Acts 20:14

Study note

Setting — The narrator addresses a group of believers while recounting a specific moment during a sea voyage toward Jerusalem. This occurs immediately after Paul deliberately traveled overland to Assos to join the ship carrying the rest of the party.

The words — The Greek συνέβαλλεν (suneballen) literally means "he was meeting with" or "joining," and ἀναλαβόντες (analabontes) means "having taken aboard." These terms describe the physical boarding of Paul onto the vessel at Assos.

The thread — This pattern of coordinated land-and-sea travel continues in Acts 20:15 as the group sails to Chios, Samos, and Miletus, maintaining the same logistical rhythm. The narrative structure elsewhere in Acts (Acts 16:11; 21:1–3) similarly tracks Paul's deliberate routing across multiple provinces.

Why it lands — The text records a routine boarding operation without theological commentary, establishing that gospel advancement relies on practical coordination. It asks the reader to recognize that faithful obedience often requires aligning personal movement with the planned steps of others.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.