and another word of farewell, and as the waggon drove away it was followed by all who could walk, and a long and pitiful wail arose, enough to melt the hardest heart.
A sad parting
A Zulu missionary, the Rev. Daniel Lindley, D.D., died at Morristown, U.S. He sailed from Boston to South Africa in 1834. During eleven years he and his wife were not privileged to see a single soul brought to Christ. But when they left Zululand, in 1873, after labouring there for thirty-eight years, they left, as the fruit of the blessing of God on their work, a flourishing Christian Church at Inanda, with a native pastor. At their departure a farewell sermon was preached, at the close of which the native minister, Thomas Hawes, said that the Zulu Christians were left orphans; they had gathered to bury their father and mother. The missionary, he said, knew all, from the governor to the poorest man, and he is called by all Unicwawes, Father. His authority might have been greater than the chiefs, but he governed not. He was as meek as a little child. He added: His wife has taught our wives and daughters, and has by precept upon precept, and an unwavering example of goodness and faithfulness, done her work for Christ.
Parting, with the hope of reunion
It is the measure of hope which gives joy or sorrow to a parting. To part with a loved one in the morning, in the confident expectation of meeting again at the days close, hardly causes a twinge of sorrow to the most sensitive heart. A parting which looks forward to a reunion at the close of a summers vacation, or of a European tour, or on the return of an anniversary gathering, has more of brightness than of shadow in its firmament. But when the parting is with a soldier son or brother, who is starting out for active service at the front; or with a missionary worker who leaves his country with no thought of a return to it; or, when for any reason the hope of another meeting in this life is faint or is lacking–then its sadness is intensified. So it is when the parting is at the graves border. Even the brightest-hearted Christian has a right to have sorrow in parting with a loved friend, with no hope of seeing him again on earth. It is not that the friend is a loser by passing out from earths prison house; but it is that he who remains here shall see that friends face no more. But even in such a parting, believers in Christ can have hope of a meeting beyond the grave; and this hope it is which should encourage the believer to sorrow not as those who have no hope. (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.)
The sorrow that arises at the departure of a Christian minister
Let us consider–
I. Its source.
1. The loss of a true friend. Next to the assurance that we have the best friend in heaven is the conviction that we have a true friend on earth. A Christian minister should be this, and felt to be this, by his people. The apostle evidently stood in this relation to these Ephesians.
2. The close of lengthened religious privileges.
3. The recollection of numerous changes which this death suggests.
II. Its comfort.
1. To him it is immeasurable gain. Our departed Christian friends have but entered on a farther voyage than that to which these Ephesians accompanied the apostle; but surely a more favouring one; for death is that ship into which the disciples received their Master, in the gloom of night, that He might scatter their fears, and still the waves for them, and bring them immediately to the land whither they went. They have not died; they have emigrated to the better country.
2. Results may still remain. No man can live and labour for Christ without bequeathing to the world such a legacy, which our eye may not be able to separate from the great whole, but which is still there, increasing the amount and hastening on the grand and glorious close. A man may scatter precious seed, and be called away; but if he has done his work faithfully and well, the green blade shall spring, and the yellow harvest shall wave, though the head of the sower be in the dust beneath.
3. Changes are preparing the way for a world that is immutable. We look for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Every good and perfect gift comes from above; but more, it departs thither also.
III. Its improvement. Christian sorrow for the departed should lead us–
1. To seek reunion with the object of our affection. This is the instinct of grief, wherever it is genuine–to be where the lost one is. The gospel does not destroy human grief with its natural longings; it comes to consecrate it to the noblest ends, and make a ladder of it that shall reach to heaven.
2. To cultivate what they had most at heart while with us. (J. Ker, D. D.)
.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 37. Fell on Paul’s neck] Leaned their heads against his shoulders, and kissed his neck. This was not an unusual custom in the east.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
As they used to do their friends when they took their leave of them: see Gen 45:14,15.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And they all wept sore,…. At the thoughts of parting with such a faithful and affectionate friend and servant of Christ; and no doubt but their affections were greatly moved by his prayers for them, as well as by his discourse to them. Christians are not Stoics, religion does not take away and destroy the natural affections, but regulates and governs them, and directs to a right use of them:
and fell on Paul’s neck and kissed him; as Esau fell on Jacob’s neck and kissed him, Ge 33:4 and Joseph on his brother Benjamin’s, and his father Jacob’s, Ge 45:14. And it was usual with the eastern nations, particularly the Persians l, for friends and relations to kiss at parting, as well as at meeting; see Ru 1:9.
l Xenophon. Cyclopedia, l. 1. c. 20.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
They all wept sore ( ). Literally, There came considerable weeping of all (on the part of all, genitive case).
Kissed him ( ). Imperfect active of , old verb, intensive with and repetition shown also by the tense: They kept on kissing or kissed repeatedly, probably one after the other falling on his neck. Cf. also Mt 26:49.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Kissed [] . See on Mt 26:49.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And they all wept sore,” (hikanos de klauthmos egeneto panton) “Then there was considerable sobbing (crying openly) from all of them,” severely, sorely, crying aloud, openly, tenderly, sobbing, without shame, even as they had seen Paul do in his compassionate labors among them, for near three previous years, Act 20:19; as revealed Rom 9:1-3; Rom 10:1-4; Rom 12:15.
2) “And fell on Paul’s neck,” (kai epipesontes epi ton trachelon tou Paulou) “And falling on (upon) the neck of Paul, as he remained kneeling, bowed before them and God,” as an oriental custom, from ancient times, Gen 44:14; Gen 45:14-15; Gen 46:29.
3) “And kissed him,” (katephiloun autuon) “They fervently, affectionately kissed him,” not as Judas betrayed the Lord with a cold “kiss of death,” but as a loving mother kisses the fevered brow of her dying baby; with earnest, sorrowing salutations, to one whose face they would see no more on earth, Act 20:25. It was surely what was referred to as “an Holy kiss,” Rom 16:16.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
−
37. Great weeping. No marvel if all the godly did entirely love this holy man. for it had been a point of too gross unthankfulness to despise him whom the Lord had so beautified with so many excellent gifts. And the chief cause of their weeping was, as Luke noteth, because they should see him no more. For they did bewail their own condition, and the condition of all the whole church of Asia, not in vain, which they saw to be deprived of an inestimable treasure. And when the Spirit commendeth their tears by the mouth of Luke, as witnesses of sincere godliness, he condemneth the rashness of those who require at the hands of the faithful hard and cruel constancy. For that is false whereof they dream that those affections proceed only of corruption, which we have naturally from God. Wherefore, the perfection of the faithful consisteth not in this, that they put off all affections; but that they be moved therewith only for just causes, and that they may moderate the same.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(37) Fell on Pauls neck, and kissed him.We note, as before in Act. 20:19, the absence of any suppression of emotion. As David and Jonathan parted of old (1Sa. 20:41), so did St. Paul and his fellow-workers part now. In 2Ti. 1:4 we have a passing reference to another parting scene of perhaps even tenderer emotion. To think that they should see his face no more, that this was their last farewell, made the elders of Ephesus and the other disciples eager, up to the very hour of embarkation, for the last embrace.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
37. Fell on Paul’s neck Affectionately embracing his chest, and laying the head upon his neck and shoulder, after the Oriental fashion.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And they all wept grievously, and fell on Paul’s neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the word which he had spoken, that they would behold his face no more. And they brought him on his way to the ship.’
And they all responded in like kind. They wept grievously, they hugged him, they kissed him on the cheek and on the arms, and they were filled with sorrow at his warning that they would not see him again. Such a sense of finality on parting always adds to its poignancy. It would seem, however, that it was misplaced, for 1 Timothy appears to suggest that he did go among them again, probably before going to Spain (1Ti 1:3).
A Series Of Maritime Stages And Of Prophecies (Act 20:4; Act 20:11) (Which Reveal That God Is With Him) On The Way To Jerusalem (Act 21:1-16).
This passage is paralleled by Act 27:1-26 which will again depict a maritime journey in stages together with prophecies. But this is on the way to Jerusalem. Then it will be on the way to Rome. In both cases he has a similar agonising journey, and in both cases God reveals through prophecy that He is with him.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
37 And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul’s neck, and kissed him,
Ver. 37. And they all wept sore ] Expletur lachrymis egeriturque dolor. It was noted and noticed by the very heathens that there were no people under heaven so loving one to another as the primitive Christians: animo animaque inter se miscebantur, saith Tertullian of them: it should seem so indeed by this mutual melting heartedness. Well might the heathen beholders say, Vide ut invicem se ament Christiani, See how these Christians love one another; like as the Jews when they saw Jesus weep over Lazarus, said, “Behold how he loved him,” Joh 11:35-36 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Act 20:37 . , cf. Act 8:13 . : an exact parallel only in Luk 15:22 ( cf. also in same verse), cf. above on and in LXX, Gen 33:4 ; Gen 45:14 ; Gen 46:29 , Tob 11:8 , 3Ma 5:49 . , imperfect, i.e. , repeatedly and tenderly. The verb occurs three times in St. Luke’s Gospel, Act 7:38 ; Act 7:45 , Act 15:20 , and once in Matthew and Mark of the kiss of Judas, cf. Xen., Mem. , ii., 6, 33.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
they all, &c. Literally there was a great weeping of all.
fell = having fallen.
and kissed. Greek. kataphileo. Only here, Mat 26:49. Mar 14:45 (Judas). Luk 7:38, Luk 7:45 (the woman); Act 15:20 (the father).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Act 20:37. , great) The tenderest and sweetest affections reign here. No book in the world equals Scripture, even as regards , the manners and affections.-, of all) Even tears are a proof of how much the successive ages of men degenerate. Formerly both men and good men, and heroes themselves (even among the Gentiles), were readily moved to tears, even in a body collectively. Jdg 2:4-5; 1Sa 30:4. Now when all things are more effeminate than they were then, yet the giving way to tears is permitted only in women and boys. John Hornbeck, l. 6, Theol. pract. c. 8, beautifully discusses the subject of pious tears.
, grieving) How great hereafter will be the grief (of the lost), to be deprived of the sight of GOD, of the angels, and of the elect![124]
[124] Bengel, J. A. (1860). Vol. 2: Gnomon of the New Testament (M. E. Bengel & J. C. F. Steudel, Ed.) (A. R. Fausset, Trans.) (621-692). Edinburgh: T&T Clark.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
wept: 1Sa 20:41, 2Sa 15:30, 2Ki 20:3, Ezr 10:1, Job 2:12, Psa 126:5, 2Ti 1:4, Rev 7:17, Rev 21:4
fell: Gen 45:14, Gen 46:29
kissed: Rom 16:16, 1Co 16:20, 2Co 13:12, 1Th 5:26
Reciprocal: Gen 29:13 – kissed Gen 31:28 – kiss Gen 33:4 – fell on Gen 43:30 – wept there Gen 45:2 – wept aloud Gen 45:15 – Moreover Exo 18:7 – kissed Rth 1:9 – she kissed 2Sa 19:39 – kissed Barzillai 1Ki 19:20 – I pray Luk 15:20 – and fell Act 20:1 – embraced Act 21:1 – we were Act 21:13 – to weep
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Act 20:37. And fell on Pauls neck, and kissed him. These demonstrative expressions of affection are in accordance with eastern customs (see Gen 45:14; Gen 46:29). The word is a strong one, and might be rendered, kept tenderly kissing him. The Greek word here used we find in the description of the traitor Judas kissing the Lord in Gethsemane, where it describes the affected earnestness of the fatal kiss.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
See notes on verse 36
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
37. Great was the lamentation of all, and falling on the neck of Paul they continued to kiss him,
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
20:37 {12} And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul’s neck, and kissed him,
(12) The Gospel does not take away natural affections, but rules and bridles them in good order.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
This record of the Gentile converts’ affection for Paul (cf. Gen 33:4; Gen 45:14; Gen 46:29) contrasts with the hatred of the Jews that he was to face soon in Jerusalem. Luke again obliquely pointed out that the Gentiles received the gospel but the Jews usually rejected it.
". . . through all this scene there runs one dominant feeling and that is the feeling of an affection and a love as deep as the heart itself. That is the feeling that should be in any Church. When love dies in any Church the work of Christ cannot do other than wither or fade." [Note: Barclay, p. 166.]
Paul may have left Timothy in Ephesus at this time. However, it seems more likely that that took place after Paul’s release from Rome, his departure from that city, and his return to Ephesus (1Ti 1:3; 1Ti 3:14; 1Ti 4:13).