Acts 20:17 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church. — We find, from Acts 20:28, that they were known also as episcopi (“bishops,” or “overseers”), the two names being interchangeable at this period, and the Apostle standing in relation to those who bore them as the later Bishop did to the elders under him. (See Notes on Philippians 1:1; Titus 1:5-6; 1 Peter 5:1-2.) The many presbyters represented probably, each of them, a distinct church or congregation. Most, if not all, of these must have been ordained by the Apostle himself. He had found them loyal, faithful, singularly receptive of the truth (Acts 20:20; Ephesians 3:4). He was passing, as he thought, to far-off regions, never to revisit them, and he was naturally anxious to give them parting words of counsel and of warning.