Acts 20:23 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

The Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city. — This can hardly refer to mere internal previsions of the future, but implies, like the analogous phraseology of 1 Timothy 4:1, predictions uttered by the mouth of prophets, such as that which was afterwards spoken by Agabus (Acts 21:11). In every city, Corinth, Berœa, Thessalonica, Philippi, Troas, there had been like utterances, of which, though they are here implied, we have no separate record. There was a general dread as to the results of his journey, which led the disciples who loved him to dissuade him from attempting it. We may trace the influence of such predictions in the anxiety which he himself expresses when he asks for the prayers of his friends at Rome (Romans 15:30-31) that he may be delivered from those that did not believe in Judæa. The words are not without their value as throwing light on the nature and limits of inspiration. The prophets of whom St. Paul speaks were truly inspired, as far as their prevision of the future was concerned, and yet that inspiration did not make them infallible advisers, and the Apostle felt that he was right in acting on those convictions of his own in which he, too, recognised the promptings of the Holy Ghost.